Paper or Plastic: Brand Strategy at the Harvard Graduate School of Design

How do you revive and reimagine a legacy brand? Lecturers and design experts Teman and Teran Evans created a class at the Harvard Graduate School of Design to answer that question. “Paper or Plastic: Redesigning Shelf Life in the Supermarket Landscape” teaches students how to use a blend of market research, empathy, and thoughtful design to reinvent everyday supermarket products. This year, four teams of students focused on Popsicle, Kleenex, Yoplait, and Clean & Clear. Over the course of the semester, students learned how to present and pitch their ideas, with each week requiring all the teams to pitch for the class, followed by a critique period with the Evans brothers. At the end of the semester, the teams pitched to a group of design luminaries, who evaluated not only their designs but every aspect of their presentations. Teman and Teran Evans are identical twins who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Both attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design and then embarked on remarkable careers in marketing. They created “Paper or Plastic” fourteen years ago to enable Harvard students to follow in their footsteps. The following students represented their teams for this video: Team Clean & Clear: Sydney Nguyen Team Kleenex: Xiluva Mbungela Team Popsicle: Gonzalo Minuto Team Yoplait: Diya Bejoy