Facts

Designer: Franziska Henrichs & Julia Steffens
Label: Grünstreifen Design Studio
Field: Graphic design
Founded: 2013
Location: Düsseldorf, Germany
Website: gruenstreifen-design.de
FB: facebook.com/gruenstreifendesignbuero

Who we are

We are Grünstreifen! In English “green area”. We are a young, creative, unconventional design studio in Düsseldorf and we create consistent brand presence and extraordinary images and pictorial worlds whereby sustainability and environmental awareness are especially important to us. Our goal is to immediately integrate a project’s ecological, social and sustainable aspects into their concept and design. The outcome is a systematic process that focuses on lasting utility while going easy on natural resources.

What we’re all about

We offer holistic design solutions with rhyme and reason, an integral part of which is a unique foundation that is created through brand development and the resulting corporate design. Together with our clients we develop individual design strategies and solutions to fit their budgets in order to successfully raise brand awareness and identity. We consistently manage projects ourselves. And depending on the size of a project, we might call upon our established network.

Projects

Our work is sustainable, full of passion, quality and a love for details.

Sustainability

Sustainable design, also known as eco or green design, not only took on the responsibility of being mindful of aesthetic and user-friendly aspects, but also environmental aspects. It is very important to have a professional design that doesn’t fall prey to short-lived trends, but has the courage to concentrate on the essentials. The goal is to get results that are as long-lasting and sustainable as possible in order to save resources and money.

Sustainable graphic design calls for flexibility. You constantly have to ask yourself which implementation is the ideal solution for the current assignment. How can you use media in the best way and are there alternatives, for example digital solutions, that you can use in order to reduce the amount of paper used? If you have to use print media then you should use environmentally friendly material such as recycled paper, paper from certified sustainable forestry or some other environmentally friendly alternative. And the production should also be environmentally friendly.

SUSTAINABILITY PAYS OFF
Sustainable design means that effectiveness and efficiency are a focal point so that not only resources are used wisely, but costs are also reduced. Keeping the use of paper, dyes and transportation to a minimum saves money.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN IS A PROCESS
Sustainable design is multifaceted. There isn’t a catch-all solution or “the” one way to do something. The seemingly obvious solution is not always the right solution.

Sustainable design is a process in which it is important to stay in dialogue with the clients in order to work together on improvements and developments.

Sustainable amazement

— a Philosophic Balancing Act

 

Plato and Aristotle once assured us that the origin of philosophy is amazement. The modern era is amazed that anything exists at all. In the recent past we have seen a new idea that is worth being amazed by: sustainability. I would like to go on a mental journey down the path of sustainability. This endeavour assumes a number of possible ways of thinking and there are three reasons that I will start this journey in search of something instead of having a clear goal in mind: Firstly, this interesting, diverse path seems to be more of a tail than an autobahn because it is interesting and varying. Secondly, after twelve years of working together with sustainable designers, this path has proven to be reliable. Thirdly, I hope that there may be a twist and turn on the path that will surprise even the most informed readers. So let’s go!

 

A Patch of Fog — The Middle Finger

Let’s cross the murky patch of fog that is ethics. At first glance, sustainability is a kind of ethical issue because you are supposed to do what you don’t want to. Which isn’t completely wrong. Sustainable behaviour implies that people recognise that principle responsibility comes before one’s personal interests and they say to themselves “You should!”. And that’s just the catch: People really like to say “You should!” to others, but not to themselves and they feel disconnected from external behaviour because they have the right attitude.

In sustainability communication, moral pleas do just the opposite of what they should: they make people go into a defensive mode. Which is no surprise. From the sociological perspective they have found that around 10% of the population is open to moral dictions, which is the same 10% that already leads a sustainable lifestyle. The other 90% reject the message or are indifferent, and this is the part of society whose behavioural changes would really make a difference. There’s a reason that the moral pointer finger and the “digitus impudicus”, the raised middle finger, are direct neighbours.

