The Giving Tree

• Finalist 2021 

As a company that cares deeply about its environmental impact and always aims to reduce waste, Christmas time particularly seemed to give us an opportunity to review our actions. Avoiding unnecessary seasonal waste by buying presents (some of which potentially would be left unused by the receiver), in December 2019 we decided to investigate an alternative Christmas celebration that would reflect our work values and goals of being waste- free, proactive and generous that would reach further than only client-facing projects and initiatives. To give back to our local community, we created a fundraising drive alongside our usual Christmas celebrations by replacing our usual fresh Christmas tree with a hand- crafted, stacked Giving Tree. The Giving Tree used recyclable materials to create a tree full of goods and necessities to donate to our local
community and those in need. By corresponding with the Redfern Women’s Shelter, we were able to tailor the boxes to fit the needs of the local shelter and make our initiative as effective and useful as possible.

Agency

Urbanite/Frost*collective

Practice Area

• Placemaking 

Client

Urbanite/Frost* collective

Industry

• Workplace 

Our goal was to make the Giving Tree completely recyclable and avoid relying on plastic decorations, while also ensuring that the materials used would have another life and purpose beyond serving as a Christmas tree display in our studio.

The crafted look of the boxes was extended into a crafted look for the design, using printed paper patterns that were designed and applied to the boxes in the studio. The strong, bold color palette deliberately moves away from predictable Christmas colors, and creates a unique ‘present’; a lovely piece of designed work that is festive and fun to receive.

The patterns were deliberately designed in an organic feel with a hand-drawn aesthetic, abstracting traditional icons of Christmas and using brushwork strokes. These were then encased in playful abstract shapes to represent torn wrapping. Our messaging was positive and confident, encouraging those who receive the goods to embrace the possibilities of the coming year.

To ensure that the initiative was something everyone in our studio could participate in, we ran a studio-wide competition to establish the overall look and feel of the Giving Tree, and the goods inside it were all donated by people working in the studio.

We also wanted to ensure that the idea was something that could be easily replicated and reused in years to come – festive season or not. The team donated additional boxes after Christmas – this time filled with clothes for remote Indigenous communities.

By restricting ourselves to completely recyclable mediums only – cardboard and paper – we achieved an effective, inexpensive and completely waste-free design that was playful, expressive and a welcoming, friendly gesture to those who received it.