2024.08.23
Outdoor Advertising Reborn as Clothing: The Challenge of Sustainability by Paper Parade & Ligaretta
In recent years, considerations for "sustainability" have become a mandatory condition in projects carried out by companies. However, it is also true that this can sometimes be an obstacle to free creativity. How can expression and sustainability coexist and enhance each other?
We interviewed the design firm Paper Parade, which is leading the "Ligaretta" project and aims to contribute to sustainability from the perspective of design.
PROFILE
Atsushi Morita
Paper Parade Inc. Co-founder / Creative Director / Printing Director
Graduated from Tama Art University's Department of Graphic Design. With the theme of "creating new value in paper and printing," they propose designs that cross the boundaries of the physical world to create a unique worldview. By collaborating with printing and paper processing factories in downtown areas, they deepen their knowledge of printing and processing technology. They specialize in proposing from two perspectives: as an art director and a printing director, and produce projects from the viewpoint of circular economy. They have received many awards both domestically and internationally.
Is Sustainability an Obstacle to Creation?
Please tell us about the business of Paper Parade.
Based on the origin of "exploring the possibilities of paper and printing," we are active in areas such as graphic design, branding, and art projects. In recent years, we have particularly focused on circular projects with an awareness of sustainability.In this article, we would like to think about how sustainability and creativity can coexist and synergize through the activities of Paper Parade.
The creativity of Paper Parade proposes design with sustainability being taken for granted, not something special.First, as an international premise, projects and designs that do not consider sustainability are being reevaluated when promoting business projects, and such projects are becoming harder to get approved. The debate over whether sustainability has value is nearly over, and it has become something we simply "must do." This trend will also be more strongly reflected in Japan in the future.
In the world of fashion, the use of upcycled materials and the move away from real leather and fur is in full swing.
However, there is the issue of how this affects the freedom of creative activities. To be honest, until a few years ago, I felt that considerations for sustainability were an "inconvenient" restriction on creativity. The materials we could use were limited, and the messages we could convey were also restricted. I also wondered how much a single designer could do about global issues.However, when I raised this question at an international design conference in 2020, I faced a lot of criticism from many designers. They all had very strong feelings, saying, "Design can do something too!" I was shocked by the difference in stance from creators around the world.
So I began to think about what I could do as a graphic designer. I aimed to become a designer in an era when advertising was glamorous, believing that expressing and pursuing beautiful and cool things was the right way to go. So, what can I do to make things "beautiful" while considering sustainability now? The concept of "urban circular" was born from this question.
The Most Challenging Attempt: Reusing Advertising Materials
What is Urban Circularity?
Sustainability often highlights vernacular ideas that focus on natural materials and locality. However, I live and work in the city. I started thinking about how we can creatively develop systems where items born from urban life can circulate within the urban environment.One of the most important targets for this is "upcycling outdoor advertisements." For example, the large ads displayed on buildings, in stations, or on streets. These use very durable materials like "tarpaulin" and "blackout suede" that can withstand adverse weather conditions but are typically replaced every two weeks because they are advertisements.
Materials which could be used without problems for years are discarded after just two weeks. This is far from sustainable. The notion of advertisements being "disposable" has been a longstanding issue in the advertising industry. While there have been short-term and single-instance recycling campaigns, successful continuous cycles are rare, and many challenges have remained to implement this on a societal level.
Tarpaulin is a material also used by the brand renowned for sustainability in fashion, "Freitag." It seems like there could be many uses for it, so why can't it be recycled?
Of course, it is entirely possible to cut up used outdoor advertisements and make bags or clothes from them, which also holds social value. However, obtaining permission for reuse is the problem. Advertisements are full of intellectual property rights such as trademarks, portrait rights, and copyrights. With complex rights holders involved, such as the companies displaying the ads, celebrities or models participating, and designers like myself, it is extremely challenging to get approval from all parties.During the time it takes to handle the delegation of rights, the ads are replaced every two weeks, and it costs less to dispose of them than to store them, making negotiations infeasible. Outdoor advertisements concentrate the structural problems of the advertising industry. However, this is exactly why I wanted to take on the challenge. The thinking that helped me was a concept often used in creative thought known as "lateral thinking with withered technology."
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