Top 40 distributor ePromos (asi/188515) teamed up with a world-renowned artist on an Earth Day initiative that saw found objects and defective promotional products transformed into unique works of art.

Some of the artworks Chris Riggs created as part of his collaboration with ePromos.

Top 40 supplier Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125) also played a pivotal role in the “Chris Riggs x ePromos” collaboration, which organizers say will help raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and also hopefully inspire people quarantining during the pandemic to create soul-uplifting art from objects lying around their residences.

For the initiative, Minnesota-headquartered ePromos commissioned New York City-based artist Chris Riggs to create original artwork in honor of Earth Day – April 22. To emphasize an eco-friendly theme of upcycling/recycling/reuse and to tie the project to the ad specialty industry, ePromos asked Riggs to produce the pieces from found objects and faulty promo products. Riggs jumped at the chance.

“I have always enjoyed using found objects to create art,” said Riggs, whose sculptures and paintings that mix styles from pop art and street art to cubism and surrealism have appeared in museums and galleries in more than 50 countries. “I think it’s amazing how artists can turn everyday items into art. It’s like magic. So, when ePromos contacted me to make these pieces, I was really excited.” 

Riggs created 16 works. At least some of them were expected to be available for purchase starting on Earth Day here. A portion of all proceeds will go to COVID-19 relief efforts as part of Giving Tuesday Now, which takes place May 5.

To make the project a reality, ePromos teamed up with Hit. Before coronavirus travel restrictions were in place, ePromos flew Riggs to Hit’s production facility in Florida. Steven Lynch, Hit’s director of sourcing, gave Riggs a full factory tour and collected defective products, from sunglasses and out-of-ink pens to notebooks with broken spirals, for the artist to consider for use in his creations.

The tour helped get Riggs’ creative juices flowing and provided him with the raw material from which to work. The final artworks are evocative and impressive, said Kim Laffer-Nick, ePromos’ director of marketing communications. For instance, she pointed to a particular piece in which Riggs combined an old guitar, a few pairs of sunglasses and recycled paint to make “an astonishingly tactile, exuberant piece in a riot of joyful colors.”

Another of Riggs’ creations for the ePromos Earth Day project.

“(Chris) took discarded promo items … and transformed them into complex, innovative works of art,” Laffer-Nick wrote in a blog discussing the project. “His provocative work draws attention to the global dangers posed by the current climate crisis and the ways we can all do our part to think more critically about the products we use (and throw away) on a regular basis.”

Laffer-Nick also credited Hit for being a fantastic partner. The factory tour and products provided were essential to the project, she said. Plus, Hit’s emphasis on operating in an ever-more environmentally friendly fashion meant the firm was an ideal fit for the collaboration’s Earth Day theme.

"Hit does an incredible job of donating goods they can’t use, and have new processes in place for carbon emissions,” said Laffer-Nick. For instance, Hit has partnered with the United Parcel Service (UPS), its primary logistics carrier, to offset carbon emissions on shipments leaving the supplier’s facilities.

For its part, Hit was well impressed by Riggs’ creations. “Looking at the finished product, we are honored to be a part of Earth Day through his masterpiece,” said Lynch.

Meanwhile, ePromos planned to promote the collaboration with Riggs on social media with “#ChrisRiggsxePromos.” As part of that, ePromos was encouraging people to share images/videos of their own artwork.

“Being that we’re all home quarantining, this comes at a great time to inspire kids or adults to create their own masterpieces from items sitting around the house,” said Laffer-Nick.