Sappi Paper Announces Recipients for Annual Ideas that Matter Program

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Sappi Paper Announces Recipients for Annual Ideas that Matter Program - Published on 09/24/08

 

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Ideas that Matter Program underscores Sappi Fine Paper's global commitment to the design community and using design to positively impact society. Sappi Fine Paper North America is pleased to announce the grant recipients for its ninth annual Ideas that Matter program. Since 1999, Sappi's Ideas that Matter program has awarded $1million annually to designers around the globe to support and transform creative ideas into a powerful force for the social good.

 

Boston, MA - Sappi Fine Paper North America is pleased to announce the grant recipients for its ninth annual Ideas that Matter program. Since 1999, Sappi's Ideas that Matter program has awarded $1million annually to designers around the globe to support and transform creative ideas into a powerful force for the social good. This year, the judges for Sappi's North America Ideas that Matter program offered grants to those designers whose projects would have an impact in the designer's community, would help to provide a solution to a problem, and used design thinking to execute the program in a creative and innovative way.

 

More than 225 projects have been funded with grants exceeding $8 million. Few of these projects are large or well-known, however all of them represent the use of design skills and thinking to make a difference for the people they touch.

 

Mark Gardner, President and CEO of Sappi Fine Paper North America commented, "Sappi's Ideas that Matter program is one important demonstration of our commitment to corporate social responsibility. Giving designers the opportunity to use their talents for social change is important to Sappi and to our focus on sustainability as a company."

 

Judges for the ninth annual North America Sappi Ideas that Matter program reviewed 119 entries and awarded 20 grants for printing, paper, and implementing projects created on a pro bono basis that make a difference in the world; the judges looked for campaigns that were less about communicating the problem and more about taking action and solving the problem.

 

The judging panel is chosen annually and in 2008 consisted of: Phil Hamlett, Academy of Art, San Francisco; Marcia Lausen, studio|lab, Chicago; John Bielenberg, C2 and Project M, Maine; Scott Stowell, open, New York City; and Cedomir Kostovic, Missouri State University, Missouri. Several of the judges are past Ideas that Matter grant recipients.

 

"More than any other design competition I've been involved with as an applicant or judge, I discovered that Ideas that Matter highlights the power of design and ideas to make choices clear and to influence action," said John Bielenberg of C2 and Project M. "The title really says it all - the 'Idea' is the thing."

 

Marcia Lausen added, "Ideas that Matter is the only grant giving program for the design profession. While other groups, such as the advertising community, have supported nonprofit work in this way, I think it's important for the design community to understand how their skills, talents and ideas can make a difference. This program is really important to our profession as we grow up."

 

A 2008 Ideas that Matter grant recipient, Steffanie Lorig, Executive Director of Art with Heart, commented upon hearing the news that her program was in receipt of a grant: "Because of Sappi's Ideas that Matter program our Art with Heart initiative will now have grant monies that will go towards the creation of a therapeutic tool to support adolescents who have a sibling with a disability or serious illness. Before the grant, we were unsure if we'd have enough support to be able to afford the enormous costs of putting together a project of this scale. Sappi recognizes that paper can change the world; it's at the heart of being able to communicate our messages of hope and healing."

 

The deadline for the 2009 Ideas that Matter grant submissions is May 29, 2009. For more information on Sappi's North American Ideas that Matter program please visit our website.

 

The 2008 Ideas that Matter grant recipients are noted as follows:

 

Design Firm

Project Title

Non Profit Organization

Non Profit Focus

 

Anne Van Wagener

Greyhound Guardians

Greyhound Welfare Foundation

A national, non-profit, all volunteer organization dedicated to protecting greyhounds from the exploitation and abuses inherent in the greyhound racing industry.

 

Art with Heart

"Ink About It" Book Project for Siblings

Art with Heart

To empower youth in crisis through therapeutic books and programs that use creativity to foster self-expression.

 

 

Felicidad

Be The Change

Ashoka

An international organization that focuses on shaping a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen sector - one where 'Everyone is a Changemaker'.

 

Saintbrush Design

Armstrong Family Awareness

Armstrong Family Services

Provides a range of services to needy and homeless families and helps them become financially and emotionally independent.

