Material Matters with Grant Gibson
In Material Matters, host Grant Gibson talks to a designer, maker, artist, architect, engineer, or scientist about a material or technique with which they’re intrinsically linked and discovers how it changed their lives and careers.
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Material Matters is produced and published by Delizia Media Ltd.
Material Matters with Grant Gibson
Revolutionising waste with Sophie Thomas OBE
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Can a communication designer change the global conversation on rubbish? Sophie Thomas OBE—a rare blend of campaigner, chartered waste manager, and practicing designer—joins Grant Gibson to discuss her extraordinary, three-decade journey at the vanguard of sustainable design.
In this episode, we explore how ‘material intelligence’ and circular design thinking can inform activism. We discuss:
- Graphic Activism: How design can move beyond ‘guilt’ to create real environmental change.
- Rubbish Tours: a life-changing trip to a Dutch recycling center and what happens when you take a thousand designers to a landfill site.
- Obsession with the Toothbrush: Why a simple, ubiquitous object exposes a global design flaw.
- The Future of Ink: Why Sophie’s future career is shifting back to the most fundamental graphic material.
Sophie also reflects on starting her career at The Body Shop, working on the Earth Centre, and whether a designer can ever create without guilt.
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