A graphic designer from Fredericton is one of 15 Canadian artists whose work will be featured on McDonald’s trays for one of the company’s sustainability projects.
Kirsten Stackhouse has worked on “The Last Straw” campaign with the fast-food giant since March. The project uses some of the restaurant’s leftover and discontinued plastic straws to create a limited number of upcycled trays.
The trays will be displayed at Ronald McDonald Houses and sold at auction.
When Stackhouse first got the offer, she thought it was fake.
“It’s not to say that people in New Brunswick can’t work on national projects, but I would assume they come across your desk a little less often than if you live in Toronto,” said Stackhouse.
Stackhouse said artists could choose from three prompts: a sustainable future, an upcycled world or a landscape worth saving. She chose an upcycled world because she wanted to challenge herself artistically.
Stackhouse’s design reflects her idea of an upcycled and sustainable world involving familiar Atlantic Canadian sites that she grew up with in Salisbury, Sackville and Moncton.
“I grabbed some colourful houses, which remind me of Newfoundland, I tilted them on their side, which reminds me of Halifax, and … I think a lot about fishing imagery when I think about Saint John,” said Stackhouse.
“So, a lot of the stuff I created come from different times and places from just personal experiences living around here.”
Stackhouse said she was stoked to jump on it as one of the only Atlantic Canadians involved with the project. She hopes this commission further leads to interesting projects with other companies.
As a full-time graphic design instructor at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, Stackhouse also looks forward to bringing her experiences working on national projects to her students in the classroom.
“I really like working on a project on the side of my teaching job, but also harnessing them and bringing them into the classroom,” she said.
