Make a
change.

We will never be in this space again

Not long ago, Professor Richard Thompson came to our wind-swept corner of Cornwall to talk. One of the first people to ask what happens to the stuff we throw away, Professor Thompson came up with the term ‘micro-plastics’.

He knows more than anyone about the brilliant and devastating properties of plastic.

That day, he said something we couldn’t get out of our heads:

“We will never be in this space again,
where everybody is aligned and wanting to make a change”

He’s absolutely right. And it’s exciting. And terrifying. What if we miss this one chance? In our job, we get to hear the worries of consumers and shops, manufacturers and waste collectors, politicians and campaigners. Everyone knows the issues. Our urgent emphasis has to be on solutions.

As designers, we can play a pivotal role. What we make can have a positive or negative impact. And so can what we say.

So far, as ashortwalk and rCUP , we’ve been quietly impactful. That’s just the way we are. We’ve been so busy doing that we didn’t pay much attention to saying. But right now circularity, our specialist subject, is big news, and it’s time to speak up.