Clean Up Camo, collaboration
Clean Up Camo, collaboration
Designer and circular economy advocate Ella Doran has collaborated with communications Designer and environmental campaigner Sophie Thomas on a new textile design called ‘Ocean Clean-Up Camo’, which not only draws attention to the huge quantities of discarded plastic in our oceans, but uses it as inspiration for a beautiful, new Textile design.
Sophie Thomas has been beach cleaning and collecting waste plastic for several years, and these particular pieces were washed up by the tide from a favourite beach in Northern Spain.
The waste plastic collection also started to evoke something more than just cleaning up the beach. ‘The particular rock formation of the area helped make the waste plastic pieces particularly smooth, almost like flat pebbles, whilst maintaining their original colour’, Sophie explained.
The duo created artful arrangements from the plastics, which Ella then photographed, making a textile design from the resulting images, ‘From a distance, the design is reminiscent of a particularly colourful Italian mosaic tile’, Ella said, ‘with the true nature of the objects only visible under close inspection.’
‘Whilst the end-product is beautiful and has turned non-biodegradable pollutant waste into something positive, the message is still very much that it shouldn’t be there to start with!’ they added. ‘We hope that the life cycle of the new textile will carry that message forward into the future.’
10% of the sales of the accessories collection, designed and sold at the Design Museum, went to Surfers Against Sewage, who continue to sell T-shirts designed by Ella and Sophie. See their website here.
To read the full design story behind every decision in the collections creation click here.
Clean Up Chromatic Scarf - 90cm2 Recycled polyester
Clean Up Camo repeat
