Northumbria University

Mr. Rain

Mia Wheatley, Dannah Ryan-Munden

Britain is a small island nation that built its cultural identity on complaining about rain - yet 100% of us depend on it to survive. We also face a looming 5 billion litre daily water shortfall by 2055. The science is urgent, our behaviours aren’t. So we gave Mr. Rain a voice. Working with bacterial indigo and hydrophobic materials, we created a campaign that performs the message – fading, bleeding and transforming with wet weather conditions, so the material itself becomes part of the communication. Mr. Rain is not background weather. He is a provider who has simply had enough. This campaign bypasses tired sustainability clichés to deliver a cultural reality check – because the broken emotional connection between people, water and rainfall is not just a British problem. It is a planetary emergency. You're welcome.

https://www.instagram.com/mr_rain_uk

Dr. Donna Leishman is an Associate Professor in Communication Design at Northumbria University, UK. Prior to this she was Head of Communication Design at The Glasgow School of Art and at Dundee University. She is a digital media practitioner and interdisciplinary researcher. Along with colleagues Professors Meng Zhang, Martyn Dade Robertson and Linda Lightley (and others) she has helped to instigate Bio Design practices as formal curricula across Design Northumbria University.

Jessica Virginia is a biotechnologist focusing on enzymology, molecular biology, and microbiology. She is currently working as postdoctoral researcher within Living Construction at Northumbria University in the project entitled “Sustainable style for clean growth: Innovating alternative leather production with engineered biology.”