My personal highlight from the MOB Design Conference’s first day was Fred Gelli’s presentation. Gelli is founding partner of Tátil Design, with offices in São Paulo and Rio. His talk on how Tátil started doing “eco-design” back in 1989, persuading manufacturers and clients to make stuff from other people’s trash (and they would have none of it). For 10 years they kept on doing it, working in packaging for small and increasingly larger companies. Eco became a trend, particularly after the Rio Summit in 1992, and by 1999 Tátil was being copied left and right, got larger accounts (Nokia, Coca-Cola, among many other) and its eco side got somewhat lost. Gelli himself admitted it.

But Tátil went back to its roots recently, creating an EcoInnovation department, and works closely with clients to achieve “less, but better” solutions. And when his clients include some of Brazil’s and the world’s largest corporations, he knows you can only do so much, but what you can do can go a long way.

This flyer for an eco-design workshop in Cannes last year is a great example of that: a normal, natural leaf where graphics have been laser cut. No ink, no paper. Throwing it on the ground isn’t even littering. These flyers were later used by Redley during Rio Fashion week and for Fernando Gabeira’s campaign for mayor.

Tags: Fred Gelli

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