The world is in a pretty dire state at the moment.

The rise of the far right; Trump; AI (and its associated job losses); the cost of living crisis; Ukraine, Gaza and now Iran; and generally ridiculous levels of bullshit and misinformation, particularly as weaponised against immigrants and the trans community.

It’s a lot, right?

I’ve found myself veering between either obsessing over it, or instead just burying my head in the sand. Neither are particularly helpful.

And all this while the most important and challenging issue, climate breakdown, becomes ever more significant, and demands immediate action.

I do a lot of work for London Cycling Campaign, and I’m a co-founder and Art Director of Hoxton Street Monster Supplies, and that certainly helps make me feel like I’m doing something good in the world. And I’ve signed up to Design Declares, which seems like a positive, if small, step. But I’ve been eager to put my skills to other things that make an active difference.

So I was really excited when my friend Ben Peers got in touch last October about an online platform and social network he was setting up – Good Eye – which asks the question: “What if we could use our creativity for good?”

Ben is a designer and art director, and together with copywriter / creative director Michael de Piano, and strategist Kevin Karaca, set up Good Eye as a side project.

Here’s how they describe what they’re doing:

“Good Eye is an idea. An idea that shamelessly idealistic creativity is key to building a kinder, fairer and greener future for us all. We are slowly and intentionally building something (alongside our day jobs) that brings together all who believe in the power of creativity and want to use their powers for good. Our mission is to allow creatives the space to create things they truly believe in, with others who believe it too. To encourage creatives to bring shamelessly idealistic creativity into their professional practice. And to generate more hope for the community, people and planet.

Whether you’re a creator, designer, copywriter, creative, producer, project manager, filmmaker, artist, musician, writer, or none of the above! If you have a creative mind and feel a burning need to put it to positive use, we are for you.”

The website is a hub for bringing people together online, with the aim of bringing them together in real life through the Good Eyedeas sessions, the first of which took place this January.

I went along to the second session earlier this week, Climate and Storytelling for Hope, at Treo House in Oval.

The crowd was made up of people working in creativity, sustainability, or a mix of both. We began with a bit of milling about meeting each other, and an introduction from the founders. Then Lucy Stone, the founder of Climate Spring, gave us a fascinating talk about how her organisation is helping to transform how the climate crisis is represented in film, television and popular culture.

Following on from that we did a short workshop where we divided into small groups and tried to come up with creative ideas to challenge climate skepticism, or to tell a more hopeful climate story.

Our group focused on hope, and discussed a new form of (paid) national community service* that you could do for a year at the beginning and end of your working life, called A Year of Being Fabulous, where younger and older people would work together on a variety of community projects like planting orchards and forests. The idea being that you improve the environment whilst also encouraging cross-generational learning, the passing on of skills and knowledge, as well as combating social segregation and loneliness. The fabulous part included fantastic outfits, inspired by the feelings of pride people had in the shoes they got when they volunteered at the 2012 Olympics.

*Inspired by the fantastic Youth Environmental Service programme, of which David Fell (one of our group) is Chair.

We also discussed the need for spaces for people to come together in an increasingly divided world, and thought about beautifully designed launderettes, that are also cafes and play great music, which could help fill some of the empty shop units across our high streets. (A post-workshop Google search shows that these already exist in various forms: Celsious in Brooklyn, the Laundromat Café in Copenhagen, and Café Laundromat in Oslo.)

Obviously we weren’t necessarily going to come up with anything fully formed and entirely innovative in an hour long session, but it was a great way to get everyone chatting and pushing ideas around. I think the real benefit of things like this are the connections you make and the conversations you start, which then might lead on somewhere fascinating and productive in the subsequent weeks, months and years. And it felt truly wonderful to be amongst a group of like minded people who all wanted to do something, to take action, and to use their skills for good.

The founders of Good Eye have also launched a networking site (still in beta testing), which should prove invaluable for extending those connections made at events:

“The idea is that it becomes a place where anyone interested in the Good Eye mission can:

• Connect with likeminded people

• Keep abreast of the latest Good Eye events

• Put in requests to the network to help solve problems or find talent

• And, last but not least, share good ideas and collaborate on them

Our vision is that it becomes a platform for creativity for good to flourish.”

If you work in a creative field and you’d like to get involved, either online or in person, head over to the Good Eye website. Hopefully see you at the next event.

Thanks to the Good Eye team for letting me use their event photographs for this post.