Vision & Starting Point
What does sustainability mean to you within graphic design?
“Green design (or sustainable, regenerative, eco-friendly, eco-conscious design) really just refers to a set of practices that the studio adheres to in considering environmental impact of our design work. Sometimes people try to draw distinctions between the terms above, but ultimately none of these terms have legal regulations or mean anything other than what we as designers choose to define them as for ourselves. For Little Fox, it means we consider the types of clients we work with (and refuse projects from companies we feel are unethical or harming the planet or people), we consider the impact of the materials we specify for our clients (prioritizing recycled paper, safer inks, and reduced consumption when and where possible), and keeping our own carbon footprint as minimal as possible in both personal and professional.
Regarding the supply chain side, it generally requires a broader understanding of extractive industries (plastics, lumber, paper mills). I think it’s important to know the paper or materials we select at a print-shop or online is made: where is the lumber sourced? Was it certified as sustainable? Is it recycled? What happens to the material when it hits the end of its lifecycle? Are there coatings applied to the paper that would limit its capacity to naturally biodegrade? Have the coatings rendered the product un-recyclable or entirely non-degradable? I like to consider the full lifecycle of the materials we work with as a studio and make the best possible recommendations to clients to minimize their overall material impact.”
How did you get started working with biobased or sustainable materials?
“Curiosity, really. I wanted to know what was out there in terms of more sustainable paper options that led me to discover alternative papers like hemp, stone, seed, and reclaimed fibre papers. Over the years, as technology advances, more alternatives have come onto the market such as seaweed paper and more alternative biobased plastic alternatives such as Sway’s seaweed “plastic” alternative, and PVA films that dissolve in hot water. Biobased plastics are a difficult subject, and there’s often not ideal solutions (I’ll talk more about this in the later section), just felt I can’t talk about biobased plastics without giving a * that they’re difficult to navigate and full of greenwashing.”
Why do you choose to work with biobased or sustainable materials?
“I choose to work with sustainable materials when possible because I think as designers we are working adjacent to both extractive industries (creation of paper, plastic) but also marketing (encouraging sales through strong branding and marketing). Because of this association to business practices that are destructive to the planet and our collective future, I think it’s a moral imperative for designers to not be ignorant and pay attention to the materials we are choosing and recommending to our clients. There isn’t always a perfect or ideal option for clients – that’s fine. There are technical and material limitations on what’s available on the market. But I think we have to try. If we’re ever to live in a better world where climate crisis isn’t ravaging, the adoption of normalizing an understanding of the materials we use as designers will be imperative and must be normalized.”
What role does material choice play in your design practice?
“I like to bring the conversation up around materials as soon as possible in the design process if something is being designed for print. Ultimately, due to various project considerations like material structure, client budget, availability, etc, the choice of materials can range, however, even if a client isn’t able to select the most sustainable option in the beginning, I like to educate them on what potential upgrades are available for them in the future as their business scales or as certain innovative materials develop and become available on the market.”
Material & Creative Proces
How do you discover new materials to work with?
“Periodic research. I follow several sustainable blogs for materials but ultimately, sometimes it’s just from following companies on social media and letting the algorithm serve up similar content sometimes. It’s useful to follow industry sources and trends such as dieline blog as they’ll usually cover innovative materials in their infancy.”
What are the most important qualities a sustainable material should have for you?
“I’d love to say that the most important quality is the ability for the material to fully and completely dissolve into inert materials under a reasonable timeline. Maybe in the future utopia that will be the case. Unfortunately, right now there are quite a few limitations on the capabilities of innovative materials and also some come at a pretty high price point. So important qualities I consider are: feedstock for bioplastics (certain feedstocks have less of a carbon footprint than biobased sugar cane “plastics” due to the frequent destruction of the amazon rainforest to grow monoculture sugarcane crops for the creation of this bioplastic), material composition of the material (from a sustainable perspective: is it chemically identical to plastic even if it’s made from an alternative feedstock—and a practical perspective: how much does it cost, does it have an adequate moisture barrier for the product that is being packaged). I also evaluate the aesthetics and appropriateness of the material for the design, however, usually that’s coming in last as a consideration.”
What role does tactility (touch, smell, texture) play in your work?
“I love texture, touch, and smell especially for paper products. I just recently was given a sample of Seaweed paper from PlantSea and it both looks stunning (it’s very speckled – I can send photos if you want), feels lovely to the touch, AND smells like salt and the ocean. For me this is a real win, but honestly clients aren’t so interested in the tactile nature of paper often-times and their interest will only stretch so far if I excitedly talk up an option. I suspect smell would be offputting to them as well, even though for me it’s fascinating and an amazing opportunity to make a unique branded impression.”
Can you give an example of a project where material choice really shaped the outcome?
