Designers release unwanted work in bid to release unwanted hounds

Scores of heavyweight designers and studios are donating collateral from rejected or unwanted projects to the Thanks But No Thanks initiative, which will raise money for Battersea Dogs Home.

By Martin Nicolausson
by Martin Nicolausson

Two enterprising graphic design undergraduates from Kingston University, Alex Brown and Ben West initiated the project.

According to Brown, the third-year students wrote to around 200 studios, designers and illustrators asking for rejected work.

Invite from Stefan Sagmeister's The Happy Show
Invite from Stefan Sagmeister’s The Happy Show

Submissions then followed from the likes of consultancy Music and also  Sagmeister Inc, which sent in a design for an exhibition invite made of ham. Yes, ham.

According to Brown, Sagmeister sent him a hand-cut pork-based invitation to his The Happy Show exhibition – which later became a sort-of laser-cut gammon invite. So providing it doesn’t go off, the piece that Thanks But No Thanks display is a less a reject and more a prototype.

By Marion Deuchars
by Marion Deuchars

‘It’s understandable that some people didn’t want to contribute – Bob Gill wrote back to say he didn’t have any rejected work. We’re still thinking about putting that letter into the exhibition though.’

By Job Wouters of Letman
by Job Wouters of Letman

NB Studio donated a set of Russian dolls painted with cats on the front, which it used as part of a branding campaign for Russian bank Pyjom. The work wasn’t rejected but NB Studio no longer had use for it.

Stephen Kenny of Two Pipe Problem
Stephen Kenny of Two Pipe Problem

We even liked the invite for this show, which arrived scrunched up in a little box, as if to appear discarded, just like the rejected work, and those poor hounds.

Thanks But No Thanks poster by Alex Brown and Ben West
Thanks But No Thanks poster by Alex Brown and Ben West

All of the works will be exhibited on the campaign site http://thanksbut.com/ and at the Beach Gallery, 20 Cheshire Street, E2 from 1-6 May. On the final day an auction will be held

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