A world made happier by pizza

Since its launch in Hong Kong in 2001, Pizza Express Hong Kong has been on a mission to deliver innovation in cuisine excellence with first-class social and environmental responsibility. Today’s throwaway society over-uses packaging, which damages the environment, and consumers expect everything on demand.

As a responsible corporate citizen, Pizza Express challenged students in this nine-week Cooperative Project to use excellence in design innovation to reduce its impact on the environment and to educate customers. This multidisciplinary  project involved 17 students from Advertising Design, Communication Design, Environment & Interior Design, and Product Design.

Two teams of students examined existing packaging and disposable materials and then created new food packaging designs, focusing on the takeaway pizza box and takeaway utensils.

Team DoughCan researched takeaway habits and dining experiences and suggested two design campaigns. “From Nothing to Living” aims to create “life” out of waste by transforming used pizza boxes into planters or seed pads and by introducing a new environmental experience inside the Pizza Express restaurant with recycling stations and planting workshops. The “Most Valuable Pizza” campaign turns used pizza boxes into creative furniture, adding value to the takeaway box besides the pizza itself; the campaign also includes a cardboard restaurant that consists of a playful fit-out using cardboard tubes. Additional designs include a spiral-lock pizza box, an educational kids’ menu and social platform strategies for environmental days. 

Team Margherita looked into current environmental issues in Hong Kong such as landfills and paper recycling. Students developed the design concept of a Pizza Festival, aiming to provide fresh pizza throughout Hong Kong while raising environmental awareness by promoting reusable utensils. The team also created a campaign and long-term system, 4R Cycle (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse and Reward), which was based on the core value of Pizza Express’ green code. Team Margherita seeks to promote the message, “Our landfills don’t need extra toppings”.

Participating students include —

Advertising Design Year 4 students

LAI Tsz Ting, LAM Cheuk Hin, LIU Jamien Chak Hin,
LOK Ching Lam and LUI Tung Hei

Communication Design Year 4 students

CHUNG Tsz Yan, LAM Ching Yan Eunice, NG Hui Lin and TSE Hoi Ting

Environment and Interior Design Year 4 students

CHAN Lok Chi, KWONG Sai Kit Adrian, LI Siying and TSE Man Yau

Product Design Year 4 students

CHAN Zoe Kit Ying, HO Dao Long, LEE Hoi Ting and MOU Wun Man

Project Tutors —

Stefan SONNTAG

School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Work-integrated Education in PolyU brings students together with real-world clients both inside and outside the classroom. Students’ fresh ideas, energy and passion lead to exciting opportunities for clients and collaborators. 
The Cooperative Project is undertaken as a compulsory subject in the first semester of students’ final year of study. Collaborators ranging from commercial enterprises to government departments and non-profit organisations work together with tutors to come up with design briefs that meet the needs of their target audiences.