The Uncollection: Looking for DIY/Crafty Creators To Spotlight

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Your daily source of inspiration for creative reuse and mindful consumption.

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We welcome your tips, suggestions, and feedback. Contact: unconsumption@gmail.com

[Background on, & press coverage of, Unconsumption can be found here and here.]

Consumption is a word used to describe acts of acquisition – generally, the acquisition of things, in exchange for money.

Unconsumption is a word used to describe everything that happens after an act of acquisition.

Unconsumption is an invisible badge.

Unconsumption means the accomplishment of properly recycling your old cellphone, rather than the guilt of letting it sit in a drawer.

Unconsumption means the thrill of finding a new use for something that you were about to throw away.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a service like Freecycle (or Craigslist, Goodwill, or Salvation Army) to find a new home for the functioning DVD player you just replaced, rather than throwing it in the garbage.

Unconsumption means enjoying the things you own to the fullest – not just at the moment of acquisition.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a pair of sneakers until they are truly worn out – as opposed to the nagging feeling of defeat when they simply go out of style.

Unconsumption means feeling good about the simple act of turning off the lights when you leave the room.

Unconsumption is not about the rejection of things, or the demonization of things. It’s not a bunch of rules.

Unconsumption is an idea, a set of behaviors, a way of thinking about consumption itself from a new perspective.

Unconsumption is free.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Founder & Editor: Rob Walker, journalist, Savannah, GA

Editorial & Community Manager: Molly Block, marketing and business development geek, Houston, TX

Brian W. Jones, designer & writer, Göteborg, Sweden

Kashvi Kumar, Environmental Studies and Economics major at New York University

Deirdre Nelson, ever threading artist, Glasgow, Scotland

Shanna Trenholm, writer. catalyst. force of nature. San Diego, CA

* * *

Alumnus & Unconsumption logo creator: Clifton Burt, graphic designer, Portland, OR

Further information about Unconsumption can be found here.

2:09 pm - Mon, Oct 31, 2011: 13 notes

The Uncollection: Looking for DIY/Crafty Creators To Spotlight

A quick note about the Uncollection project that’s been gradually unfolding here on the Unconsumption Tumblr.

As many of you know, we’ve invited a series of our favorite crafty creators to reuse our Mr. Cart Logo in original projects — rebranding existing stuff, as an experiment subverting the whole “brand” concept to give new value to old things. Lately our contributors’ efforts have been recognized by BoingBoing, Swiss Miss, FastCompany.com, and The Etsy Blog.

We have more Uncollection pieces in the works, but now is as good a time as any to say that we’re also looking for even more creators to work with. If that’s you, please get in touch — read on for details including contact info.

First I should mention: Anybody can do creative/fun stuff with our logo, without any need to get in touch with us — that’s the whole idea! (We welcome pictures on our Facebook page.)

Beyond that:

Our logo is under a noncommercial CC license, so we’d prefer it not simply be incorporated into upcycled objects that are for sale. Maybe at some point we’ll move in that direction.
But for now our real goal is to inspire people to think of new ways to appreciate materials and objects at hand — the theory being that an old thing can become a “new” thing with the help of Mr. Cart.
What we’ve been doing with the Uncollection “artist series” is inviting people like Tiffany Threadgould and Garth Johnson (to pick two random examples) and others to do a project with Mr. Cart that we can feature on our site — and in return we promote the heck out of their work (site, book, whatever applies) to our ever-growing Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook audiences. Most of the contributors so far have offered a “how to” component, though we don’t require that. Click around on our Uncollection page for examples.
That said, we don’t really have any other rules, per se. Projects now in the works range from the very simple to the surprisingly elaborate. Basically we want whatever the creator does to be something that he or she is excited about doing — because that makes us excited about promoting it, and our readers excited about the project and the creator, and the whole Unconsumption notion.

So if you’re a creator who is interested in joining in the fun, please get in touch: consumed@robwalker.net and/or unconsumption@gmail.com.