Three New Goods for Social Change from Matter Inc.,
Made with love in New Orleans, Louisiana

Three new products from the makers of BirdProject soap, which has donated 18K to date for restoration post BP spill & has been featured in: GOOD, Whole Living, People, on the Martha Stewart show, Design Milk, Climbur, Treehugger, InvadeNOLA, nola.com, & many other inspiring publications.

About me: I'm Tippy Tippens, founder of Matter Inc., Design for Social Change. Matter is based in the precious city of New Orleans and is a design studio dedicated to creating sustainable products that create meaningful connections for our most important social and environmental problems. I'm also excited to have just recently been honored with the inclusion in the GOOD 100 this year!

I'm thrilled to now share with you three new meaningful Matter products that give back. Please watch our 3 min. video above! All are sustainably made in New Orleans-but we need your help to make them! The funds raised will pay for the first batches of each, eco-happy packaging, & a few updates needed to our website for these new products!

This group of meaningful, sustainably made products are inspired by three different needs but all share one common trait: folding to transform. By backing here on Indiegogo, you receive early-bird-20% off-discounts - WOOT! Please see more about the three below, watch the video above, and let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help.

1. Dreams Matter, Notebooks are where dreams begin.

A sketchbook is a trusted confidant and a place where dreams begin. As you fill these notebooks with your dreams, you also help students stay in school via donations to the "I Have A Dream" Foundation.

These 5" x 7" notebooks have beautiful letterpress covers made by John Fitzgerald. The paper is amazing. It is incredibly smooth & made of 100% recycled content - French's paper has been creating sustainable papers since 1955. They are a sixth generation, family owned company that started in 1871. Their U.S. mill has been powered by hydroelectric since 1922, also giving surplus electricity to surrounding communities.

As you note your ideas you also help middle school and high school children stay in school and attend college via a percentage of proceeds donated to the I Have a Dream Foundation. The I Have a Dream Foundation has a unique program that provides mentors to children in under-resourced schools and helps them from elementary through high school as well as providing tuition assistance for college. This will be the first in a series of 'Dreams Matter' notebooks.

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The letterpress covers share some of my favorite mantras of encouragement including: 'There is always today', 'Dreams Matter,' and a note from my mom written in a birthday card shortly after my move to New Orleans that I use as a reminder often.

From 'my momma said': "Free yourself from the past, keep only the parts that make you happy. Be light, a heavy spirit slows you. Be happy and kind, you will draw the same towards you. Be the kind of person that you admire and you will draw that too. First, love and know yourself. Enjoy and celebrate each new day, each new day is a birth of a new you. Take good care of yourself."

 

2. Rabbits for Reading

Rabbits for Reading is a child and adult sized flax linen napkin set. Once folded, a rabbit appears! This new reading toy builds upon the benefits of learning and play, fusing fun and reading.

This is a collaborative product, designed by Cécile Thalmann & Adel Kassem, two incredible designers living in Amsterdam. Cécile's grandmother used to play with her using this linen rabbit trick and Cécile has been sharing it with others ever since. It's such a delightful surpise and the transformation of the napkin sparks a child's imagination. The benefits of play for learning are many, it supercharges learning, relieves stess, and helps to sort new emotions. The rabbit also becomes a child's reading buddy, wandering with them through books and lands of imagination.

This project was inspired by learning the literacy rate in New Orleans, while not in the lowest nationwide, is at 44% (2013). Strength in literacy builds better communities, parents, health, and lowers crime.

A percentage of proceeds will be donated to S.T.A.I.R. and First Book. S.T.A.I.R. is a one-on-one tutoring group that helps children in danger of academic failure learn the love of reading and build their confidence, becoming academic leaders. First Book is nationwide and in Canada, connecting children & schools in need with free or low cost books. They leverage the work of S.T.A.I.R., teachers, and other groups teaching children to read.

 

 

3. A Warm Hug

Inspired by the needs brought by Hurricane Sandy, this new blanket forms a heart upon your chest once wrapped around you, essentially giving a warm hug. Soon available in multiple sizes, we are beginning with the smallest size for infants (30" x 30") and then will work our way to the larger sizes, hoping to introduce a throw-sized blanket here soon!

 

These blankets bring you warmth while also raising funding for rebuilding communities that are still affected by Hurricane Sandy. We will give a percentage of proceeds to Architecture for Humanity who rebuild communities affected by disasters around the world. What makes them different is their focus on the long term & true consideration of each unique community.

 

To create the baby blankets we are working with Liamolly's knitting co-op which shares a Stoll knitting machine with makers in New Orleans. These knitting machines are amazing & most commonly known for being used by Nike & Adidas to knit sneakers.  They also use very little electricity, the equivalent of a few light bulbs.

The baby blankets are knit with 100% Egyptian cotton, of beautiful colors made by a high quality mill, Filmar, founded in 1951 in Italy. They are the producers of beautiful colored yarn of the highest quality. At this point, most U.S. Mills have closed and moved across the seas that create the yarn needed for this machine. It requires yarn with long fibers so that it won't break during production. The long fibers requried also make an extremely high quality heirloom blanket, with plenty of gusto for long-life wear.