Do you ever wince a bit thinking about where political signs go after the election? What if, instead of sending those signs to the landfill they became raw material to build things? Seen through a child's eye, these signs transform into a blank canvas for invention. Join us on Jan 17, 2023 from 5-8pm, where we will "de-sign", explore, invent and create, inspiring each other along the way. This is a grassroots *free* event not run by any organization. Students at ACE Academy are taking the lead researching new ways to use this material, but the event belongs to the community. Children and adults can unleash their creativity and explore what an old sign can become. A folding lego table top? A boat? Or an earring display stand? This is a hands-on build night where everyone can make something.
Here in Austin, Delwin Goss is someone who has been keeping political signs out of the Austin landfill for a long time. Over the past 20 years Delwin has seen people up-cycle these signs in super creative ways: temporary shelters at the Lockhart Animal Shelter and a number of animal rescue groups, theatre stage sets, portable hunting blinds, templates for stone cutting, roof barns, chicken coops, to protect various surfaces during construction, painting even sand blasting. One bright student even used them to make waterproof outdoor furniture. Mechanics use them to work under cars. Cut into strips and stacked in the cells between wall studs for insulation. Delwin is an enthusiastic supporter of De-Sign Day, and has offered to collect and store signs to be used at this event. I want to thank Delwin for his support of this event and for his passion for finding people who can creatively re-use these materials.
Circle Brewing @ 2340 W Braker Lane, January 17th, 5pm to 8pm. RSVP Here.
De-Sign day is meant to spread quickly from city to city. The actual goal of this project is to publish the creative ways students and families in Austin find to up-cycle signs into creative projects. In preparing for this event I am publishing a few how-to videos that cover some of the tools and techniques students are using at ACE Academy in the classroom to bring to their De-Sign up-cycling efforts. Our hope is that sharing these tools and techniques will cause people to dream bigger when thinking about what they might make.
This first video covers using eyelets and rivets while turning the corrugation channels 90 degrees to each other.
A successful De-Sign day event has the following ingredients:
1) Children who want to make a new thing out of old signs.
2) Adults willing to take time to work along side of students.
3) A space to meet where handtools can be used.
Bring a few of these tools along with you:
Pizza cutter, sharpies, wooden spatula, duck tape/double stick tape, yard stick/meter stick, tape measure, large scissors, machine screws, nuts and washers, vice grips and smallish blocks of wood to bend wire around. Anything you think would work well with Coroplast signs and wire stakes.
Specialty tools: Bring bolt cutters, eyelet punch/setters, grommet or rivet tools.
Let us know you are coming here.