Dream Ball
Designed by Unplug Design | Country: South Korea
“To the children in The Third World; Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Congo and etc, who can’t enjoy football freely because of poverty, war and natural disaster, having a football means a lot and can be a dream and hope to escape from their poor life.
However, the children are so poor that they can not buy a football. So, they play football with the ball made of plastic bag or coconut palm leaves, therefore giving them their own footballs which can give them hope. This is our aim for this project.
We suggest this Dream Ball made of relief boxes delivered to those poor children by recycling.
A. Create patterns that can help making a ball on the surface of an aid box.
B. Activities of giving aid boxes to children in The Third World.
C. The used aid boxes will be recycled as a football by children with the patterns on boxes.
D. By making Dream Ball with the children together, the aid organizations will get the chance to be friendly with them.”
“If children take off the paper from an aid box by following the patterns on it, and assemble those parts with the attached instruction, they can get a football. We can apply those patterns on any type of boxes - a square type, a cylinder type. Now,when children get a cyliner type aid box filled with supplies, they can move it by rolling that box.”
“In the aspect of material, we considered children playing football with bare foot. So,we use paper that can be recycled and its thickness changes the intensity and elasticity of the Dream Ball.”
24 Comments, Comment or Ping
J
Nice idea, but it’s the wrong shape.
Jan 13th, 2010
Kathy
Great idea! How are the pieces actually woven, and the ends attached? I don’t see a picture of a ball on the packaging. I would think that would be useful in guiding them to the instructions and proper opening of the packaging. Again, what a great idea! I hope it is used a lot.
Jan 13th, 2010
Jamie Kelley
1. what size cylinder is required for a life-size soccer ball to be re-constructed?
2. are the cylinders available for retail purchase?
brilliant idea!
Jan 13th, 2010
Mamta Saighal
Awesome idea!
What a value creating stuff
It’s a really inspiring design!
Best Regards
Mamta
Jan 13th, 2010
M
Interesting and great job. I bet the third world children will love this simple cardboard ball.
Jan 14th, 2010
cat
is a good idea …..make a dream come true……
how can i find out the product process??
Jan 14th, 2010
Marcio
Interesting concept, but I don’t think this material can resist two matches. Also, those children deserve real soccer balls, just like any rich children in the rest of the world.
Jan 14th, 2010
Mario
Creative use of paper. I’m not sure if the balls are strong enough for playing, but they are sure funny!
Jan 14th, 2010
Bernardo
As a soccer ball this makes a great puzzle game.
This projects concept sure is “cute”, but it seems to me that it was very superficially thought out.
Jan 14th, 2010
Leonardo
Atrocious. Seems like they were more interested in winning a design award instead of finding a real way to make a difference.
Reminds me of a real good essay about “designing as a tourist” and the results of good intentions meeting with reality.
http://www.typotheque.com/articles/how_good_is_good
And more on how good intentions often backfire http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/haiti/100113/haiti-earthquake-aid
Jan 14th, 2010
Bertie
I have been on numerous outreach projects into third world countries including Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique (I live in South Africa, go figure) and I hate to break it to you, but this kite really won’t fly in Africa. I always make a point of it to take a few soccer balls with me to ease interaction with the local children (who are usually the best way to get to know the people of the community) and so I can leave something behind.
Firstly, the people in these poor areas aren’t as pathetic as you may think. They aren’t so much hoping and praying for western saviors, they are simply trying to get by with what they have. And the children are particularly good at one thing: Obtaining soccer balls! And yes, as said before, this ball wouldn’t last 2 matches. Not that it’s an all bad idea though.
What I would suggest is to make the ball smaller and add suggestions on the containers on what materials can be used to strengthen the ball i.e. something like “wrap two layers of material x around the outside using this method…”
Or sell it to U.S. kids and send Africa real soccer balls xD
Jan 15th, 2010
jules
balls can be any shape for a kid to make a game out of using it i like this ball
Jan 15th, 2010
muuf
nice concept but i don’t think it will work in real world… i suggest to use it as packaging for something different and sell the produkt for collecting money to buy real soccer balls for poor children
Jan 16th, 2010
Steven Van Praagh
This ball will keep kids happy for hours, and it is a by-product of a package that needs to be sent anyway, further offering help and humanitarian assistance. Take haiti for example, those affected children could be distracted by a ball and not focus on hunger and the stress of everything happening around them.
I invented PromoPlanes, made them out of old printing jobs that would have been scrap, and gave them to kids at baseball games, those kids played with the basic printed paper airplanes for hours, and asked for more to take home, fold and play with. Everyone wins.
We did a similar thing with a now active product EnviroCoasters.com, using PCW to make drink coasters, instead of using virgin paper pulp.
Steven
Jan 19th, 2010
Clint
I’ve been to Haiti. I’ve been to Africa. In both places and in the orphanges I have seen real soccer balls and balls made out of paper or trash, and they’re treated equally and offer a great way for the kids to play. Isn’t the real goal here to provide some kind of enjoyment for people who might not be able to get a real soccer ball, while at the same time providing a way for the aid packaging to be reused? It’s a brilliant idea, and one not deserving of the criticism I’ve read in the above comments. As to providing the soccer balls that the “rich children in the rest of the world” have, I guess it would be up to us to actually start sending/giving money so that can happen.
Jan 24th, 2010
Geo
got to agree with the sentiments of some of the commenters here. Not like the kids there deserve any less. A good rain or muddy field will destroy this ball in minutes…but good intentions, and creative use of material.
Jan 25th, 2010
sean
I agree with Geo and others, the kids there would be no less disappointed than more privileged kids that the ball only lasted for 2 kicks before being destroyed.
As a proof of concept though its great.
Jan 26th, 2010
ton
it’s not a new design…the pattern of the ball is the same of “Taklor ball” in south east asia….you just add the concept in to it….
Feb 17th, 2010
soccer balls
That’s cool, beautiful it looks though it is not much practical for play. That is a green product using recycle material so good idea any way!
Mar 7th, 2010
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