Meet the graduates: Falmouth University’s Jack Coker

As part of our coverage of 2021’s graduate season, we’re spending five minutes with a selection of graduates from around the country to talk about their work, practice and plans.

By Molly Long August 9, 2021 3:33 pm August 9, 2021 3:33 pm

Jack Coker is a 21-year-old sustainable product design graduate from Falmouth University. His final project is the E-Ink Smart Card.

Design Week: Can you explain what your final project was about?

Jack Coker: For my final year project, I wanted to explore unplanned over-consumption. It’s a topic which in the UK is currently being promoted by rising contactless payment limits, and a loss of tactile presence provided by physical cash currencies. These factors are not only impacting the environment due to the amount of product/material that is being over-consumed with ease, but it’s also making it harder for people to put money into long term savings.

Early into my ideation I became fascinated by E-Ink displays, and wanted to utilize them within a design to improve user relationships with digital currencies. Solely powered by the tap of a contactless payment, the paper-like display could interact with users and provide them with a vast range of information related to their daily transactions. This opened up a range of ideas for what the card could display; a visual portrayal of a consumer’s bank account, a carbon calculator for eco-conscious shoppers, or a digital business card which stays on a user’s E-Ink display until their next transaction.

DW: More generally, what would you say your biggest inspirations are in your design practice?

JC: I think that sustainability has become a huge part of my inspiration and thinking. Studying in Falmouth, Cornwall comes with the benefits of being immersed within an environmentally conscious community that innovate to work with their surroundings.

I am also a big fan of keeping designs to a clean and minimal aesthetic, coming up with the simplest solutions, sometimes in a service or experience rather than physical objects, can create some of the most impactful and sustainable designs.

DW: What would be the ideal job for you, and why?

JC: During my experience at university my passion for design has only grown, and so I hope to now make a career from it. I have always found that completing collaborative projects has been one of the best ways to learn from others, so it would be ideal to go into industry and work with a range of different clients and professionals.

Ideally, I would love to start off at a company where sustainable values are taken seriously, where I can gain industry experience whilst bringing my own creative touch to projects.