Contextual Studies Essay Research: 2

-

Considering my first load of research focused on the use of sustainable printing methods and how I could imply that within my work, both now and in the future as I strive to become a children’s book illustrator and writer I thought the next best stage to research would be pre-existing publishing houses and any steps they are taking in order to be more eco-friendly and print using sustainable methods.

For this I decided to research the well-known publishing house, Penguin who luckily had a whole section in their ‘About Us’ page dedicated to their approach on sustainability. I felt Penguin shared some promising commitments to not only altering their own carbon emissions as a publishing house, but also through their choices of publication which in their words have “power to change minds and behaviour” (Sustainability, n.d.). Due to this they have a wide selection of books to help a variety of individual’s at different ages to understand their impact on society and have now even “established a dedicated environmental publishing imprint with David Attenborough” which is an imprint at Ebury Publishing that will focus on natural history, ecology and the environment.

Not only this, but it would appear Penguin are also working hard to minimise their ecological impact as well as psychological by using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper. This means that the materials being sourced and used for printing have been acquired using responsible management of the forest’s to ensure they can be conserved and restored. Although this sounds promising how trustworthy is the FSC? I would need to do some more research to understand this further however as one of their core values being to “maintain or enhance long term economic viability” (About us, n.d.) it would be helpful to find out just how they manage this and whether or not it truly is being utilised to preserve the world rather than expand for economic gain. Although it does appear to be endorsed by the WWF which is promising and makes me feel a lot more confident about its proficiency.

According to Penguin they have been able to reduce their direct carbon emissions by 65% since 2018, which is extremely impressive and have also switched the energy within their UK offices and warehouses to 100% renewable resources.

Their aim is to become climate neutral by 2030, with the help of their suppliers.

These are all promising factors in our move to sustainability as a society and it is humbling to see such a large company taking a stand for environment. It would be extremely interesting to see whether they are successful with their aim in 2030 of managing to balance their emissions by the removal of gasses which are warming the atmosphere in order to become ‘neutral’.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Character Design and SMART Targets: Illustration Attempt Two

-
Image
Firstly,  I am so much more impressed with the visuals of this design; it feels so much more appropriate for the chosen target audience yet remains visually pleasing to all ages. I am so glad I returned to the initial phases and removed the harsh black outlining on my design, I feel even just making this alteration alone greatly enhanced my illustration by making it much less harsh and more realistic to the eye. However, once I had removed the outlines from around my wall and floor I noticed the separation of the areas became unclear and flat. Due to this I decided to add a skirting board around the bottom of the wall as this is not only a common design feature so will remain recognisable, but also forced the two areas to stand out due to the heavily contrasting border. One of the other major elements which needed to be altered was the couch in the centre of the living room. I previously hated the appearance of this asset so I decided to remove all of the detailing so that I could ...
Read more

SMART Target: 3D Visualisation: Crab Noodle Box

-
Image
Following the completion of my first two concepts, whilst taking a break from artist research, I wanted to experiment with an entirely different creature. The new theme I have chosen to explore is that of molluscs and crustaceans. The first creature I have decided to create was the crab flavoured noodles. I really like how I have extended the design of this creature to have a more visible body as I feel it makes for a highly interesting design having all of the claws in view. I made sure to use reference material of both real life and cartoon style crabs to help inspire my design and help me form the correct anatomy for my crab. I really like how this design extends to the entire dimension of the box. However, once I managed to print out my design in order to check its functionality I found that due to the curved features the sides did not match up correctly and caused the design to be rather displeasing. Due to this I will explore the creation of this character in a square for...
Read more

Weekly Reflection: Life Drawing - Session 2

-
This session was much more relaxed, due to the people I was surrounded by and the calming music that was being played in the room. It really helped being given tasks which were aimed towards creating a humorous result rather than something which was meant to be more realistic. I found that by taking a less serious approach my drawings seemed to greatly improve. I also really enjoyed using the variety of non-conventional mediums such as oil pastels and transfer paper as I feel these mediums helped me focus more on the form, yet I did not have to be 100% accurate as for instance the oil pastels are quite broad whereas you cannot see what you have drawn at all underneath the transfer paper until you remove it. I really enjoyed this session until it came to drawing in very short time periods like 1 second, where I noticed my anxiety sky rocketed again and I became closed off due to the serious tone the class took on again.
Read more