Graphics Winner Beazley Designs of the Year
Q&A with Trash Isle
To mark this year’s Beazley Designs of the Year, the Design Museum speaks to Graphics winner, Trash Isle about "Trash Isles" a campaign to make an island of waste the size of France, a country.
When an idea moves from communication into culture it is amazing. Being in the Design museum is exactly that. It is the pinnacle.
Governments have been ignoring this issue for too long. The saying out of sight out of mind could not be more applicable than with this issue.
We needed a way to ensure they could not ignore the issue, a way to force them to do something.
So whilst digging around in UN legislation we found that if we become a country other countries are obliged to clean it up. Before we knew it, we were sending an application to The United Nations to declare The Trash Isles an official country.
LADBible had just done a campaign to raise awareness of Mental Health amongst young men. Wanting to continue their Mantra of “with great reach comes great responsibility” they told us they and the Plastic Oceans Foundation wanted to next tackle the crisis in our ocean. The brief was born.
Al Gore, David Attenborough and Dame Judie Dench was our Queen
We researched the visual language of other countries to get a grasp of what made them feel genuine and realistic. We studied the meaning of colour in flags, the lithography processes of creating a currency, we even worked with a stamp making studio to create stamps that could have been used for official correspondence. The aim of the visual identity was to give people something to believe in beyond the initial stunt.
It has not yet been officially recognised but it is still raising awareness of the issue.
That the World’s first country made of trash is its last.
The message. We want people to truly understand the severity of the plastic pollution problem and inspire people to try reducing the amount of single use plastics they use.
Try to work with talented people to get better as a designer. Soak everything up and work on as many different projects as possible to develop yourself as a designer and a creative person.
Related exhibition
Background image | Zeitz MOCAA, Atrium, Heatherwick Studio | Credit, Iwan Baan
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