The Green Bauhaus poster project theme for 2017 was “SAVE THE OCEANS – Stop Plastic Pollution”. The instruction from the Green Bauhaus Foundation was for participating universities to submit their top ten posters, allowing 300 posters to be nominated for the final project. The aim of the project is to select and organise a collection of posters that will travel as an international exhibition and will be documented in a catalogue. Saddul created a globally recognised poster to raise awareness about the extent of plastic pollution in the oceans. The title of his poster, “Killer Fashion”, was inspired by couture fashion. The poster is a visual concept of a fish getting caught in a net, displayed as a fashion statement, as if the fish is wearing the plastic net. Saddul told Daily Vox that he is “aestheticising something that is awful, yet happens daily”. The international design project includes participation from 33 universities from five continents and has been overseen by Professor Helmut Langer, a communications designer and design educator, specialising in cultural, environmental, institutional, and social communications projects. The United Nations Ocean Conference, held from 5 to 9 June at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, had a preview exhibition of completed posters. This conference served as a facilitation of the poster project to raise international awareness and begin talks about the effect of plastic pollution in the oceans. The project holds the voice of design students from all over the world, who are given the opportunity to use their skills to address unyielding environmental problems. Saddul’s poster was one of the ten that were selected for this conference exhibition, making him the only South African contributor. Saddul is also one of the 300 finalists. Saddul told Perdeby that “the poster is about aesthetising something that is awful (plastic) and is now made into a fashion statement – as if the fish is wearing it. I feel really proud and honoured that my poster was chosen, really makes my hard work pay off and makes me feel that I have chosen the right career path. I hoped to achieve a new perspective on a topic (save the oceans – stop plastic pollution) that has been seen and heard many times and create something beautiful yet simultaneously sinister.” Saddul describes sustainable development as new advances that do not destroy the environment or further the depletion of natural resources, which he has termed “smart development”.
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