The Book Grown from Grass
AIB
Issue 52 | September 2019
Agency
Rothco
Creative Team
Executive Producer: Al Byrnes Executive Creative Director: Alan Kelly Creative Directors: Ray Swan, Emma Sharkey Creative Team: Fabiano Dalmacio, Rob Maguireq
Production Team
Design Director: Shane O’Riordan Designer: Diogo Dias Artist: Diana Scherer Photographer: Diana Scherer Letterpress Printer & Book Binder: Jamie Murphy at The Salvage Press Production Assistant: Siobhan Coakley PR: Jill Byrne
Other Credits
Account Director: Alan McQuaid Project Director: Irene Sharkey Business Director: Jimi McGrath
Date
June 2019
Background
AIB has a business relationship with almost 35% of farmers in Ireland and is committed to helping them grow their business through the latest scientific techniques.
The bank partnered with Teagasc (Ireland’s Agriculture and Food Development Authority) to create a 10- step guide to sustainability in farming.
Idea
Demonstrating the power of natural resources, ‘10 |The Book That Grew’ was exactly that, a book grown entirely from grass by German artist Diana Scherer. Every page, every word and every diagram was formed by real grass roots as they grew. The book contains 10 tangible lessons and 10 pieces of practical advice to help farmers to achieve a ‘perfect’ 10 rotations of grass grazing per year and to produce 10 tonnes of grass per hectare. Everything in the book, including the ink and binding, was made from grass.
It is now touring the country for people to see at AIB-partnered agricultural events such as the National Ploughing Championships.
Results
Ireland has committed to being greenhouse gas neutral by 2050. The book contains the measures that will help farmers play their part in this. As a result, AIB has been placed on the Climate A List of the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Our Thoughts
If you go to Trinity College in Dublin, you can see The Book of Kells. Made in the ninth century, it is a work of rare beauty and is one of Ireland’s greatest treasures. It gives a context and a cultural resonance to ‘The Book That Grew’ that perhaps only the Irish can appreciate.
Though you may not think the monks of a forgotten monastery a thousand years ago and a German living in Amsterdam today have anything in common, in fact they were driven by an equal desire to inspire wonder and delight and to use art to instruct and teach.