In September of 2009, Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) approached Bruce Mau Design to design a campaign and a set of trade show pavilions for the Worldwide Food Expo in Chicago. DMI was launching a very ambitious set of sustainability initiatives and wanted to showcase and educate the public appropriately.
I worked across all design elements involved in the project, from graphic design to copy writing, but my focus was predominantly on exhibition design. The client really pushed to make sure the project was carried out in the most sustainable manner possible, which was amazingly refreshing. For the construction of the pavilions, we ended up sourcing an experimental material being used by the USDA which is made of fibres extracted from cow manure as part of a process called Anaerobic Digestion, which harnesses methane from natural waste to power farm equipment.
This became our building material as well as our paper for all printed material and signage. The space itself was constructed of manure-board milkcrates, and all energy used for the show was offset by energy credits based in agro-methane extraction. We designed the entire space in a manner that allowed it to be made of and powered by the largest byproduct of the dairy industry.
For more information, take a look at the Business Week article here.
