Eco Columbia

Poster design by Caro Griffin

Starting in the fall semester of 2010 The Columbia College Recycling Program will be building a campaign around our consumption and use of the natural resource water.

Given Columbia’s wealth of talented students, we want to showcase awareness about this issue through visual art. Our art installation project gives student’s the ability to visually represent this theme through the creation of flyers and posters. Submitted work will be displayed all over campus, in the library, and at The Columbia Chronicle newspaper stands. The chosen winner will get a FREE full-page ad in the Columbia Chronicle.

This opportunity will bring exposure to students while also drawing attention to growing environmental issues. We hope this will build a discussion on how social issues and art can relate. (more…)

Gary Anderson with his winning design.

With the burgeoning green market overtaking every thing from food to cosmetics, the recycling symbol is more widespread than ever. Now found on more than just recycled products and trash containers, those three (often green) arrows grace T-shirts, backpacks, stickers, and pretty much anything you could imagine.

None of this was the case forty years ago, when the now-defunct Container Corporation of America sponsored a contest in preparation of the first ever Earth Day in 1970. As a a large producer of recycled paper, the corporation challenged design students in high schools and colleges across the country to design a universal recycling symbol. The winning entry would enter the public domain and could then be used by any manufacturer who wanted to show a commitment to environmental responsibility.

Gary Anderson, an undergrad studying architecture at the University of Southern California, submitted three variations of his three-arrowed design. The simplest of the bunch (displayed in the accompanying photo) beat five hundred other submissions to take home the $2,500 prize.

In the years since, Anderson has went on to become a well-known architect, while his design has become one of the most recognized symbols in the world.