An Evening with Everyday Things
Pentagram recently hosted a private view of ‘Everyday Things’, a collection of 19 objects by artists and designers curated by Do The Green Thing and WWF-UK to promote Earth Hour 2015. During the evening, 200 people filed into Pentagram’s front room to enjoy the exhibition and hear Naresh Ramchandani – the co-founder of Do The Green Thing and Pentagram partner – speak about why it was put together.
This is the third time that Do The Green Thing has teamed up with WWF-UK to create a campaign for Earth Hour. In previous years, the campaigns have been poster-based, featuring submissions from the great and the great, including Sir Paul Smith, Sir Quentin Blake, Marion Deuchars, Neville Brody, Rankin and Pentagram partners Paula Scher, Marina Willer, Domenic Lippa, Harry Pearce, Natasha Jen, Abbott Miller and Angus Hyland.
This year, Do The Green Thing and WWF-UK wanted to do something a little different. As Naresh Ramchandani explains, “We wanted to create pieces that could be in the real world rather than on a screen; that could be physically worn, touched, held, sat on, used; that could give a better sense of what a sustainable life and would actually look and feel like.”
Beautifully and respectfully displayed in an exhibition scheme created by Daniel Weil, the submissions came from artists and designers around the world and included Mac Premo’s Bucket Board, a skateboard made from five gallon buckets and reconstituted wood sourced from dumpsters; Yair Neuman’s Top Tap, a bottle top made of brass, chrome, sustainable ceramics and wild rubber to add a new beauty to old plastic bottles; Marina Willer’s Sketchbox, a set of sketchbooks sourced from Pentagram’s recycling bins; James Joyce’s Bank Note, in which the queen takes an overconsumption selfie; Daniel Weil’s Flower Glass, a vase made from a disused wine glass and hanger; and Ron Arad’s Flat Cap Badges, made from discarded bottle caps, miniature magnets and an ancient fly press, which were sold on the evening with the money going towards next year’s campaign.
Together, these Everyday Things combined to deliver a powerful message. As Naresh said on the night, “It’s not just the government and media’s responsibility to take action. It’s a responsibility that lies with all of us. And that’s what these things are – an expression of collective action. In the end, these wonderful, beautiful and subversive pieces are symbols of the way we all need to care, and all need to respond, to the greatest crisis of our generation.”
Read more about ‘Everyday Things’ in Creative Review, Cool Hunting, PSFK and The Guardian.
Special thanks to all the ‘Everyday Things’ collaborators, Ron Arad, Adam Claridge, Marion Deuchars, Dorothy, Simon Elvins, Hudson-Powell, James Joyce, Eve Lloyd Knight, PPQ, Mac Premo, Yair Neuman, Nous Vous, Torsten Sherwood, David Shrigley, Sophie Thomas, Kristiina Tuura, Daniel Weil, Marina Willer.
