Symphonic logo by lemasney
What is Symphonic?
I had a lot of fun designing this visual brand for Symphonic, an ideological company I’m thinking about that focuses on ways to bring people together. One of the themes that they might use to bring people together ideologically is through sustainability, another through making, another through understanding technology, and so on.
I have served with a few sustainability organizations, and even served on a committee for one. Their purpose is usually transparent: help people to understand that our choices affect the planet, in either positive or negative ways, and that the effects come back to reach us later, in an almost karmic way. Festivals are one effective way to expand outreach, and so they are common event choices for these kinds of groups. The festival usually involves food, awareness games, and other activities to create an impression that reminds you of the organization and its messages. I have seen many t-shirt giveaways at these kinds of festivals as incentive for people to collect a reminder of the event. I have a problem with this, very often. But, maybe you can help me to solve it.
My problem is that I do not see giving t-shirts away as pro-sustainability. If we are buying new shirts, they are still getting bought, new, not reused, not thrift, not gift. It supports the consumerist ideals: more, new, different, need, want. But, done correctly, we might be able to work with t-shirts, differently.
What if the Symphonic festival was a free-thrift and recycling/reusing drive?
The idea is simple: People bring clean, used shirts (and other items) to give away, as they might at a thrift store. then, they get to choose from whatever shirts and other items that have been collected, and choose a visual design (in the form of stencils or other materials) to change it if they wish. There might be a t-shirt stencil-printing station using recycled or high sustainability ink or a manual embroidery station where someone’s monogram might be taught and sewn by the new shirt owner. Simple designs with ideas about the best of sustainability and preservation could be screen-printed or stenciled on exchanged shirts by the new shirt owners. The festival would be free, services donated, t-shirts and other items exchanged and up-cycled by them. Donated leftovers that were not exchanged could be donated to thrift stores, or life support groups.
Imagine, we would have people participating in Making (designing, printing, creating), as opposed to consuming (browsing, liking, buying), in the traditional sense. By understanding and participating, not just observing and consuming as we are asked to do in many parts of our society, we understand that tiny bit of the universe in a new way.
This is an amazing possibility for a thread to emerge in the minds of attendees through open source, sustainability, sharing, teaching, reusing, recycling, up-cycling, code awareness, making, understanding, and seeing.
The common thread? These activities all point to truth, as one can know it, as they put their hands on it, modify and understand it, and know it. They get to see, act, and make (design, etc.) choices for themselves, and possibly discover a truth of their own. We are usually limited to buying or only knowing another’s truth.
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