4 Collections Supporting The Ocean Cleanup now on Teemill

 June 16, 2025

My design project that started in May has now become a fun showcase of 4 unique design collections that educate about the work and systems of The Ocean Cleanup. 

Click here to visit the collections now....

...or read more about them, below.

1. Dolphins & Whales, Blue and White Design

A visual draw into a world of blue and white, diagonal lines pulling you in a zig-zag through foreground whales, the working deck of System 03, and finally, to the background images of the working retention zone in the distance.

2. The System 03 Tech Design

This design shares the basic technology of the tools used to clean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

3. The World Operations Map Design

This started out as a way to help me memorize the numbers of the vessels, interceptors and barriers currently deployed in 10+ countries around the world. The rainbow key helps memorize the countries in order and the layout of countries around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is easier to memorize.

4. Kids Ocean Plastic Designs from 2011, Remastered

I worked as a volunteer art teacher to help 3rd graders learn about environmental art. One of the projects we did was all about ocean plastics and the work of Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang in Point Reyes, California. I was excited to remaster these designs to show that they could still support the work of The Ocean Cleanup. 

As I have explained the gradeschool project to many before, we placed a large, blank canvas of white poster paper before teams of 4 kids and asked them to design any marine animal or species affected by ocean plastics. They had to use pieces of plastic my sons collected at the beach, as well as some of the plastic we borrowed from the Langs organized studio collection of beach plastic. 

The kids did absolutely incredible work in just 30 minutes or less. We provided some books for reference ideas, but all groups managed to come up with completely different animals and designs. It was a project that eventually raised funds for Music and Arts in the schools. 

Today, I was able to reuse most of the designs for kids Τ-shirt concepts for TheOceanCleanup.com I think the kids who worked on these more than ten years ago would be delighted to see their art used to help support the work of the world's largest cleanup of ocean plastics.

I hope you will have a look at the designs online here. Thank you for supporting the work of The Ocean Cleanup.

UN Ocean Conference 2025 in Nice, France 🇫🇷 June 9-13th

 June 9, 2025

Today’s design update coincides with the UN Ocean Conference 2025 in Nice, France 🇫🇷 June 9-13th. TheOceanCleanup.com has an exciting press release and new update coming at this event, Wednesday, June 11 at 12 noon. Please check the UN 🇺🇳 Ocean Conference website for schedule and video links:

UN OC 2205 Conference Schedule: http://webtv.un.org/en/schedule

My latest design update adds cranes 🏗️ to the System 03 Maersk vessel, and labels to explain the parts of the ocean plastic capturing system. I was inspired to do this because I remembered two favorite Τ-shirts my sons had when they were in grade school... Shirts with bold firetrucks on a solid-colored background, and labeled with all the parts of the firetrucks. I thought this idea would work great for The Ocean Cleanup vessels. This is the start to that design idea.

Please see my previous posts in 2025, below...– all work in progress on unique and educational T-shirt and concept designs for The Ocean Cleanup, with links to donate to my ongoing, cycling fundraiser and how to get involved with the work of cleaning our worlds oceans of plastic. Thank you! -Colleen

World Environment Day 2025 - June 5th

June 5, 2025 

Happy World Environment Day!

Today's design update honors the whales. 🐋 🐋 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

Please visit TheOceanCleanup.com for more info on how you can help with the mission to remove 90% of the world's ocean plastics by 2040.

... or simply donate to my on going cycling fundraiser, here.

Thank you! -Colleen 

The Ocean Cleanup System 3 Retention Zone Τ Shirt Design

 June 4, 2025 

The Ocean Cleanup System 3 Retention Zone Τ Shirt Design

This may be my favorite so far. It reminds me of the t-shirts my sons had as grade schoolers with firetrucks and school buses on them. Just a bright, solid colored background, with the design wrapping around the field of color, so the front of the vehicle was on the front of the shirt, and the back of the vehicle was on the back side. They loved them! See the next post, below for more details about this design project.

