Column Five: Be Good To Each Other
Our good friends at Column Five Media created a pretty inspiring project for their partners and publishers this holiday season. The project, inspired one of the company's five columns "Be Good to Each Other" was a set of limited-edition letterpress prints. Each print was created by a different artist and featured different creatures in the animal world who are good to each other. These animals are illustrated in a ying-yang style to show them as a visual metaphor.
Column Five Media explains the concept as:
Being good to each other isn’t always easy. Relationship dynamics can be complicated. In some cases, conflict and frustration occur, while charity and generosity triumph in others. In ideal cases, we work together symbiotically to achieve a greater good. But always at the core is the push and pull, the struggle of compromise, the balance between collaboration and conflict, while striving to be good to each other. This was the complexity that we were eager to explore—thus it became the foundation of our concept: to showcase the evolution of relationships, from enemy, to ally, to symbiotic partner.Because we are all ultimately animals, we turned to nature for inspiration, searching for examples of animal kingdom relationships that best represent the spectrum of these relationship dynamics. We delved into research, considering well-known animal relationships (like the age-old conflict between dog and cat) and reading about lesser-known and more unusual pairings that seem almost inconceivable. We finally settled on three unique animal relationships: Red Fox & Gray Fox, Lioness & Baby Antelope, Wolf & Raven.Each of these relationships teaches us a valuable lesson about interacting together.
Lioness & Baby Antelope Erica Williams"One of the human species’ most noble traits is our ability to empathize and show compassion—key in building healthy dynamics. Beautiful examples are also evident in the animal world, even among natural-born enemies. Such is the case of a lioness in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve who famously adopted newborn antelopes, protecting them from other animals and humans and even showing signs of grief upon their death—showing that our nature and interactions are what we make of them."
Wolf & Raven Tim McDonagh"The strongest human relationships are those that work symbiotically. In the same manner, we admire the unusual partnership between wolf and raven, which has long been recognized in folklore and in modern study. Ravens have been known to travel with wolf packs, and wolves are said to watch for their circling as an indicator of food. They have also been observed sharing meals, as wolves invite the ravens to partake in their kills by opening the carcasses to expose the meat. In this way, working together serves both species’ greatest needs."
Red Fox Gray Fox David D'AndreaAs humans, we often overlook our similarities, focusing instead on our differences—a mindset that serves to stoke and perpetuate conflict, rather than unite. This destructive dynamic mirrors the plight of the Red and Gray foxes, both common in North America. Deforestation has led to a reduction in territory, increasing competition between these animals. Despite the animals’ many similarities and common enemies, they view each other as opponents in a war for food, territory and dominance—a lesson in the benefits of working together, rather than at odds.
Each set was sent as three prints which included a thank you letter and postcard. The postcard featured artist bios and more information about the project concept. All prints were impressed on environmentally-freindly paper made from 100% cotton linters and was hand-signed, titled and numbered by Column Five team members.