 

Visual Marketing Associates, Inc.

Litehouse Demonstration Homes

CountyCorp

To improve the quality of life for residents of Montgomery County, Ohio and neighboring counties through improved housing and economic opportunities.

 

Megan Barra Graphic Design

Tossed and Found

Acadiana Outreach Center

Dedicated to helping poor and homeless people in crisis and to restore their dignity.

 

Arketype Inc

Respectacles

Green Bay Area Public School District

Embraces learning for all as its highest priority. By providing our diverse community dynamic educational opportunities, we develop engaged members in society and enthusiastic learners for life.

 

Faust Associates

Chicago Youth Centers History Book

Chicago Youth Centers

CYC is Chicago's largest multi-site, independent, locally-based youth services agency. CYC invests in kids in under-served neighborhoods in Chicago to help them discover and realize their full potential.

 

The University of Kansas Department of Design

The Healthy Schools Program

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation

The goal of the Alliance is to stop the nationwide increase in childhood obesity by 2010.

 

Chermayeff and Geismar Inc.

SciencePlay workshop kit

Open Space Institute/NTTL

Dedicated to supporting and producing programs that highlight the environment through the creative arts.

 

Otto design + marketing

Mercy & Sharing: A Case for Giving

Mercy & Sharing

A humanitarian organization that provides life-saving medical interventions, clean water, nutritional support, education and a loving and safe home to abandoned and orphaned children in Haiti.

 

tmarks design

ASTAR Center Collateral

ASTAR - Autism Spectrum Treatment and Research

To address the overwhelming need for diagnosis, research and appropriate treatment for those living with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

 

AED Social Change Design

Youth Mapper Field Kit

AED Center for Youth Development

To engage at-risk youth in a positive and productive activities and help them to form connections within their backyards.

 

Korn Design

Youth Design

Youth Design Boston

YDB (in partnership with AIGA Boston) is a unique mentoring program connecting inner city high school students with professional design mentors.

 

Red Antenna

Tenant Flashcards

Tenants & Neighbors

To build a unified state-wide organization that empowers and educates tenants, preserves affordable housing, and strengthens tenant protections in New York.

 

Joey's Corner

Joey's Corner Year in Review Booklet (2007 + 2008)

Joey's Corner

A non-profit design studio dedicated to providing pro-bono, strategic creative services to non-profit groups focusing on health care, children's and social well-being issues.

 

Saremo, Inc.

CASA Promotion

Erie County CASA Program

The CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) Program is part of a national organization to address the needs of abused and neglected children.

 

Rick Franklin

Chicago Welcomes You

Exodus World Service

Equips local volunteers with information and training and then links them directly with refugee families newly arrived in the Chicago metropolitan area.

 

Piece Studio

HERO: Project Pam

HERO Family Resource Center

Community organization which empowers people of Hale County, AL and surrounding area through education and access to opportunities.

 

Antoinette Westphal

College of Media Arts and Design, Drexel University

Provide brand identity and marketing materials for the Rugerero Survivors Village Sunflower Oil coops in Western Rwanda

exit foundation. To assist people in underdeveloped communities to create opportunities to thrive through initial engagement with the arts, then transitioning to creating projects of value, providing sustainable life improvements.

 

Ideas that Matter: http://www.sappi.com/SappiWeb/Initiatives/Sappi+Ideas+that+Matter/Sappi+Ideas+that+Matter.htm

Sappi North America: http://www.sappi.com

 

 

Sappi Fine Paper North America is a leading North American producer of coated fine paper used in premium magazines, catalogues, books and high-end print advertising. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Sappi Fine Paper North America is known for innovation and quality. Its brand names, including McCoy, Lustro Offset Environmental, Opus, and Somerset, are some of the industry's most widely recognized and specified. SFPNA is a division of Sappi Limited (NYSE, JSE, LSE), a global company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with manufacturing operations on four continents in nine countries, sales offices in 50 countries, and customers in over 100 countries around the world.

 

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Brooke Carey

Public Relations

617-423-5406

 

Brooke.Carey ( -at -) Sappi.com

 

Cheryl Shepard

Marketing

617-368-6529

Cheryl.Shepard ( -at -) Sappi.com

 

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