David Shrigley designs suitably silly Christmas wrapping for The Big Issue

Date
21 November 2018
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The Big Issue

Christmas is a time to do good. OK, it’s also a time to argue over tubs of Miniature Heroes, develop a taste for snowballs, and practice your “thankful for getting a Top Gear annual, again” face in the mirror, too.

But largely it’s about taking stock of the year and considering that however misfortunate or hard-done-by you might feel, others can, and often do, have it worse.

This year, much-loved magazine The Big Issue are letting readers do good in a way that keeps things looking as good as they feel. For the third year running, they’ve teamed up with a smattering of British artists to produce a range of limited edition Christmas wrapping paper.

This time around, street artists Pure Evil and Ben Eine are joined by animator Nick Smith and the one and only David Shrigley. David’s kept things characteristically minimal with a pleasingly-simple white-n-hot-pink concoction that offers the present’s recipient “VIBES”.

We can’t guarantee that said wrapping paper will actually imbue the Lynx gift set you picked up in Tesco Metro on Christmas Eve for your brother with actual “vibes”. That’s on you, pal.

Each of the quartet’s rolls of wrapping can be bought on the Big Issue online shop. Lord Bird, the magazine’s founder, says, “last year, we saw the collection sold swiftly over the festive build up, raising thousands of pounds for The Big Issue in support of its mission to dismantle poverty. Now, we’re delighted to unveil this year’s unique collection, we know you’ll love them.”

Anyone wanting to go that little further this year can, if they’re lucky, can try and grab one of the 250 special, signed, limited edition, single-image sheets of each artist’s design.

Intrigued as to how we can take the ethical shopping approach which The Big Issue espouses with us into the new year, we asked them. Charmaine Crisp, brand manager for The Big Issue Shop notes that the platform offers a space for “social trading that will make social and ethical shopping a truly accessible option for consumers, giving them the opportunity to use their spending power to make a positive difference to the world we live in. We call this our social echo. We sell our own branded products as well as those from other social businesses meaning, every item purchased has a positive social or environmental outcome. This could be through what the product is made from, who it is made by or where the profits end up.”

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The Big Issue/David Shrigley

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The Big Issue/David Shrigley

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The Big Issue/Nick Smith

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The Big Issue/Nick Smith

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Josh Baines

Josh Baines joined It's Nice That from July 2018 to July 2019 as News Editor, covering new high-profile projects, awards announcements, and everything else in between.

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