Has the world got enough plastic trash to play with? Almost certainly, says innovative designer Neil , as TAMZIN LEWIS reports

NEIL Conley’s website states that his designs place “a bleak and ominous emphasis on narrative”.

So he’s not making pink plastic pigs and he’s a bit downbeat then?

Actually, he’s quite a cheery chap, although he is a bit croaky when I speak to him following a hectic stint at the London Design Festival.

But he is very concerned with the environment, which he feels cannot be separated from design, and this is where the bleakness comes in.

He says: “I believe it is impossible to see the role of the designer isolated from a role as an environmentalist.

“I have always been passionate about the natural environment; therefore I find inspiration in not only our destruction of it, but also in its beauty.”

Neil, originally from Manchester, studied 3D Design at Northumbria University where he is now a designer in residence.

He says: “Designers must question every choice they make, especially those in relation to materials and the environment. This is forcing an ever-increasing attention to detail within design, which will hopefully lead to pieces that have a real reason to be here.”

So although Neil makes beautiful objects, they are usually imbued with an environmental message and sometimes a bit of political satire.

Following the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Neil designed a series of snow globes using black ‘snow’.

They feature hand-carved brass miniatures of the species affected by the disaster including the brown pelican, sea turtle and bottlenose dolphin. The idea is that when you give the globe a good shake the beautiful creature on its pedestal is coated in black stuff.

Neil writes: “The snow globes embodies the throw-away, novel plastic gifts that have become one of the oil industry’s many parasites.

“However, the application of luxurious materials provides a tasteless aesthetic reminiscent of executive gifts – potentially as a Christmas present for BP bosses.”

Another project which BP bosses would no doubt like to view is entitled Oil, for which Neil made glass vases to look like oil drums. Each vase represented a country and the size of the vase reflected that country’s oil consumption. So the USA has an enormous vase while the Democratic Republic of Congo’s drum is tiny.