Sophie heads up the communication design agency thomas.matthews London, a trail-blazer in innovative sustainable design practice, which she co-founded in 1998. And is now a team of enthusiastic and talented designers who have extensive practical experience in the design and production of award-winning, innovative and highly sustainable communication solutions.
She is an agitator and ambassador for the cause as a lecturer and as a trustee to the Design Council. She has recently been busy co-founding the UK designer’s resource Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest and the sustainable design event series greengaged for the London Design Festival which aims to inspire and galvanise designers to change their practice to more sustainable ways. This year greengaged is going global.
Sustainable design. It’s about recycling isn’t it?
We all do bad things. The thing is we probably don’t know we are doing them half of the time as most of them out of our control. How do we as consumers know the hidden ‘true’ cost of a toothbrush or other innocuous everyday objects? With over 80% of the environmental impact of an object estimated to be pre-determined in the concept and design stages our role as a designer is crucial in the movement towards a zero carbon economy. And we have a lot to learn. If designers know their processes and understand the chain of custody of materials they use then the positive impact is great. Knowledge is power.
So yes sustainability is about recycling…and much, much more. 58% of companies in the UK have an environmentally or socially responsible product on the market today; it’s a business opportunity.
Sophie heads up the communication design agency thomas.matthews, a trail-blazer in innovative sustainable design practice, which she co-founded in 1998. At thomas.matthews clever thinking is encouraged and those ‘crazy but it might just work’ moments expanded into new ideas and innovative solutions.
She is an agitator and ambassador for the cause as a lecturer and as a trustee to the UK Design Council. She has recently been busy co-founding the designer’s resource Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest and the sustainable design event series greengaged for the London Design Festival.