 

A Forest Path — Woodsman’s Latin

So let’s forget about morals and continue on our path, which now leads us to a forest. We are in Germany so of course this forest is orderly, the forests have been regulated here since the Early Modern Age. Back then, mining collapsed in many parts of the country as there wasn’t enough wood to support and secure the mining tunnels. In consequence, forest regulations were passed in order to manage wood as a scarce resource. It was Hans Carl von Carlowitz in 1713 who coined not only the principle of sustainable economics, but also the word “sustainability” in his work “Sylvicultura oeconomica” when he wrote that it was necessary to employ the greatest arts and sciences in order to manage a forest in such a way that its long-term use could be secured for the development of the country. Here we are dealing with genuine traditional thinking that incorporates the responsibility to maintain what you have so that future generations can benefit from it. The importance of this way of thinking developed around 15,000 years earlier when the Neolithic Demographic Transition began. The basic principle of this transition was that some of the harvest had to be kept as seeds for the following year in order to be able to harvest again. Strictly speaking that is saving resources for the future. A responsible economy would not think in quarters, but in generations.

 

A Clearing — A Crucial Question

We come out of the forest onto a clearing with a cross in the middle. Now it’s time to ask what we think about religion. If sustainability is a moral issue, why can’t it be a religious one, too. Isn’t it the Creator God who compels us to preserve his creation? This is the caring principle that influenced religious thinking in the Erly Modern Era: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it […]” (Genesis 1:28) from the old testament can be translated in the modern era using the words “rule” and “subject”. But we would get closer to the Hebrew verbs if we also translated the responsibility and care that reverberate in this passage. The religious responsibility for creation would be a great idea if only the world were a bit more devout. But religious commandments have lost their normative power over society over the last few centuries and with the Reformation, they were finally banned to the private sphere. The crucial (sustainably asked) question could then be: Is sustainability more protestant or catholic? In honour of the anniversary of the Reformation we hear the same thing on a daily basis: A person’s beliefs alone make the person justifiable. Or put in a more modern way: The intention and inner attitude count. Martin Luther accused the Catholics of searching for salvation in external works such as the selling of indulgences. Sustainable development has revoked this basic assumption of the Reformation and has redeemed the selling of indulgences. For in sustainability the inner attitude is completely uninteresting, what counts is the corresponding behaviour. What good does it do if I don’t put my money where my mouth is?

There are innumerable examples of this. And the climate and finite resources don’t care why I am using them wisely, as long as I do it. Sustainable lifestyles are refreshingly superficial. It’s really enough to just refrain from doing some specific things, and if I do happen to do them, then I can go through a type of selling of indulgences with myself and compensate for it in another area of life.

 

A Balancing Act – The Art of Living

Now let’s go from the clearing to another path that leads us along a narrow ridge, on both sides there is an abyss. This is a very dangerous path where you have to be extremely careful not to lose control of your balance and not go too far off to one side. For Aristotle, moderation was one of the four cardinal virtues, the sophrosyne. Our effusive lifestyles neglect this virtue of antiquity in a risky way. And with that, all of this rambling has come to a head. Our planet’s natural resources are as finite as the most valuable thing that we have as individuals, namely our life. It is unquestioningly limited, just like the resources on our planet, but in a more specific way because everyone’s lifespan has its own individual limit. And how it ends is always an unknown.
This disturbing mix of the certainty of death and the uncertainty of when it will happen is the horizon of our human existence, “living to die”, whereby death is not just the last event in life, but life is rather planned around it. Heidegger calls that “the worry”, which not only represents being worried, but also caring for one’s own existence and that of our loved ones. Pension schemes, health and life insurance are the socio-economic realisation of this worrying.

