Here at MINE™, we get tons and tons of blog related mail. I’m not talking about e-mail, I’m talking about good old fashioned snail’s mail.
When not creating compelling graphics programs and packages, interns at MINE™ sort through the blog mail. We love it, and we do it well. I even have a shirt that says, “I love Mail”.
Today I started the task of updating and reformatting the “new intern guide.” Oona Lyons put together a very comprehensive guide to getting used to the intern position and all the duties it requires, and Christopher requested that I reformat it from a staple bound volume into a binder. That way, as things evolve in the office from intern to intern – it can easily be updated to help the next intern down the line.
It was nice to go through Oona’s literary flourishes about her experience here. She kept chocolate in her desk. She described Christopher as a “social butterfly.” Obviously I deleted those comments and added my own in but that is the nature of time and the legacy of the MINE™ internship. The guidebook was originally created for Dexsy Repuyan, a classmate of mine who worked here 2 semesters ago. Oona opens up the guidebook with a letter to Dexsy with hopes that she has a “seperate but equal experience.” I hope the same for whoever sits in this chair in 3 months time.
Everything is OK began as a simple project in our design studio. Faced with the mounting inequities in our world and culture, we set out to assemble a list of resources that would point people toward positive action. We launched a simple website as a means of sharing these links. To promote the site, we created barricade tape with the incongruous message “everything is ok.” The tape was first deployed during the 2006 US election, and then again during a massive pillow fight in San Francisco. The response to the tape was overwhelming, and we quickly realized that people were more interested in the tool we had created than the project it was designed to promote. It started showing up in design annuals, museum collections, books and blogs. People started writing to us asking for tape of their own. Gradually, we became interested in exploring the possibilities represented by this intersection of design, art and activism.
Here is what goes into creating each can:
First you pick one of the many, lucky cans to be saved from the wretched future of becoming a container for a Hormel product of some kind.
These have been pre-filled by one of the employees at MINE™ with rolls-onto which the OK tape will be wrapped.
This device (designed by Oona Lyons) is then cranked 172 times in order to transfer 100ft. of tape from the larger spool to the roll that will be placed back inside the can.
Once the roll is placed inside the can, some OK goodies are added to the mix. Stickers shown here.
And buttons shown here.
More button fun.
Once all the goods have been placed in side the can, the signature OK sticker is applied and carefully wrapped around the perimeter of the can so that the graphics align perfectly. (Tougher than I expected)
And lastly the can is placed into the grips of this beast of a tool – where the MINE™ intern develops a healthy sweat and cranks until the can is completely sealed and air-tight.
Victory! Social activism in a can. Use at your own risk.