40,000 drip mats to promote tolerance

Johnny Hegarty, aged 22, from Bytes was among those chosen to submit designs for the drip mats after he and five other young people from Bytes came together to create a piece of art work to raise awareness of hate crime and also promote diversity.

The art competition was run by the North West-based group Hands Off My Friend. The Bytes team built a collage following group discussions about the meaning of diversity, equality and Section 75, which led to the selection of an image of the ancient female representation of justice, Justicia, blind-folded.

Following this the group also discussed the diverse range of people who live and work in Northern Ireland and began compiling painted images on a panel board which they felt represented issues around gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and disability. This was expanded upon with words associated with diversity.

The collage was stencilled over with the Blind Justice figure and the finished product went on to win a piece of computer hardware when they took first place in the competition.

Second place went to Jordan Dallas from the Roe Valley Community Centre, while third place went to Nicola McLaughlin and Seanan Martin from Youthlife Derry.

The Blind Justice collage, will now be followed by the distribution of the the drip mats in pubs, clubs, cafes and centres across the North West.

Johnny said: “I was very glad that they asked me to help design the mats. It is something you wouldn’t normally get to do. I love working with Photoshop and the whole project was brilliant.”

The drip mats will be distributed across G District, taking in Londonderry, Strabane, Limavady and Magherafelt Council areas.

Laura Giacani from Seeds said the project was aimed at “promoting tolerance and stopping hate”.