“This isn’t the most positive story but it is a realistic one. We had a client who was packaging a plant-based Omega-3 supplement and some plant-based protein powders. They really wanted two things that they’d seen their competitors doing: clear class jars for the supplement and fully home-compostable packaging for the stand-up protein powder pouches. Unfortunately, neither option was able to be supplied for them: Omega-3 supplements are light-sensitive and if they’re stored in clear containers they will rapidly degrade so the options had to be amber glass or plastic. A similar story with the protein powders: their product had a shelf-life of 6 months and home-composable bioplastics don’t have a moisture barrier that can withstand that long. Unfortunately, right now on the market, when you need to seal food, plastic in some form is your only viable option. Industrial compostable pouches aren’t viable as they’re almost never composed (and when they are they usually don’t even compost fully and tend to lower the quality of the compost batch). We eventually came up with a solution that required the most minimal amount of grams of plastic as possible: a three-layer laminate stand-up pouch that contained a thin plastic layer, an aluminum layer for the interior to reduce the amount of plastic, and a thin paper layer on the outside for printing. The option was not recyclable as it was a laminate compound, however, since almost every other option would be resulting in more grams of plastic ending up in the landfill at the end of life, this was the incredible un-exciting non-sexy sustainable solution that was the least impactful to the environment long-term.”
Opportunities & Challenges
What challenges do you face when working with biobased or sustainable materials?
“Really the current limitations of alternative plastics and their cost and accessibility in the market. The moisture barrier issue I mentioned in the previous anecdote is a huge problem. To biodegrade in the environment properly, the material HAS to be sensitive to light and water in order to begin the breakdown process. As of right now in the market, there isn’t much that’s managed to transcend this fundamental limitation of the materials. So food is particularly difficult to package. As soon as you ensure it has a moisture barrier with plastic, then it is very difficult to break down. Certain companies like Sway are working on making a seaweed-based solution that has overcome these issues, however they’re still in early stages and working on prototype collaborations. Once they have a product as well, they’ll have to be able to produce it in scale to make it financially viable in the current packaging market. I am looking forward to them achieving this!”
How have clients or collaborators responded to your use of sustainable materials?
“Extremely well. Since I put forward the marketing that my studio is sustainably focused and that we do research and recommend sustainable materials, my clients are generally looking for this values alignment and are interested in what we have to say and suggest. They might not always like the hard truths that aren’t easy to market to their consumer base, and they might be unable to go for the option they want due to cost, but generally the conversations are ones of curiosity and interest to at least explore.”
What do you think holds designers back from using biobased materials more often?
“Honestly I think there’s a pretty high barrier to entry with the amount of research that is required which is definitely re-usable to some extent but every project is a little bit different (our Green Design Course is designed to take some of that overwhelm out of the picture by condensing all our research together in one place). I think there is also a fear of client reaction and the worry that specializing too much will hurt their business.”
Inspiration & Future
What trends are you seeing around biobased design in graphic work?
“I see a lot of compostable plastics which are unfortunately greenwashed. They don’t biodegrade in the environment outside of an industrial facility and when that happens they’re functionally identical to plastic in terms of environmental impact. There are only a handful of industrial compostable facilities in each country that are capable of processing this material and the sheer amount of it being used and the scarcity of these facilities means it often is not composted at all. A lot of consumers think that this plastic will biodegrade naturally in the environment but it does not.”
In your view, what needs to happen to make biobased materials more commonplace in the creative sector?
“The ability to have a wider variety of cost-efficient products that can compete with traditional plastic. Some of this will have to wait for materials technologies to advance. And for these facilities to be able to produce at the scale required to make the material cost-competitive. Right now, recycled paper is cost-competitive with virgin paper so it’s usually an easy-sell to clients. I hope that innovative packaging materials being cost-competitive will happen in the next 5-10 years.”
What advice would you give to designers who want to work more sustainably?
“Research, research, research. Don’t be afraid to follow rabbit-holes about different materials, remember to check your sources (there are a lot of misleading lifecycle assessments commissioned by extractive industries – this is how you get the occasional paper that claims that disposable plastic bags are better than reusable totes or plastic cups are better than ceramic mugs…. Always evaluate what criteria or conditions they might not be including in their research to come to that conclusion). Don’t use ChatGPT because it hallucinates information about Green Design (I’ve tried it out). Be wary of greenwashing from material suppliers, marketers, and suppliers. Don’t be offput by material reps if they’re rude to you or demean your questions – ask the hard-hitting questions and reputable suppliers will be happy to talk with you about the limits of their own materials. It’s a great way to get preliminary information.”
Personal & Reflective
If you could freely choose, what biobased material would you love to experiment with?
“I’d really like to try using some of Sway’s seaweed alternative plastic and I’d really like to use Ecovative’s mycelium-based “foam” that is a replacement for styrofoam. (It’s more of a moulded cardboard than a foam but entirely made from mycelium not cardboard so it has the texture and feel more so of foam).”
What’s the most beautiful material you’ve ever worked with?
“Mohawk’s Renewal line of papers. I just love how the hemp, straw, and cotton (from reclaimed jeans/shirts) look together. The textures are stunning, the natural flecking through the paper feels organic and alive. They’re a lovely product.”
If biobased material could tell a story, what would it say according to you?
“This probably isn’t quite the right way of answering the question, but I think that we should consider the “birth” and “death” of all materials. Answering these questions will actually get you most of the way to being an awesome sustainable designer!”
Contacts
Green Graphic Design | Emma Fanning
hello@littlefoxdesign.com