 

A High Plateau – A Creative Mission

Even in early philosophy, mortality brought creative consequences. Epicurus postulated a lifestyle of simplicity, moderation and self restraint that was supposed to lead not to intense, but rather to long-lasting enjoyment. People don’t really read Epicurus anymore but his ideas live on in the diet and nutrition apostles of our time and the steady, unstoppable stream of guidebooks on the meaning of life and self-help books. For Montaigne, the limitations of lifespans implied the obligation to carefully structure one’s life. His most important conclusions were that we have to accept death and live everyday as if it were your last. He brought this idea to the point with his essay entitled “That to Philosophise Is to Learne How to Die” where he wrote that one of the greatest benefits is the contempt for death. “It is unclear where death awaits us – so we have to expect it everywhere! Considering death is considering freedom.”
Because our lifespan is a finite resource, we need to more carefully plan life because this brings meaning to it that hasn’t been a given since the enlightenment. This time is an exception: what is true on the subjective-biographical level holds true on the global level as well. The limitation of our planet’s resources is at the same time the contract to use them with moderation. Shortage leads to design. There is no path that leads away from this high plateau, there’s nowhere else to go. We as current world citizens are obliged to stay here, this is our place. This is a difficult responsibility, yes. But no other generation has had the insights into possible futures and mankind has never had a greater and more wonderful responsibility than we do today. Let us use this chance to do something great!

Facts

Trash Up! Festival 12. + 13.11.2016

Location: Depot, Dortmund
Area: Festival for upcycling, waste prevention and resource-efficient products
Website: www.trashup-dortmund.de

Trash at its best

A hoodie out of rough material, 100% recycled and stylish – the head-turner of the Recyclist workshop. No other product can convey the ideas of the Trash Up! Festival better, which successfully debuted on 12 and 13 November 2016 in the Depot in Dortmund. This upcycling festival focused on innovative strategies for waste prevention and intelligent ways to re-use materials.

ökoRAUSCH was there as a cooperation partner – and with good reason! We want to strengthen the scene for creative event organisers who have successfully formulated inspiring goals to help transform society into an environmentally friendly and socially responsible one. I am happy to present the Trash Up! Festival here in our current special “Sustainable Design Made in NRW”.

Let’s trash

From the very beginning, you could just feel the dynamics that came into play for the Trash Up! team when they planned the upcycling festival, which was to take place in the former street car depot in the north of Dortmund: For the makers of die urbanisten and the Depot e.V. team, it wasn’t just about initiating a market for upcycling products, it was more about getting a message across: to establish upcycling as an expression of innovative strategies to deal with finite resources. Their message came across in a very refreshing way, without wagging their finger. The festival was full of power and diverse activities that invited the visitors to get involved.

As a cooperation partner, I was especially interested in what kind of audience the festival attracted and how the organisers involved the visitors in the activities. And of course as a designer it was especially important to me to get a closer look at what the exhibitors did regarding the topic of upcycling in the context of ecological and fair production.

PUBLIC APPEAL

It was really interesting to see who came to check out the Trash Up! Festival. There were, of course, visitors who were obviously part of the “alternative scene”, but there were also a remarkable number of visitors who seemed to have just got done going shopping on Dortmund’s strolling promenade. The Trash Up! Festival successfully attracted not only people who were already interested in topics such as waste prevention, recycling or resource-efficient products. Thanks to the diverse range of activities they offered – both intellectual and practical – and just the right amount of shopping opportunities, they were able to reach a large audience. The festival organisers can pride themselves on this successful mix.

FROM ACTION TO KNOWLEDGE

Something that positively stood out for me was that the Trash Up! Festival put great emphasis on a diverse and interesting programme. The many workshops, presentations and film presentations got visitors excited about the topics and ensured that everyone found an activity they enjoyed. These activities were a fun way to introduce alternatives to mass consumption and a throwaway society and, at the same time, promote awareness of the fact that it’s worth the effort to work toward societal transformations to help form an environmentally friendly, socially equitable society.

VARIETY IS KEY

I got the impression that the Trash Up! Festival brought together a lively mix of design professionals and upcyclers. For a long time now, encountered material has been inspiring designers and autodidacts alike to create new things, but sometimes they don’t always share the same approach. The more professional the approach to using valuable resources, the more carefully are creating designers products out of the left over materials of our consumer society.

