Attention local designers and students: Here's your chance to plant a forest in D.C. this Spring.
The Urban Forest Project is taking applications for 100 street banners to be "planted" on city light poles in the District. After the forest is felled, the banners will be recycled into one-of-a-kind totebags designed exclusively for the project.
The only constraint is that the banner should not advertise a brand or product, nor endorse a particular political party. (Sorry all you aspiring artist political wonks!)
In case you haven't guessed, the project -- an initiative of Worldstudio -- is about making a statement about the environment; the banners are supposed to be metaphors for actual trees.
Originally launched in New York's Times Square in the fall of 2006, it's already been to Baltimore (in 2008); Denver, Colo., and Albuquerque, N.M. New York's banners were recycled into tote bags by designer Jack Spade, brother of actor and comic David Spade and Kate Spade's masculine half.
It's not clear if D.C.'s banner recycling will get equal star power, but perhaps some local designer might step up for the task-?
The Urban Forest Project is being presented in D.C. in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), AIGA DC and Corcoran College of Art and Design. According to the DCCAH, proceeds from the sales of the totebags will go to non-profit environmental efforts that help make D.C. clean, green and sustainable.
