chris haughton - Filed under 'fair trade'

January 22, 2012

Nationale Voorleesdagen

Mama Kwijt won the Dutch Picture Book of the Year 2012 and there are many amazing events across the country. It was awarded by CPNB, a read-for-fun/literacy non-profit equivalent to Booktrust or CBI. Each year they choose a book for its read-aloud qualities and on the 18th Jan they celebrated by hosting 'reading breakfasts' (complete with pancakes!) in libraries and schools across the country. Its the 9th year of this award you can read more about it here Im particularly proud of the book's success in holland as im a huge fan of dutch design as pretty much all irish designers are

(download)

Many celebrities were pictured taking part for the press including Princess Laurentien from the Dutch royal family and prime minister Mark Rutte (!) In the last photo there is even a real owl at the school!!!!

There was even a reading at Schipol Airport Library

There are puppet performances too. The second to last performance was by Ton Meijer in the oba library (the little girl in the picture is pretending she is a sleepy owl about to fall) and the last was by Pagetti jeungdtheatre

It was interesting to see how the story was adapted to performances and to see how each adapts it differently. One of the performances is of Oma Kwijt (I lost my granny!)

(download)

theres even a Mama Kwijt song...(!!!)

I did some press events too, on thursday 19th I opened the amsterdam stock market!!!!!! i had drawn '99%' on my t-shirt in black marker and unzipped my hoodie right before i gonged (!)

you can only sort of see it though....

At the moment Mama Kwijt is the best selling childrens book in the Netherlands and is #11 in the book chart. The bookshops also got involved and there are amazing shop window displays as well as little hand-puppets and bags. 60,000 finger puppets were made by CPNB to be given away free with the books, we really tried to have the finger puppets made fair trade (thank you CPNB) but the cost and timescale sadly could not work out. Then 7 bookshops emailed me and clubbed together to make an order of the fair trade owls too..! Thank you to all the bookshops who supported this!! You can see some of them on sale below...

(download)

This last few days in holland has been INCREDIBLE! im in total shock. To have my book at the centre of such wonderful events promoting literacy and reading for fun in public access libraries is all i could have ever wished for, i cant tell you how honoured i am. I was amazed by the thought, care and humour that went into these events and the quality of the other beautiful children's books and events that I saw. The time and resources that go towards childrens events seem incredible to me, the Dutch certainly seem to be really focused on all the the good things. I have met amazing people in the last few days. Thanks to so much to everyone involved in this amazing project, in all the libraries, Gottmer and CPNB. Hartelijk bedankt!!

Filed under // a bit lost amn't i brilliant childrens fair trade kleine eule ganz allein little owl lost mama kwijt

Posted from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Comments [0]

September 17, 2011

Claudia Janke | Dear Clare

My lovely ex-studiomate Claudia Janke is a photographer specialising in human rights issues. She wanted to highlight the issues she photographs to a wider audience and came up with the idea of writing a series of letters to her friend Clare and publishing the letters as a zine called Dear Clare. Each issue focuses on a different cause. The second issue documents garment exploitation in India and has been released to coincide with London Fashion Week. It aims to provoke thought and debate around the role that consumers have to play in the fashion industry. The magazine inspires shoppers to take action and to put into practice the power that every consumer has to change the situation and supports the growing ethical fashion movement.

Claudia is self-funding this project and printing the magazines and posters all with her own money.. How cool is that?? Claudia ROCKS!!!

The outdoor photography exhibition of images from the magazine will take place along Regents Canal in Islington from 15 - 25 September.

Dear Clare is available at the Regent’s Canal exhibition, cafes, bars and shops in Islington and Hackney and online at www.dearclare.com

(download)

Filed under // fair trade london

Comments [1]

August 24, 2011

NODE: fair trade rugs

Im VERY excited about this... im co-founding a fair trade project called NODE. We're launching it today.

We will make and sell fair trade rugs. We want to collaborate with great illustrators and designers and produce amazing rugs all through the fair trade group KTS in Kathmandu.

Last year i made some rugs in Nepal and they became really popular. My blog post on it was fwded around and ended up in lots of design magazines. I was then approached by other designers and illustrators who wanted to make their own rugs.

I thought this was a great idea, I was connecting great designers with a great fair trade group. We could even do an exhibition in London of the rugs we made.

There was a couple of problems though, the hassle and cost of doing small orders or one-offs with bank charges and shipping and import duty / declaration forms and all the paperwork put most of the illustrators off.

I also just didnt have the time to actually receive payment and organise shipments etc... the more i got into it the more complicated it got. so the whole thing was stalled.

Then i had a chat with with my friend Akshay Sthapit in Nepal who had recently set up harilo.com

Harilo is a bit like amazon for Nepal. They import and export. And do really complicated logistics so we had the idea of working together.

