EIT Water's event graphics are becoming tote bags for community not-for-profit
Updated: 13 hours ago
The graphics that guided people around a water innovation launch in Málaga now carry clothes, shoes, books and toys to people in need in Portugal.
It is an unusual second life for event signage. Event graphics have a short working life. They are printed for one occasion, they carry its name, and once the day is over they have nowhere to go. Large format material is hard to recycle, and a banner that has only done one job tends to end up as waste.
Audience, a brand experience agency, partnered with Greenhouse Communications, a communications agency, to produce the launch event for EIT Water, a new European innovation community dedicated to the water, marine and maritime sectors. The event brought together key stakeholders from across Europe to mark the launch of the initiative, which aims to tackle Europe's most pressing water-related challenges through collaboration and innovation. Following the event, the black-backed graphics from the event signage were passed to Event Cycle to be repurposed and given a second life, supporting a more sustainable approach to event production.
From banner to bag
Event Cycle sent the graphics on from Málaga to ReCreate, an upcycling design studio in Portugal. ReCreate has spent over a decade turning advertising banners into garden solutions, cushions, bags and custom orders, and keeps to a simple philosophy: nothing is lost, everything is transformed. It took the branded banners, cut them up and sewed them into tote bags for a community.
Bagging essentials for the community
The bags are going to APTEA (Associação Para a Transformação de Ecossistemas de Aprendizagem) , a non profit in Torres Vedras that works on community well-being, conscious education and environmental sustainability. It runs a learning community for homeschoolers, intergenerational activities and monthly fairs with more than 45 exhibitors, and its social and solidarity support includes giving out clothing, footwear and essential goods to people in need. Its community group, NaturaMente, includes people from 4 to 88 years old, and APTEA supports over 150 people through its activities and projects.
APTEA will use the bags to hand clothes, shoes, books and toys to people in situations of social vulnerability. It will also make clear where the bags have come from, and encourage the people who receive them to continue to reuse them as much as they can, or return them to the charity so that someone else can use them instead.
Reusing event resources for good
A launch event for a water innovation community is, by its subject, concerned with using resources carefully. The graphics that guided people around the show now carry that thought into a second use, as bags that are handed over with the essential items people in vulnerable situations need.
For agencies, the lesson is practical. Printed material does not have to end with the event, even when the event is abroad, if there is a maker who can work with it, and a charity that can put the result to work.
Find sustainable event solutions with a lasting social legacy with Event Cycle.
Get in touch: hello@eventcycle.org
