Metropolis Books Announces a Revolutionary Design Book

Green Patriot Posters (Cover)

GREEN PATRIOT POSTERS

Images for a New Activism

Edited by Edward Morris, Dmitri Siegel.
Text by Michael Bierut, Thomas L. Friedman, Steven Heller
Edward Morris, Dmitri Siegel (Metropolis Books)
In association with ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND
and THE CANARY PROJECT

Featuring 50 of the best contemporary posters on the theme of sustainability by artists and designers such as Shepard Fairey, Vier5, DJ Spooky, James Victore and Geoff McFetridge. (Detachable and ready to hang!)
To download a pdf of the book, click here

Produced Sustainably in the U.S.A.


This book brings together the strongest contemporary graphic design currently promoting sustainability and the fight against climate change. Collectively, essays by Michael Bierut, Steven Heller, Edward Morris and Dmitri Siegel look back in time to posters and ideas that set the stage for the current movement (World War Two posters, images of international cooperation, posters from the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s) and address the state of the poster: what is the efficacy and mode of distribution for purposeful, message-oriented graphic images today? Thomas L. Friedman advocates for “a redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology that can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the twenty-first century.” The bulk of the book is given over to a compilation of the best posters on the theme of sustainability by a variety of contemporary artists (both emerging and established), among them Shepard Fairey, Vier5, DJ Spooky, James Victore and Geoff McFetridge. These posters, which have a strong graphic presence and which never rest on the tired slogans of the past (“Save the Earth,” etc.), show that graphic design does not passively respond to the zeitgeist–it helps shape it. The book, which is sustainably printed in the U.S., reproduces 50 of these posters as tear-outs. Also included is a section on action, with documentation of designs at work in the world: on buses, billboards, protesters’ placards, graffiti, t-shirts and so on. This movement is about a new form of patriotism, one that exhibits pride of place, but not fear of others.
Every effort was made to produce this book in the most sustainable way possible. The trim size and page count were chosen to minimize waste; the book was printed using 100% wind power on paper made from 100% post-consumer waste fiber; and it was printed in the U.S.A. to reduce fuel consumption in shipping. Just the paper alone saved:

  • 258 trees preserved for the future
  • 744 pounds of waterborne waste not created
  • 108,845 gallons of wastewater flow saved
  • 12,110 pounds of solid waste not generated
  • 23,842 pounds net greenhouse gases prevented
  • 182,498,400 BTUs energy not consumed
  • 15,445 pounds air emissions not generated
  • 16 barrels crude oil not used
  • equivalent to not driving 15,286 miles

Edward Morris is an artist, consultant, and sustainability advocate. In 2006 he co-founded The Canary Project, an organization that produces art and media that deepen public understanding of climate change. He is also a principal of Lynx Insights & Investigations, an investigations and consulting company that specializes in work for nonprofits, lawyers, and investors. In 2008 Morris was awarded a Loeb Fellowship from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He currently teaches in the TransMedia department at Syracuse University.
Dmitri Siegel is a contributor to Design Observer and his writing has also been featured in Adbusters, Creative Review, Design Issue, Dot Dot Dot, Émigré and Utne Reader. Siegel has lectured at the Art Center College of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and University of Southern California, among other institutions, and is currently a thesis advisor in the RISD graduate program in graphic design. Siegel is the executive director of marketing at Urban Outfitters.
The Canary Project creates art and media that deepen public understanding of climate change and energize commitment to solutions. In addition to Green Patriot Posters, The Canary Project has produced more than a dozen works involving more than thirty artists, designers, writers, scientists, and other collaborators. The work of The Canary Project has been exhibited internationally in both art and science museums, as well as in such diverse venues as billboards, the sides of buses, city halls, the internet, and city streets.
Environmental Defense Fund is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 700,000 members. Since 1967 it has linked science, economics, and law to create innovative, equitable, and cost-effective solutions to society’s most urgent environmental problems.
Special thanks to Mohawk Fine Papers located in Cohoes, New York which was the first paper mill to make coated paper with post-consumer waster fiber; the first to be certified by Green Seal; the first to support nonpolluting wind-generated electric power by purchasing Green-e certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs); and the first to move toward carbon-neutral manufacturing. Mohawk is the second largest industrial consumer of wind power in the United States, is an EPA Green Power Partner, and an EPA Climate Leader.
Monroe Litho based in Rochester, New York printed this book and has been in business since 1945. It was one of the first commercial printers in the United States to offset 100% of its energy usage with wind-generated power. In addition to winning many national quality awards, it holds several environmental certifications, including Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP), and is an EPA Green Power Partner.
U.S. LIST PRICE: U.S. $30.00
CANADIAN PRICE: CAN $36
ISBN: 9781935202240
FORMAT: Pbk, 9.5 x 12.5 in. / 128 pgs / 100 color / 50 tear-out posters.
PUBLISHER: Metropolis Books
PUBLICATION DATE: November 2010

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212.627.1999 x217

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212.627.1999 x209

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By Sacha Kagan

Research Associate at the ISCO - Institute of Sociology and Cultural Organization (ISKO - Institut für Soziologie und Kulturorganisation), Leuphana University Lueneburg, Sacha Kagan founded the International level of Cultura21, Network for Cultures of Sustainability, as well as the International Summer School of Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation (ASSiST). The focus of his research and cultural work lies in the trans-disciplinary field of arts and (un-)sustainability. Doctor in Philosophy (Leuphana University Lueneburg) with a thesis on the subject of culture, the arts and sustainability under the perspective of complexity ; M.A. in Cultural Economics (Erasmus University Rotterdam) ; and Graduate of Sciences Po Bordeaux (political sciences). For Cultura21, Sacha is also coordinating the eBooks series, the regular updates on our multi-lingual website, the English section of our webmagazine and the work of our Lueneburg-based interns.