The Environment and Design...

The Pacific Garbage Patch, a colossal island of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean, now has its own flag and country identity—and why not, as it’s roughly the size of France at this point. In a serious effort to help gain attention for this growing problem, the nonprofit Plastic Oceans Foundation and the U.K.-based entertainment company LADbible have sent application to the UN requesting that it recognize the monstrosity as a country called The Trash Isles. More than 125,000 people have since requested citizenship.

Designer Mario Kerkstra has created a visual identity for the new entity. His work is a satirical and horrifying riff on normal country identity accouterment—currency, stamps, passport, and flag. The commonplace nature of the designs forces the viewer to reconsider the enormity of the problem.

Read more here.

EcoBranding is an effort being touted by Interbrand to reduce ink use and therefore lessen environmental impact. From the company’s site:

“A Starbucks Coffee, a Google search, an H&M T-shirt, a can of Coca-Cola and many other products stamped with a logo, a color, a typography, or an image that consume ink, server space and energy. The reality is that a brand consumes a lot to exist! Naturally, one logo isn’t too expensive to print because it doesn’t need much ink[,] but printing a single logo on a billion bottles? That’s huge! With EcoBranding we rethink the design of brand ingredients to be more ecological, with the added benefit of also being more economical.”

Read more here.