Vector Τ shirt Designs for TheOceanCleanup.com

 May 30 - June 3, 2025

The last week in May was a good week for design! After all the research and Google Sheets I made in March to help me memorize the locations of the Ocean Cleanup vessels and barriers around the world, I finally feel like that research has paid off with some beautiful and simplified vector art designs. Thank you to Adobe Illustrator, for always being my go to for vector art illustration for over twenty years.

Here are the results! Please see my previous post for more info on this project. Visit TheOceanCleanup.com to learn more about how you can help remove 90% of the world's floating ocean plastics by 2040. 

Donate to my fundraiser for the Ocean Cleanup by clicking here. 

Thank you! -Colleen

This work eventually lead to an additional 3rd design idea, with the 2 ships from System 3 that clean The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the Retention Zone that captures the plastic.

Design 3: System 3 with Retention Zone full of plastic and fish underneath

I updated the design of the camera skiffs with solar panels which float on top of the Retention Zone netting or plastic capturing bag. It was interesting to learn that the white buoys which make up the circle at the front of System 3 are HUGE! About 3 men (or women!) could sit on top of them like riding a horse. The yellow buoys on the Retention Zone are smaller. Something you could pick up in your hands, like a large beach ball. The camera skiffs are also quite large, like a small raft that 4 people could stand on top of.

I then added the flags of the Netherlands 🇳🇱, where The Ocean Cleanup was founded by Boyan Slat and corporate headquarters currently reside, and the flag of Norway 🇳🇴 for the Maersk shipping company that makes the vessels. I added lights to the front of the vessels, and it made me think of Pixar. Lights are important!

This panoramic image would make a great recycled polyester beach towel. Many companies now used recycled plastic in their apparel, often 50 % recycled combined with 50% organic cotton, creating a soft and comfortable new product.

The marshmallow looking objects are actually satellite communication devices inside a marshmallow-shaped, weatherproof shell from Cobham Sat Marine.

Image from System 2 Team by Sailor Cobham Communications Device

Design 3 with lights, flags & motor boat @ Retention Zone (square)

Τ Shirt Design for TheOceanCleanup.com

May 2025

Hi Friends, Family and Ocean Lovers!

This past week, I have been inspired to design an idea for a Τ-shirt for The Ocean Cleanup. I saw they were having a contest, but forgot about it because I have been very sick for a couple weeks and lost my ability to cycle and my sense of taste. I am starting to get better, but my taste buds are not there yet. I am now very curious as to how the body heals taste buds... but regardless, I started to design something for The Ocean Cleanup, a global nonprofit that I have been fundraising for the past couple of years. Donate to my ongoing cycling fundraiser to help clean our World's Oceans, here! (Thank you! All proceeds go directly to TheOceanCleanup.com)

This nonprofit is dear to my heart because of my passion for the ocean, travel and environment. They are doing extraordinary work, currently working with ten countries to remove river plastics that would otherwise end up in our oceans, and also, continuing their work to remove floating plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

In February and March, I created a spreadsheet and color-coding system to help me memorize the numbers of all the vessels and barriers in the nine plus countries around the world. You can view that here.

Data Viz by C.Proppé for TheOceanCleanup.com Feb-March 2025 (Click image to view)

This month, I took that information and transformed it into this Τ-shirt design which shows all the countries where The Ocean Cleanup is removing and recycling plastics. It is a full rainbow of colors, so I used the rainbow as a learning tool.

Designs by C.Proppé for TheOceanCleanup.com May 2025 (Click image to view)

This is a work in progress in Adobe Illustrator that started out as a hand-drawn sketch and is now using a limited palette in the vector-based software I have been using for more than twenty years. I wanted to try to retain some of the hand-made quality to the art, but I am now leaning towards making the full System 3 ship in vectors as well as the other sea animals, so I can be more flexible with these design assets in the future. I still need to upgrade my iPad so I can draw on a screen again... but for now, this is where I am. 

I hope you enjoy this design. It reminds me of the illustrations in David Macauley books, or simply, a children's illustrated book. I used to work for companies that made children's educational products. I think this is a bright and fun design for kids and grown ups too. Please visit TheOceanCleanup.com for more info.

Click here to see my updated vector art designs for the Τ shirt in the next blog post.

Design by C.Proppé for TheOceanCleanup.com May 2025 (Click image to view)