SCAD-Atlanta students turn banners into art
Trying to make communities healthy is a major part of USTA Southern’s mission. That doesn’t only pertain to playing tennis. It’s a holistic approach that extends all the way down to disposing of promotional products.
Instead of throwing away outdated vinyl signs and banners used at tournaments and events, USTA Southern staff members began searching for a more environmentally friendly solution. They learned about repurposing the material into tote bags and other items. Senior Manager, Coaching & Collegiate Devin Crotzer suggested approaching the Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta (SCAD) to explore a partnership.
The end result was a mutually beneficial project that cut down on waste, provided students with an invigorating challenge and fostered goodwill.
USTA Southern's Andrew Feldman admires bag made in the SCAD-Atlanta sustainability project.
“Tennis as a sport has an opportunity to be more eco-friendly, and this is a start,” said USTA Southern Director, Community Tennis Andrew Feldman, who helped spearhead the project. “Plus, creating awareness of USTA and USTA Southern as a non-profit association dedicated to health, wellness and fitness benefits the larger tennis world. Southern reduced its contribution to landfills with non-biodegradable material, and a variety of creative and appealing items were fashioned out of the material.”
SCAD SERVE: contributions through intentional initiatives
The project was facilitated through SCAD SERVE, the university’s community service design studio, which empowers SCAD students, faculty and staff to make meaningful contributions through intentional initiatives.
Devina Lalla, professor of fashion at SCAD, felt her students were especially suited to participate in the project, which met the learning outcomes of utilizing a variety of analytical and creative textile development techniques and incorporating sustainable practices.
“Students used their research into USTA as a guiding start to develop a soft good or fashion prototype that involved recycling old banners and making them into covetable unique one-of-a-kind pieces,” Lalla said. “There were bags, totes, visors, jackets and all kinds of items–the sky was the limit for the expression of our students’ creativity.”
SCAD-Atlanta student Kiara Neeves explains how the college's sustainability project mirrored USTA Southern brand guidelines. Photo: SCAD-Atlanta
The recycling aspect of the project was unique for the SCAD students.
“These banners were somewhat of a challenging material to work with, but it was amazing to behold how students experimented and persevered in developing items of beauty and joy from it, which is especially meaningful as fashion can be an incredibly wasteful industry,” Lalla said. “But working on this collaboration brought home the fact for these future designers that their responsibilities lie in not just making beautiful things but also contributing towards solving the problems faced by our industry in the process.”
Tennis played influence
A few of the SCAD students had played tennis at different levels growing up and pulled from their own experiences in designing for the project.
“Many of the students were moved by the mission of accessibility of USTA Southern and used their presentations to drive awareness of the sport,” Lalla said. “We saw more than one student talk about how working on this project brought them memories of playing the sport of tennis during their childhood, which was a perfect full circle experience to feel the impact that sports has on childhood development.”
Having a deeper sense of purpose helps fuel drive and creativity in any setting, according to Lalla. The project also gave students practical experience they can potentially use in future careers. Feldman and Lalla have already been discussing a second collaboration between USTA Southern and SCAD to enable more discarded items to become new works of art.
“We had a fantastic experience with the entire SCAD team,” Feldman said.
“They made it easy to work with them and it’s definitely appealing to continue to work with them in the future.”
Second step
Next step for Southern and the college is expanding the project to a new set of students taking Intro to Textiles. Those assignments are set to be presented in late May.
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