Kristen Clowry

The fashion industry’s interest in the environment has grown exponentially in the past few years, along with the rest of the world’s, and the best way to get them, and everyone else, to pay attention to yet another problem is with something pretty — it doesn’t hurt if it’s particularly clever, too.

So when Michael Ian Kaye, the graphic designer behind now iconic images like Kate Spade’s bubbly logo and the cover of Chuck Palahnuk’s Fight Club, learned about “fracking” he got to work.

What’s fracking? Technically it’s called Hydraulic Fracturing and it’s the process of extracting natural gas from underground rocks using chemicals that contain toxins like carcinogens and heavy metals. The short story is it’s horrible for both the environment and a person’s health. When Kaye saw Josh Fox’s Gasland at Sundance (in particular a scene in which a man lights the water streaming from his kitchen faucet on fire with a match), he felt compelled to do something, and Frack Off Now was born.

The non-profit’s aiming to bring attention to the alarmingly common practice with things like safety matches, pictured above, and short films, seen here.  Check out their site for more information — and for your own safety matches!