some of the folks who are part of the beehive design collective visited the organic valley headquarters today to meet the employees and discuss the images the group created which have been hanging at hq for the past few months. the group is best known for producing large, intricate pen and ink posters which, according to wikipedia, “…seek to provide a visual alternative to deconstruction of complicated social and political issues ranging from globalization, free trade, militarism, resource extraction, and biotechnology.

here, one of the members of the collective is talking about their the true cost of coal piece, which is enormous, took over two years to create and is almost overwhelmingly detailed. you can read more about the piece in this PDF narrative booklet that describes in detail the meaning of the imagery.

as if it wasn’t cool enough that i work for a cooperative that will encourage groups like the beehive design collective, i’d be remiss if i didn’t mention the “it’s a small world afterall” aspect to this story. it just so happens that the collective now resides in my hometown, machias, maine and lives in what used to my uncle’s old house!

the collective is restoring the local grange hall and hosts an annual “blackfly ball” at the grange and some of the posters for the ball are hanging around headquarters.

amusingly, one of the posters for the 2010 ball ( seen on the left ) is posted at the bottom of the stairs that i take every day when i go to work. we happened to be in maine at the time of the ball, but i spent all day at the blueberry festival on the day odin won the blueberry cooking contest and was too tired to go to the ball. i recall driving by the grange and it was packed.

i was bummed that we couldn’t make it back this year to defend odin’s blue ribbon and attend the 2011 ball ( poster on the right ).

seeing the poster every morning for the past few months always puts a big smile on my face.

here, another member of the collective talks about the 6 foot tall Plan Colombia piece which is a visualization of the issues surrounding the colonialism in the andean region of south america.

you could go through each piece for hours and find fun little details all along the way. *cough*.

more of the incredible detail in the Plan Colombia piece.

thanks for visiting, beehive design collective people! hopefully someday soon i’ll get a chance to stop by and visit in machias.

until then, bonus points will be awarded if any of you send me a picture standing near snowdeal lane which is somewhere in jonesboro 🙂