Who doesn’t love wildlife? Exquisite birds, cute fluffy creatures and quirky insects. But you know what’s not to love? That so many of these animals are at threat of extinction. In fact, we could lose 50% of all species on Earth in the next 100 years. Let me introduce you to two people who have set about to change that.
Camila and Chris combined their eye for style and experience in industrial design and graphics with their deep concern for the growing threat of wildlife extinction. The result is their business – Eggpicnic – started out of Milan in 2009.
Fast forward to 2017 and Eggpicnic offers colourful geometric prints of Australian wildlife as well as other animals from around the world, with profits going towards individual projects that make an immediate impact to save species. These include projects by their partners Greenfleet, Birdlife Australia and and Palm Oil Investigations.
The pair have just launched their first children’s clothing range in collaboration with Milan based brand No Suit No Tie No Problem and in partnership with Greenfleet Australia.
Plus in a very exciting coup, Camila and Chris’ Birds of Australia has just been announced as one of the City of Sydney’s 10 new hoarding artworks to change Sydney’s cityscape. In an impressive move, the city has made artwork mandatory on highly visible construction sites. Here’s to a more colourful Sydney and putting a stop to wildlife extinction.
In between all of these new projects, Camila and Chris took some time to tell me a little more about their journey and share the shots of their gorgeous new studio. Take a read!
What does the threat of wildlife extinction mean to you?
It means we don’t quite understand our place on this planet and we have much work to do to change the way we view the world, which has become our vision as a brand.
This is really not an “environmental problem”, it’s a human problem and this is why we must undergo an urgent and deep cultural transformation.
We need to create a society to match the scenery because in the end the human impact on biodiversity is an attack on ourselves. This is a great time to take part in this change, we can make this happen. We need people to understand it’s worth doing.
Tell us how Eggpicnic makes a difference?
Eggpicnic is a bridge, between the wild and humans, between NGOs and citizens.
We intend to re-frame the traditional perspective of conservation in a fresh new way to make it more inclusive and participative.
We work closely with our partners at Greenfleet Australia, BirdLife Australia and Palm Oil Investigations to support their conservation programs through the sales of our work to protect endangered species and take action on climate change.
What does the design process of each product look like?
Each project comes with a story. The aim is to educate, to create a relationship between the audience and the work. Allowing people to understand and learn about our world and how incredible it is.
Every project starts with a single moment of inspiration. Whether it is something we read, something we discuss with experts or something we experience firsthand, those are the moments that begin the creative process and drive us to want to communicate and tell the world about.
From this initial point we begin to investigate every aspect of that issue, whether it is about the species or the environment and determine how we want to communicate this idea. We work across illustration, we bring other creative minds into the development of our projects and we also conduct experiments in our studio to develop new sustainable materials for the design industry.
What are your tips for choosing and hanging a print?
Aesthetics follows emotions, go with your heart. Everybody has a favourite species they want to take home. Everyone has a special connection to an animal, a personal story, a memory or a local visitor they love.
Where do you go for design inspiration?
Being constantly surrounded by the wild is an incredibly humbling and inspirational experience. Examining the design of nature has aided in the development of almost every aspect of our lives as human beings. We’ll spend hours each week just observing how nature behaves around us.
We also immerse ourselves in books, inspiration also comes from education and from learning new things every day.
What’s the most challenging part of running a business?
Getting over the overwhelming feeling of having too much to conquer. Having a clear vision has been incredibly empowering to focus on what we want to do and how we need to get there.
And what’s the most rewarding part?
Knowing you’re making a difference by inspiring and educating others.
Our aim is to reconnect an increasingly disconnected human population with the environment of the planet that we not only come from but also rely on.
Thank you to Camila and Chris – take a look at Eggpicnic’s range here!
Images © Robert Walsh. Final image © No Suit No Tie No Problem..
