Banner designs left to right by Haik Avanian, Garret Bodette, Hart Associates, Matt Rowland, Josh Slatinsky and Kara Smarsh

In mid-April, The Urban Forest Project Toledo, a collaboration between AIGA Toledo (the Toledo chapter of AIGA, the professional association of design), SWEAT and the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, will plant 50 street banners by artists and designers in downtown Toledo. Each banner will use the form of or metaphor for the tree to make a powerful visual statement about the environment. The banners will launch in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.

“The banners will line the downtown streets with creative and interesting visuals,” said  Amy Fidler, President of the Toledo chapter of AIGA. “Banners get the design and message into the city environment where people in Toledo can view and enjoy daily. They will be encountered by the public, people going to work, to a ball game, to visit friends…and will visually enrich the streetscape. Solely in a smaller format – a brochure or website – the work would not have the same impact.”

Once the banners come down, they will be repurposed into one-of-a-kind tote bags. Sales from the tote bags will then benefit the Arts Commission’s Young Artists at Work program.

This project is being presented in Toledo by AIGA Toledo in collaboration with SWEAT, and funded by the City of Toledo’s 1% for Art Program, administered by the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo. The Urban Forest Project, conceived by Worldstudio and developed in conjunction with AIGA NY and Times Square Alliance, was first executed in New York’s Times Square in the fall of 2006.