Character design / Information design / Exhibition

Plastic Universe

Making plastic recycling approachable for children through playful characters, illustrated stories, and an interactive exhibition.

Team: Keyan Huang, Thao Nguyen, and Helen Prum
Timeline: Fall 2023 – Spring 2024
Context: DES 375 Capstone Design & DES 376 Design Exhibition

The completed Plastic Universe exhibition.

A big topic for a young audience

Plastic Universe offers an engaging and educational journey into the world of plastics for elementary school children. Our goal was to make learning fun and interactive, introducing plastic materials and recycling methods through lively characters and informative graphics.

The opportunity

Many existing programs spoke mainly to adults, with information that was difficult for elementary school children to understand. We wanted to create approachable resources for children, parents, and educators, helping turn early curiosity into everyday recycling habits.

Research: making recycling understandable

Our research focused on secondary sources: existing programs and campaigns, plastic pollution, recycling methods and policies in different areas, storytelling, and child psychology, including the use of color. We narrowed the project to three challenges.

Complexity

Different plastic types have different compositions and recycling requirements, making everyday recycling decisions difficult.

Contamination

Food residue and other non-recyclable materials can reduce the quality and recyclability of plastic waste.

Everyday habits

Limited awareness, confusing information, and inconsistent habits can lead to improper disposal of plastic items.

Persona - Noah

We used Noah as our research persona to guide the experience for elementary school children. His goals and challenges gave us a concrete audience to keep in mind when shaping the language, characters, and activities.

Noah Travis

8 years old / Third grader / Austin, Texas

Curious, creative, empathetic, and passionate. Noah enjoys nature and spending time with his family, and dreams of becoming a scientist.

Challenges

Unsure which plastics to recycle.
Lacks easily accessible resources and knowledge about recycling.

Goals

Understand and identify different plastic packaging.
Share what he learns with friends and parents.
Recycle properly and develop everyday recycling habits.

What this meant for the design

Make information about plastic types easy to digest, give educators and parents a way to introduce the topic, and encourage recycling habits through everyday practice. These goals led us toward a character-led identity rather than a text-heavy explanation.

Branding: a playful visual foundation

The identity combines bold typography with clear color cues. A shared visual language connects the character posters, learning materials, and exhibition so they feel like parts of the same world.

Typography

Paralucent Bold gives headings a strong, friendly presence. Azo Sans Medium supports the subtitles and body copy in the project's original typography system.

The original type specimen and hierarchy from the branding exploration.

Color

Green, yellow, and red organize the character families, with lighter and darker tones for illustrations and information graphics. Blue, black, and white provide the supporting identity palette.

The three character color families and their supporting tones.

The supporting palette used across the identity.

Character design: from packaging to personality

Each character represents a type of plastic. Familiar packaging shapes, distinct expressions, and names related to the materials helped us turn abstract information into a cast of recognizable personalities.

01 / Start with familiar shapes

We explored how bottles, containers, and other everyday objects could become characters. The sketches show different silhouettes, faces, and proportions before the visual direction came together.

Early pencil studies exploring bottle shapes, faces, and a PET character — Exploring PET through shape and expression.

Sketchbook page filled with alternative plastic-character silhouettes and personalities — Trying different personalities across the cast.

HDPE character sketches using everyday container shapes and different body proportions — Turning familiar containers into character forms.

02 / Explore silhouettes and expressions

The early iterations moved from pencil studies to colored characters. We explored how distinct shapes and expressions could help children tell the plastic types apart at a glance.

Pencil silhouettes of three early plastic characters with different faces and outlines — Early silhouette studies.

First colored character iteration showing red, green-yellow, and yellow figures — A first exploration of color and personality.

The early digital cast

Early digital PET character Peter, a green bottle with a friendly face — Peter
PET / 1

Early digital HDPE character Deppie, a green container with a round face — Deppie
HDPE / 2

Early digital PVC character Vince, a red figure with a jagged top — Vince
PVC / 3

Early digital LDPE character Plastiara, a yellow tied-bag figure — Plastiara
LDPE / 4

Early digital PP character PallyPolly, a yellow triangular figure with long legs — PallyPolly
PP / 5

Early digital PS character Stacie, a red cup-shaped figure with square eyes — Stacie
PS / 6

Early digital mixed-plastics character O.P., a red figure wearing a hat — O.P.
Other plastics / 7

03 / Build a shared visual language

In the exhibition's design system, green, yellow, and red distinguish three recycling categories. Each character pairs a resin number with a material name, familiar objects, and a short introduction. Color provides a quick cue, while shapes and labels carry the information.

Finished green Plastic Pals poster introducing Peter and Deppie with PET and HDPE packaging examples — Peter and Deppie: familiar bottles and containers.

Finished yellow Plastic Pals poster introducing Plastiara and PallyPolly with LDPE and PP examples — Plastiara and PallyPolly: a prompt to check before recycling.

Finished red Plastic Pals poster featuring Vince, PVC objects, and the project's red recycling category — Vince: connecting a character to its material type.

Finished red Plastic Pals poster introducing Stacie and O.P. with polystyrene and mixed-plastic objects — Stacie and O.P.: completing the seven-character cast.

Original exhibition artwork. Recycling acceptance varies by location; follow local collection guidance.

Let the characters tell the story

We explored the arrangement of information, vocabulary, and tone to make the graphics easier for children to understand. The characters guide a sequence of cleaning, checking, compressing, and sorting plastic items, turning information into an illustrated story.

Notebook sketches planning the layout and sequence of a recycling infographic — Planning the story and information hierarchy.

Early yellow Trashing Plastic 101 infographic with a winding path through four steps — An early layout connecting characters to everyday actions.

Finished Learning Recycling with Plastic Pals infographic with four illustrated steps: clean, check, compress, and trash — The final illustrated sequence, with the Plastic Pals as guides.

From the page into the room

The project began with a strong focus on 2D and information design. After rounds of iterations, we recognized that our brightest elements were the seven characters. We brought them into a walkable exhibition, using panels to guide the narrative and an interactive globe to connect the story back to Plastic Universe.

Early exhibition concept placing illustrated panels and a globe inside a gallery space — Exploring how the story could occupy a physical space.

Exhibition mockup with the seven plastic characters arranged in front of a blue wall and globe — Making the characters central to the visitor experience.

Completed blue Plastic Universe wall tracing the story of plastic from material sourcing to disposal — The main wall introduces the wider story of plastic.

Life-size green Peter and Deppie information panel inside the exhibition — Peter and Deppie in the exhibition.

A universe to explore

The character panels guide visitors through the space, while the central globe invites them to touch, spin, and discover information marked by different patterns. Together, they create ways to engage with the topic beyond reading a poster.

Yellow Plastiara and PallyPolly information panel with illustrated everyday plastic objects — Character-led information panels.

Red Vince and O.P. character panel with a speech bubble introducing their plastic numbers — Giving the information a recognizable voice.

Interactive globe suspended in the Plastic Universe exhibition with colored markers — The central globe installation.

A girl reaching up to touch the interactive globe in the Plastic Universe exhibition — A young visitor exploring the globe.

Opening night

The finished exhibition brought the characters, graphics, and installation together in one space for visitors to explore.

Visitors exploring the blue story wall and character panels during the exhibition opening — Visitors following the story through the space.

Opening-night visitors talking beside the Plastic Pals character displays — The Plastic Pals meeting their audience.