We have decided to call it Node. Its a point on a network but it also means 'knot' in Latin.

Node can help organise exhibitions and help designers to sell their rugs. But unlike a company we want to operate very transparently. We want to do something new and self-organise, a group of designers making nice things that can be successfully scaled up and hopefully help KTS help out more and more people. Thats the plan anyway..!

At the moment we only have my rugs available to buy but we will be adding more soon

And next year we will be organising an exhibition..

Anyone who wants to get involved (whether designing or buying) please email me

chris (at) vegetablefriedrice (dot) com

have a look at the site...

http://noderugs.com/

Filed under // fair trade nepal node

Comments [1]

March 11, 2011

People Tree: Fair Trade organic cotton baby clothes

(download)

One of my best friends recently sent me these pics of his son Oskar in the baby clothes i designed a little while ago for People Tree.

You can buy the baby clothes and see more designs on people tree's website here...

http://www.peopletree.co.uk/category/organic-kids/babies/

Filed under // childrens fair trade people tree

Comments [0]

November 24, 2010

Camino fair trade chocolate

I helped rebrand Camino chocolate in Canada. Camino means path/road in spanish so we based the packaging on maps. Interestingly, the original meaning of 'trade' also means path or 'tread'. The lovely packaging was designed by Karacters in Vancouver and i got the very important job of drawing funny little fellas all over it.

Have a look at Camino's website, (their chocolate range is amazing, v interesting flavours) or read more about the project on lovelypackage.com blog

(download)

Filed under // design fair trade

Comments [2]

November 10, 2010

My rugs are in London!

My fair trade carpets have finally arrived!

I did them as samples when i was in Nepal a few months back.

Take a look at the blogpost about making them here

If anyone would like to help stock them please get in touch

UPDATE..................

I have just set up a new website for these carpets

please take a look at

www.noderugs.com

to view and order...

thanks!

(download)

Filed under // fair trade kumbeshwar technical school nepal node rug

Comments [2]

August 12, 2010

Mahaguthi, Tulsi Mehar and a lost Owl.

Mahaguthi 'Craft with a Conscience' has the most interesting history of all the fair trade groups in Nepal. I had read about their work many years ago and had always wanted to work with them. I want to give a bit about their history because i think it sums up much of what fair trade is about. It was started by the legendary social reformer Tulsi Mehar in 1923. In the early 20th century Nepal had a very rigid caste and social structure, only the high caste men were educated and literate. Mehar campaigned against this inequality and for his vocal anti-establishment ideas he was thrown out of Nepal by the Nepalese Rana government and ended up exiled in India. His search for truth and equality led him to Mahatma Gandhi and they worked together for many years. His time with Gandhi gave him an opportunity to gain insight to the liberation of the underprivileged. In a system where there are no opportunities for women to bring in money for themselves they must rely on their husbands and fathers. Without the means to improve their own lives women's situations can be very restrictive and this can be hugely problematic if there is domestic violence or abuse. Mehar and Gandhi's vision for reform was to empower women through education and income generation projects so that they can become economically self-reliant. Gandhi wrote to the Prime Minister of Nepal to ask him to let Mehar back into the country. Once back in Kathmandu in 1923 and with a donation from Gandhi, Mehar set up the spinning and weaving develop

ment project that became Mahaguthi. It was not only the first social development project in Nepal but was actually among the first ever manufacturing units in the economically closed feudal country.

Mahaguthi currently takes on 90 new women annually (most are widows or victims of domestic abuse) to train them in literacy and employable skills and school their children as well as supporting a hospital.

I have written and illustrated a children's book 'A Bit Lost' with Borim Press and Walker books and I had the idea to create a small fair trade soft toy to sell along with the book that could be entirely made from scratch by the women at Mahaguthi. The toy is entirely made from raw cotton, using all the traditional cottage industry techniques that Gandhi made famous. It is hand-spun into yarn, dyed, hand-woven and finally sewn all by the women at Mahaguthi.

Gandhi and Tulsi Mehar Shresta

The women in the womens shelter learn to spin and weave and the profits from their crafts are used to support and educate themselves and their children as well as supporting a hospital

Some of the children of the women from Mahaguthi's women's shelter

Some of the younger children can't read their names yet. Interesting system

Some of the women employed at Mahaguthi are deaf or disabled. This is the sign you do when you take Monday off.....'Im outta here. Peace'

a few images from the classroom

this guy is having a really bad banana. not nice.

.....storytime ......YAY!

This is the small hospital funded by Mahaguthi's profits, you can see the portraits of Gandhi and Mehar

This is their ambulance believe it or not. Ambulances come in interesting shapes and sizes in Nepal. And colours!

The front cover of the book

Some owl designs. I wanted to try some different options with the stitching. I needed to make the owl a little flat so that it can still pack together with the book. I think it would sell best as a gift idea together with the book rather than as a separate item.

