The Banner Blog

In early May of this year Minneapolis Minnesota was home to the 2008 Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) annual conference and exhibition, attended by the Rainforest Alliance. Now in their 20th year SCAA is the go-to organization for coffee related information and awareness.

The Rainforest Alliance exhibit promoted awareness of fair-trade practices and provided exposure to resources for sustainability. Their certification program is just one example. “Rainforest Alliance Certified farms have met a range of environmental, social and economic criteria that result in better growing conditions for coffee,” said Sabrina Vigilante, senior marketing manager at the Rainforest Alliance,” and contribute to a more efficient and sustainably run farm.”

Banner Creations supplied the banners and hardware for the exhibit.

May 16, 2008 – July 27, 2008
Goldstein Museum Gallery, St. Paul Campus

Curators: Bruce N. Wright, AIA, the Editor of Fabric Architecture, Design Minor Fellow, Karen LaBat, Professor of Clothing Design and Director of the Human Dimensioning© Lab

Download a PDF of the full press release.
Visit the exhibition page at
http://goldstein.cdes.umn.edu/exhibitions/

Banner Creations has a project in the Techno Textiles exhibit, which runs from May 16 through July 27. We made the fabric wall panels for Art of Chiropractic and did all the fabric signage for the show. In addition, the museum used photos of our project for the show’s advertising. We invite you to visit the exhibit at the Goldstein Museum of Design and see first-hand how Banner Creations is a leader in textile and banner innovation.

Reprinted from http://goldstein.cdes.umn.edu/exhibitions/
Techno Textiles: Inner Space to Outer Space examines many of these innovative materials and how they are being used by leading designers from around the globe. Some of the concepts will feature protective clothing, intelligent buildings that dynamically respond to the environment, luminous wall interiors and interactive digital displays that are part of the furniture upholstery, as well as fabric balloons used to ensure interplanetary probe vehicles land safely on the surface of Mars.

From ferroconcrete to plywood and plastics, new materials have always inspired designers to innovations in design. The past several years have seen a more far-reaching revolution in materials science and development than at any time in the past. Although many of these innovations involve the highest level of material science and manufacturing finesse, a recent surge in interest has favored so-called “naturals” or organic and sustainable sources, such as fabrics made from recycled plastics, corn-based cellulose, organic polymers and other sustainable chemistry.

In her recent book, “Textiles Today,” Chloë Colchester notes that these innovations “involve materials and prototypes that are so new that we can hardly foresee how the familiar functions of textiles will be transformed in the future.”

This exhibition was organized by the Goldstein Museum of Design.

The exhibition and related programs are supported by: International Fabrics Foundation, Dazian Fabrics LLC, University of Minnesota Summer Cultural Programs, Hayes Enterprises, and the Friends of the Goldstein, the College of Design, and generous individual donors.