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Waves of Knowing - Welsh Wool Initiative
Project Type
Behaviour Change
Date
October 2023
The Brief
Waves of Knowing focused on how we as designers can implement behaviour change around the causes, effects and consequences of water pollution in Wales, specifically plastic microfibre pollution from household laundry sewage.
The Challenge
The brief asked to deliver an affirmative solution and a disruptive deliverable. Affirmative behaviour change might be in the form of policy change, political change, the design of a new service to prevent specific behaviours. Disruptive design forces people to see things differently or alters existing design systems to enact change in an unorthodox manner. This could be in the form of future design, speculative design or more obstructive design solutions.
With 60% of all clothing worn being composed of synthetic textiles, and 700,000 synthetic fibres released on average in every load of domestic laundry, it is essential that this often overlooked or invisible source of pollution receives the level of care and focus as other areas of fighting water pollution.
The Solution
My Affirmative design solution highlighted how existing suggestions to solve the issue around plastic microfibre pollution mainly involved capturing these fibres, either in sewage processing or at the source in household laundry. In contrast to this, I wanted to explore the possibility of engaging with the materiality of the clothing itself. My research highlighted the enormous levels of synthetic textiles used in current garment production, compared to our historic use of natural fibres like cotton, linen and wool.
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Researching this line of enquiry further, I discovered just how neglected the Welsh woollen industry is. This connection between materials, environment and culture lead to the development of a proposed initiative between the British Wool Board and the Welsh Government, with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, will incentivise the production of renewable wool, as well as connecting them with welsh woollen mills to reinvigorate and incentivise the production and market of woollen garments.
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As this affirmative solution to the issue of microplastics involved the promotion of the woollen industry in Wales, communicating the heritage feeling through the visual language was key. This included taking motifs from Welsh textile designs, maintaining a clean, monochromatic colour pallet to emphasis the connection to the Welsh landscapes and implementing a cross-stitch display type, relating the visual language back to craft and materials.
To effectively contextualise the concept for the affirmative design solution, I developed a logo and visual identity concept.
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Taking inspiration and shape motifs from Welsh textile and heritage crafts, the logo takes the form of a sheep and farmer, indicating the benefit for both human and non human communities. The logotype uses a sophisticated, vintage feeling serif type to communicate the return to more traditional methods of textile production and its benefit for people and the planet.