When old maps are turned into buttons and skateboards are re-born as rings, the memory of the original material is especially vivid. But because the materials are pretty limited in their new form, the symbolic value is often more important than the actual use of the recycled product. The focus of this “simple dimension of upcycling” is simply the joy of giving supposed garbage another chance to become something valuable again. The one-of-a-kind character is what fascinates designers and potential customers alike. The Trash Up! Festival, however, looked for exhibitors who also had a message to convey with their products, to make people reflect on our throwaway society.

ADVANCED UPCYCLING

As a designer, I of course search for the “second dimension of upcycling”. For me, there is a difference between someone having implemented an intelligent production strategy and someone that made something primarily because they were fascinated by the original material. For example, if someone wants to go into series production with a certain product, then it is necessary to analyse the properties of the material and see if it is actually ecologically reasonable to reuse the material.

I would like to point out that now that upcycling is becoming more popular, it is more important than ever to critically think about the use and reprocessing of materials and to produce new products as intelligently as possible. If components are combined in a way that makes it impossible to dispose of them in an environmentally sound way, for example if parts are glued together so you cannot separate them or if they are coated with resin, then nothing has been gained in the name of environmentally friendly production. And if silver or other precious metals are used as the foundation for new creations but the origin of the metal cannot be proven and there is even the suspicion that they come from a mine that exploits its miners, then the well-meaning attempt is quite meaningless. And you should be critical with regards to things that can be hazardous to your health: bicycle tubes and printed circuit boards shouldn’t come into direct contact with skin, for example.

In my opinion, it is important to get experts on board who can act as consultants to producers with their scientifically proven expertise. Because, especially on a booming market, it will be more than necessary to convey this serious message with 100% environmentally friendly products.

TO SUM IT UP

It’s refreshing to see event organisers who position themselves but don’t do so in a moralising way: pointing out wrongs without catastrophizing things and instead being enthusiastic about educating people about their alternatives and how they can take action. The more than 1,800 visitors were obviously impressed by what the festival had to offer. I for one was impressed when 80 people came to hear a presentation on the possibilities and problems of upcycling and stuck around to have a lively discussion afterwards on the pros and cons. I think the Trash Up! Festival succeeded in really getting people hooked on the topic of upcycling, which can surely be attributed to the festival organisers’ authenticity and palpable involvement. Congratulations to the Trash Up! Tream on a successful premier!

THE WHO’S WHO OF TRASH UP!
Chris van der Elv Limited Edition
Pieces of the city
TEAM UP! 

hossidesign  

Der Besteckkünstler

OI by Thomas Jander

SWANE Design
Formwechsel
AnnArt  

Tribe am Leib
Circuit Accessories
Recyclist Workshop
PRESS.BAG

Tanz auf Ruinen 

Planet Upcycling
Heide Kemper
Groegl Upcycling

Frollein Fritz

Vucker skateboards

 

Credit, all photos: Dunja Karabaic

Merken

Urbane art meets sustainable development

The developmental NGO one world network NRW (in German: Eine Welt Netz NRW) has launched the urban art campaign “Weltbaustellen NRW” (in English: global construction site NRW) to help shape and discuss the Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals. International murals are setting the example of change that must start with us.

Visible Changes

The Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which were resolved by the United Nations on 25 September 2015, have set the course for a future in which we can no longer live beyond the possibilities of our planet. It includes the responsibilities of all nation-states to sustainably combat poverty and to promote education and gender equality. Furthermore, it includes enforcing fair international trade and minimising the negative impacts of consumption on humans, animals and the environment. The Agenda became effective as of 1 January 2016 and Germany must develop and evolve!

If we really want to reach the goals of global sustainable development, we have to make changes in all life aspects. Policy, economy and society must change in order to sustainably address urgent issues such as poverty, the need to seek refuge and the lack of equality. Which is why the one world network NRW launched the “Weltbaustellen NRW” campaign in December 2015.

Together with artists from the Global South and Global North, we will be designing murals in 2016 and 2017 that will be painted in a total of 16 cities in NRW. The artists’ murals will deal with aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals, making them visible to the public. At the same time, they will be changing the cityscape, giving impetus for change.

