Thursday 24 December 2020

When does a rainbow become an Amazebow?

Earlier in the year Superunion designers from around the world came together to create a colouring book for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.
During the dark days of the first lockdown we were asked by Superunion to collaborate on a colouring book project  Superunion had partnered with I Can Be, a children's charity that breaks down barriers to future opportunities for disadvantaged girls, to create Amazebows, a colouring book designed to remind young girls of their potential and to help them realise the power of their imagination. With 24 unique illustrations created by Superunion creatives from around the world, from Brazil to Singapore, Amazebows shows the girls that something even as predefined as a rainbow can be reimagined.
Initially the project was the idea of  Leanne Kitchen, Stuart Radford, Scott Lambert, Louise Hunter and Inga Howell, the key to the idea was the collaboration with the global network of Superunion creatives. The brief to each creative was left entirely open, to reimagine the rainbow, asking only to include the seven familiar coloured stripes of the rainbow, which start and finish on two sides of the page.
Amazebows was produced pro-bono, sponsored and printed by Identity Print and Fenner Paper, to help girls with no access to online schooling or tools during lockdown. The 200 colouring books were singer sewn with thread to match one of the seven colours of the rainbow as you can see in the below image...
The superb singer sewing was produced by Wayte Fine Binding, who are Identity's own bindery.

Along with each book, the Superunion team gave every girl, rainbow coloured pencils in an origami paper sleeve...
Leanne Kitchen said: "Working with I Can Be during lockdown was really important to us, helping them to reach out to the girls they work with and spread their message to children in those really difficult times. With this in mind, we wanted to build on the familiar symbol of hope, simply allowing their imaginations to explore the idea that if a rainbow can be anything, so can they. We'd created such an open brief, with only a couple of compositional guidelines, so that creatives across our network could really inspire the girls to continue to imagine their own possibilities. This charming objective led to some beautifully unexpected illustrations for the colouring book and brought many of our creatives together at a time of isolation. We're also very grateful to have partnered with Identity Print and Fenner Paper to produce Amazebows, who have been integral in enabling the team to gift a physical colouring book to each of the girls."
It was a superb project to be involved with and is the result of amazing collaboration.

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