Weaving

Sewing and designing the first prototypes with Chandrigarh

All the Ullu's! The Hindi word for 'owl' is 'ullu' which is also the word you use if you want to call someone stupid. Owls are thought of as stupid in India and Nepal, the opposite to how they are seen in the west. My owl is definitely a Nepali 'ullu' rather than a western owl. Actually I have become known as ullu-man in the Mahaguthi office (!).Thanks very much to Sumitra, Anita, Chandigarh and Uttara (also to Ono and Sunil who arent here)

*UPDATE* they are now available from my new shop here

Filed under // Un Peu Perdu a bit lost fair trade ihan hukassa kleine eule ganz allein little owl lost mahaguthi mama kwijt nepal 엄마를 잠깐 잃어버렸어요

Comments [1]

August 6, 2010

Kumbeshwar Technical School Carpets

Through People Tree I was introduced to the really excellent Kumbeshwar Technical School I posted about them a little earlier here. Like Mahaguthi they support and train lower caste women and also men. They also support a large school of 260 and an orphanage of 19 children. I have been having exhibitions of my digital illustration work from time to time, i have been converting the files to screens and screen printing them or simply printing them digitally.

I saw the opportunity to collaborate with KTS. They make these amazing natural hand-spun Tibetan wool carpets. The carpet making process is quite similar to the pixel make up of digital images so as many of my images are quite flat with few colours so I had the idea of producing some of my designs as carpets. Together with Satyendra and the design team we found a way to covert digital images directly to carpet graphs which will hopefully make the design process a little easier.

Im really excited about the possibilites with designing carpets though, could be great.

UPDATE.....................................

I have just set up a new website for these carpets

to view and order please take a look at

noderugs.com

Technical training for the adults. KTS have a facility to produce knitware, carpets and also furniture, and they provide training to their workers

School-children-celbrating-childrens-day

From their profits they also fund a school of 260...

...and an orphanage of 19 children

The first test grid i made digitally (i managed to mess up and specify C31 (beige) instead of C30 (black).... Chris you idiot!!!!

it worked ok though!

some details in production

and some designs ......more to come

I will post more about this soon when the first batch of carpets comes through.

If you want to order or enquire about a carpet please mail me .....chris (at) vegetablefriedrice (dot) com

Filed under // fair trade nepal rug social justice sustainability

Comments [0]

July 5, 2010

Getting involved with Fair Trade: some information for designers

Some people have mailed me to ask how I got in contact with the Fair Trade groups etc so i thought I should explain it a bit here.

There is two main certification marks that govern fair trade. The first is the FLO mark on the left above, it oversees commodities such as coffee/tea/fruit and is the most widely recognised. The second is the WFTO mark which oversees the more complex fair trade manufacturing certification. Clothing/stationery/handicrafts any manufactured goods etc all come under this mark so it is the place to go for designers looking to create and manufacture designs and products.

I always wonder why it is the Fair Trade raw commodity mark is so widely recognised but the Fair Trade manufacturing mark isn't as well known. Mainly perhaps because the Fair Trade raw commodity mark products can sell themselves without much help from design (coffee, tea etc need nothing more than a packet) but fair trade manufactured products aren't as easy because they heavily rely on design. There are great companies such as People Tree that are doing their bit to show that its possible to do great designs in fair trade, but in general I think its clear that there still isn't enough great design. Why isn't it everywhere? More than 50% of coffee sold in the UK is fair trade and still rapidly growing but in clothing it is less than one percent. If there were more it would be a huge force in poverty reduction and the main thing I see holding it back is design.

Having worked myself in advertising and commercial design for a long time I had become very disillusioned in the world and business of design, and I am very grateful to the people I have met in Fair Trade who have reminded me again what good design can be. There are some amazing traditional crafts and hand made objects that just cannot be produced industrially that lend themselves if designed nicely to really beautiful high-end design products. Textile designers in particular would be blown away. Not only that but I have met some pretty amazing and inspiring people. It has been a great opportunity for me to take some time to do something a bit different that is generated by myself rather than commissioned and it has led my design work into lots of new and unexpected directions.

For anyone who is thinking about getting involved they can go straight to the WFTO website here and contact producer groups all over the world by region/country or by product type. Literally anything you can think of (that can be non-industrially manufactured) can be made somewhere by some co-operative. You can also join them on facebook here

If you have any other questions please leave a comment below.

Some amazing hand-woven fabric swatches from ACP. The craftsmanship and work here is just mind-blowing. The stuff you could do with this....!

Even just very simple screen prints work so well on hand-woven fabrics

bag prints...

and some soft toys.

Filed under // fair trade india nepal

Comments [1]

June 11, 2010

My OFFSET talk. basically.