The murals that have been realised so far this year are unique and fascinating. Some of them illustrate an issue in a drastic manner, such as the mural in Bochum that deals with plastic and consumption. Others, such as the mural in Bedburg illustrating the issue of renewable energy, have chosen a more subtle motif in a fusion of humans and the future. Some murals show elements of a utopia and a world in danger, as does the mural on the “Hexenhaus”, or witch’s house, in Dinslaken. Each mural is an expression of what personally concerns the respective local artist(s) regarding the topic of sustainability.

In Minden, the artists involved called on other international artists to send in their own sketches and ideas about the Sustainable Development Goals – and 21 artists followed their call. The mural turned out to be a collage of all of these ideas and concepts, framed by an intergenerational dialogue.

The picture of impact

We have initiated a lot of dialogue with these murals, primarily about what is actually being done with the respective wall. People walk past and ask themselves: What is going on, what is this all about? Neighbours are curious and want to talk to the artists. For us it’s about dialogue regarding the mural, but also it’s important to include people’s curiosity in discussions about how we want to live in the future.

The design of the murals is accompanied by many events which include everything ranging from podium discussions on sustainability, artistic and cultural activities, to film workshops or pub quizzes on the Agenda 2030. In order to organise these great programmes, we count on many partners and volunteers in the respective cities.

At the psychiatric hospital in Düsseldorf, for example, we had a graffiti-jam with 20 artists who worked on a construction site fence. During a workshop, the patients had the opportunity to work with an artists to create their own motif that they actually got to spray on the fence during the jam. Direct participation is especially interesting because the dialogue between the artists and the local people help the process to become more complete.

Which is why a part of our campaign involves a specific programme for schools in which students work on the Agenda 2030 issues using urban art. Students and artists co-produced murals in many schools in NRW.

Stop complaining!

We use comprehensive events to bring people together with the different “Weltbaustellen”. At the kick-off event in April 2016 in Cologne, the art director of the campaign, Klaus Klinger of Farbfieber e.V., summed it up really well: Over the course of the campaign we hope as many people as possible will join us in our cause and also participate in the process themselves!

And so far, it’s been working: At our event “Stop complaining! Let’s eat fair!” at the Eigelstein Gate in Cologne, we got such great feedback that we will be hosting other community events and activities such as organic fair trade dinners. The idea of coming together in a mix of political statement, urban art and dinner to discuss what food actually means to us consistently carries on the ideas of the campaign.

What we have planned for NRW

This year we have installed “Weltbaustellen” in Bedburg, Bochum, Dinslaken, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Minden, Mühlheim and Remscheid. The murals make people want to come back and take in their size, time and again, to find they keep discovering new details they hadn’t seen the first time. The murals are here to stay – and at least as many murals will be added to the list in 2017. We have already planned projects in Bielefeld, Dortmund, Hagen, Herne, Essen and Münster.

We appreciate each and every person who wants to get involved in the projects or who is simply interested in the Sustainable Development Goals and what the future on our planet should look like. Those of you who would like to stay informed about our projects can either follow us on Facebook or check out our website to see what we are currently working on.

Making it Happen – The Campaign Sponsors

Along with all of the volunteers that are help us out with our work, we would like to mention our supporters, for they have helped make this project possible:
The patron of the “Weltbaustellen NRW” campaign is Franz-Josef Lersch-Mense, Minister for Government Affairs, Europa and the Media in NRW and is Head of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia. The campaign is funded by the Foundation for Environment and Development of NRW, Engagement Global on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Misereor. Campaign sponsors are Lemonaid and the natural electricity provider Naturstrom out of Düsseldorf.

The One World Network NRW

The one world network NRW is the campaign coordinator of “Weltbaustellen”. The one world network NRW association is the umbrella organisation of many developmental organisations and individuals in NRW. The one world network NRW is an independent and self-organised association that has been supporting civil society’s one world engagement in North Rhine-Westphalia since 1991. Together with its members, the one world network NRW advocates for fair international trade and global environmental protection, for open-minded policies and cultural diversity, and for human rights and peaceful conflict resolution.