Things we love: Upcycled Board Game Art

So what happens when it’s time to bid farewell to a board game?

The obvious destination is the charity shop. But charity shops have a particular difficulty with board games: the dreaded ‘jigsaw’ syndrome.

Assistants might have time to check all the pieces are included, but they probably won’t; counting through hundreds upon hundreds of Best of TV & Movies questions is unlikely to be the best use of their day.

And that’s if they’re in a good enough condition overall. So, sad as it is, many donations never sell - and end up getting binned.

Enter David McGregor, and his site Cowazinga.com. A lover of both art and board games, David was in his local charity shop one day and hit upon a plan to save unwanted games from landfill…

“I thought it was heartbreaking, as these games had undoubtedly provided many families with endless hours of fun and it seemed such a shame that these would be disposed of,” he told us. “We started to rack our brains on how to save some of these family favourites from demise and came up with the idea of up-cycling them and turning them into pieces of art!”

The idea became reality with David’s first experimental project – using our very own Logo Board Game.

“We have a family member who holds bragging rights for an unbeaten streak in Logo (I'm sure all families have 'that one person') and with Christmas approaching we thought it would be a great time to test our new idea,” he said. “We chopped up the board, included his favourite pieces and made sure to glue in the cards of some of his favourite products/logos, and framed it all inside a box frame.”

“He loved the unique gift, we loved creating it - and the idea was officially born!”

David now sells his upcycled board game art through his website, but has kept the concept very much in touch with its original inspiration. Having established partnerships with charities local to him, he makes a monthly donation to their cause in return for games that would otherwise be thrown away.

So David gets his raw materials, the charities get a new regular source of income – and these pieces of art now hang on the walls of board game lovers up and down the land. It’s perfect.

From our part, it’s strange to see the work of our design team in such a different context; it’s something that had never occurred to us, and we’re delighted at how it works!

David’s stock changes regularly depending on what he can get hold of. He does do custom orders, so - provided he can source the materials - you’re free to request that special board game that divides your own particular household…

You can see the current games available at Cowazinga.com