What caliber of designer steps up to such a challenge?

William McDonough posits that everything should be designed using a cradle-to-cradle approach, that is, everything becomes a part of a biological or technical nutrient cycle that ultimately ends up in a closed loop. Or, in other words, "waste equals food." While this conceptually isn't entirely new, think about effectively everything designed prior to the Industrial Revolution, this design paradigm is by far the most empowering as the modern world tries to grapple with where we've gotten ourselves and what's a sustainable world. As we envision the future and all new designs, certainly it only makes sense for them to be products of the cradle-to-cradle approach. There in fact is something extremely alluring, fresh, and exciting about such a future. We can make mental leaps to a "sustainable Shangri-la" and easily recruit ranks of star-quality designers to design everything new the right way from a clean slate. The future is oh-so bright (supernova bright and green) for everyone wearing rosey cradle-to-cradle shades. What's wrong with this? Absolutely nothing, except reality. To be clear, I'm the biggest fan of the cradle-to-cradle design ideal and I definitely want to reach a sustainable Shangri-la (think of the food!). It's the right dream and we all need a dream and destination. Without a doubt everything newly designed should strive for that and we need visionaries touting the paradigm trying to grab the limelight. But not everyone can work on the same part of the assignment. What do we do in the here and now? In the reality that we're completely surrounded by, buried under, and swimming in? Don't look now but the slate ain't clean. We're inundated with waste, trash, garbage, and junk: things that weren't designed to be cradle-to-cradle by any stretch of the imagination. Things that are still getting cranked out present day and destined to be waste, like the computer screen you're looking at as well as most everything else around you. How do we harvest from this healthy crop of resources? How do resurrect this waste to be the new food for design: cradle-to-coffin-back-to-cradle? To do so would be to conserve the ever increasingly precious and limited material resources on Earth, which indeed is a dirty requirement for the journey to our utopian future. To undertake this design mission is to be on the front lines of what can feel like a war, to be down in the trenches of reality doing something that needs to be done, and modern waste is a big part of our ammunition for the foreseeable future. It's a necessary transition in how we think about design, some ways akin to the transition needed in how we think about energy. It takes all of the same design skills and creativity, and then more. It can be unglamorious and laborious at times. How do you convince large companies or organizations that there is value in that which they are use to recycling or disposing? And how do you enamor consumers so that they see value in that which they disposed? What caliber of designer steps up to such a challenge?

Enter Tiffany Tomato. Tiffany Tomato understands, believes, and accepts the mission with great determination. She even transcends the mission, bringing in addition to all of her stellar qualities unmatched elements of style and fun. These are key to her success because the result is fusion. Case in point, how could she transform old mini-blinds and empty film cannisters to create new meaning and character? Well, she created two impressive designs for her "Trash Nouveau, Reincarnating Garbage Into Useable Products" thesis, the "Dawn Hanging Lamp" and "Refocus Room Divider" - the former, a new sculpting of inside light from blinds that once blocked outside light, and the latter, an ability to narrow the focus in a room from over a 1000 empty cannisters that held the film a camera focused on. And Tiffany Tomato hasn't stopped there. Many designs and products from marimbas, car windows, glass bottles, old computer keyboards, old green electronic boards, cereal, cereal boxes, candy, candy wrappers, umbrellas, clothing, milk and juice cartons, carton tops, reclaimed maps and magazines, and more! All unique, cool, chic, and fun. I happen to be the proud owner of a recent design, a trash can no less, made from old green electronic boards. It is always a topic of inquiry and great interest and admiration everytime a new person enters my office, guaranteed. But don't take my word on these designs. At TiffanyTomato.com you can see some of them and some of the press coverage from the likes of The Washington Post, Home & Garden TV, Eco-Design Handbook, TreeHugger Blog, Wired News, and Jane, Plenty, I.D., and ReadyMade magazines. Sure Tiffany Tomato can design you a cradle-to-cradle product from scratch or guide you on doing things better in your existing product line and packaging. But as long as there is trash, she will likely also attempt to make you a fun product right from that trash. And why not? The challenge is certainly greater but trash is still plentiful and the rewards are greater. They include the chance of influencing people to begin to think differently about garbage, to inspire them to see that waste can and should equal food. Plus, it's plain fun to design and have a useable product born from garbage. Which brings up an interesting scenario in which the product made from the waste of the original product is cooler and hipper than the original product. I think that is a dilemma that Tiffany Tomato is excited to live with for the time being.