The talk I gave in Dublin at the Offset series of talks has been put online.

I get a little bit better after the first few mins…. oh dear....

Thanks so much to everyone at OFFSET for putting on such a great event. Its probably the best series of design talks ive seen together anywhere. It was an amazing honour to speak at it. Many of the other talks are now online. David Shrigley's one is really funny.

Filed under // Un Peu Perdu a bit lost fair trade ihan hukassa little owl lost mama kwijt me people tree sustainability video

Comments [0]

June 2, 2010

People Tree prototypes

I have just been working on some fair trade soft toys here in Nepal with ACP

We still have to iron out a few things ...probably going to shrink them in size a little... but hopefully they will be available in autumn 2011 from Peopletree

new nepali words of the day: 'bandha sukya' = 'monkey finished'

Filed under // childrens fair trade nepal

Comments [2]

May 17, 2010

kumbeshwar technical school

I met up with the excellent Kumbeshwar Technical School here in Nepal, from their fair trade profits they run a school for 260 children as well as an orphanage for 19 children. They also train and run literacy courses for their workers.

I went down to visit them for fair trade day (a week late because of the week long Maoist strike here in May)

For fair trade day KTS hired doctors/nurses/dentists for a free health check for the children, the workers as well as local people and children who are not in the school.

They also had a 'meet up' day for their knitters. The knitting that KTS produce is done by the women at home in the villages so that they can can be flexible and remain with their children, so several times a year they meet up to share skills and get technical feedback. Each of the knitters knitted one patch of their own design and the whole lot was sewn together to make a pair of gloves. The gloves are sent to People Tree who may incorporate some of the patterns into their knitware and reward the knitter's own designs.

You can read more about them and if you look at the rest of the site see (and order) some of the beautiful knitware products they make here

I am getting some carpets made at KTS .....will post something about that soon

Filed under // fair trade kumbeshwar technical school people tree social justice

Comments [0]

February 15, 2010

Republica feature

the Nepali paper Republica did a feature on my fair trade work here, also the Kathmandu Post and the Himalayan Times

Filed under // Un Peu Perdu a bit lost fair trade ihan hukassa little owl lost mama kwijt 엄마를 잠깐 잃어버렸어요

Comments [0]

February 8, 2010

Prof. Anil Gupta's Shodh Yatra in Assam

'The minds in the margins are not marginal minds'

I had heard about the fantastic work of Prof. Anil Gupta two years ago while teaching at Sristi College in Bangalore.

Professor Gupta's interest is in sustainable technologies and remedies found in India's rural fringes. Traditional technologies such as herbal remedies and other traditional and localised knowledge are facing a decline as these areas adapt to the globalised world. Local knowledge is often under-appreciated in these areas as they strive to modernise. The aim of the Prof Gupta and his team is to record and foster this knowledge so that it is not lost and can perhaps be utilised in new ways.

In addition to this work Gupta and his team are also documenting some incredible new innovations by the local communities they visit. Most of the communities visited by the team are subsistence farmers and use their limited resources in very inventive ways. Without anything other than the resources that grow naturally around them these farmers are living within entirely sustainable systems. There are some really interesting ideas for the developed world.

THE SHODH YATRA

Dr. Gupta had the idea of connecting and learning from these communities 12 years ago. He and his team tried to think of the best way to visit the isolated communities. In the end they decided the only way these places could be visited was by foot, the communities are so isolated that many do not have access by road, also these group walks of learning are deeply rooted in the Indian tradition which Gandhi had tapped into as his way of gathering support and connecting peoples. The Shodh Yatra was born, in Hindi it means literally 'foot travel' The first Shodh Yatra was in Gupta's own state of Gujarat and since there has been a Shodh Yatra every six months. 24 in all so far in almost every region in India. On average 300 people, mainly farmers and academics but also a passionate and extremely diverse bunch of interested individuals from botanists to product designers from all over india and beyond come to each Yatra. Amongst the amazing people we met on the Assam Yatra were journalists, zoologists, architects, anthropologists and a really interesting amateur botanist.

Prof Gupta has set up the Honeybee Network, the idea is to 'cross pollinate' isolated communities with the other knowledge systems and innovations of their neighbours. He has collected so many innovations in the past twelve years that their database actually holds the largest amount of registered patents in the developing world. The idea is to use these innovations in a completely open source or creative commons way.

He has also set up the Grassroots to Global network to create business plans for the local amateur innovators to reach a global audience.

We joined the Yatra at the Rural Volunteer Centre outside Dhemaji in northwest Assam. The RVC was set up by Ravindranath as an NGO to provide knowledge and training to local farmers.

There is also a good article about Dr Guptas work in DESIGN OBSERVER here

I hope i can someday do some work for Dr Gupta. Very inspiring stuff.