Given our design specialism, a love of thoughtful and inspiring creativity runs deep at The Big Picture. Our eyes light up when we see ideas brought to life in smart and impactful ways. We often come across great examples of the power of design, particularly its ability to hold a mirror to society, so we wanted to share a few of our team’s recent highlights from around the world.

The Big Picture’s Vickie Landell-Mills, James Murray and Caroline Bartlett introduce you to their Design Champions… 

Despite big shifts in the awareness of historical exploitation and environmental impact of the global coffee industry, can ethical and sustainability messaging always be trusted?

Phyllis Johnson is a coffee industry titan who noticed throughout her career how POC workers were excluded from the top of the coffee industry chain, but make up almost all of the farmers and growers. She started the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity to combat this disparity and empower the producers.

As such, the brand have skilfully deployed a deeply impactful design language to suit such a powerful mission. A bold, modern execution is saturated in both ecological and cultural meaning. Colour tones beautifully reference the natural ripening coffee cherries. Typefaces effectively evoke Civil Rights protest signs of the 1960s and 70s. 

Design Director at ThoughtMatter, Wednesday Krus, responsible both for this work and as their raison d’être explains that 2022 will be about subversion.

And finally, what does ‘waste’ actually mean? Could a societal redefining of the term help to save the planet?

During our recent visit to the Waste Age exhibition at The Design Museum (London), local designer James Shaw’s work particularly struck a chord.

His work is a great example of mixing playfulness with purpose, and uncovers the transformative potential of scrap materials and our relationship with them.

An environmental interest, fostered throughout his life and honed through economical necessity in college, now manifests in his material of choice. ‘Useless’ plastic waste is remodelled into ‘useful’ everyday objects. The up-cycled aesthetic and bright colours give a sense of childlike wonder and wistful naivety to his work. As the world reimagines our relationship with waste, the lifecycle of products is less and less linear. Shaw’s work raises questions around the fundamental value of the products and materials around us – if something can be repurposed, can it truly be called waste?

It’s a sentiment that has been echoed by Gemma Curtin, curator of The Waste Age at the Design Museum, who has said:

These ‘Champions’ show us the innate power of design to unify, rise up and invoke change in both mindsets and behaviours. We encourage you to have a think as your week progresses, who might be your Design Champion?