The All London Blue Bag Extravaganza
chris ratcliffe
Everyone is familiar with the blue ‘off licence’ carrier bag. An archetypal form of cheap packaging, they are used in independent stores all across London, regardless of the social status of the neighbourhood. Because they are so prevalent they are also very familiar in the form of litter and are thought of as having very little value.
This project aims to create desirable objects out of these seemingly worthless everyday items. By hand screen printing each bag as a limited edition, it creates a new sense of value, making people actually want to own them as an object in their own right.
The fourteen different designs represent a broad cross section of London society. Each design shows ‘alternative landmarks’ with famous and less-famous local sights made into two and three colour printed logos.
The bags will be available for sale from the Garudio Studiage online shop throughout the exhibition, but also one bag from each edition will be placed in a stock of bags at a ‘partner’ shop in the area of each design, to be given to a lucky customer at random.
