For our Monday module we were asked to look at a plethora of sustainability campaigns that come under the spectrum of what UNESCO consider to be the 10 sub genres of sustainability within the modern day world, and from our research work in groups to present a 3 minute designed presentation on them to engage our audience (the class).
I really enjoyed this research task, and questioning what about the campaigns I chose stood out to me on a graphic design viewpoint and also answering the 5 W’s. I take a personal interest in sustainability myself so getting to incorporate this into my studies was really fun and it gave me an opportunity to delve into other campaigns and organisations I maybe hadn’t heard of before.
I looked at 8 campaigns in total but 3 of them really stood out to me and these are the 3 I put towards my group for the project. The first is a campaign by the BBC creative team which entailed changing Green Park tube station in London to ‘Green Planet’ ahead of the launch of David Attenborough’s new series of the same name.
The simplicity of this campaign really struck me. They picked a great location and audience for this, as the tube station sees thousands of visitors daily so it gave way for more impact and coverage.
The second campaign I read up on was an installation as opposed to a campaign by Extinction Rebellion members Katey Burak and Rob Higgs. It depicted a house sinking and sailing down the river Thames with the aim to capture the attention of passers by and get them engaged with the issue of rising sea levels and even more importantly climate change.
The reason I picked it is due to it’s subtly. It’s up to the viewer to take action after looking at it, and it doesn’t immediately scream ‘campaign’ or ‘extinction rebellion’. It’s also a very unique strategy by using art installation in a very open, public space.
And lastly I looked at one of my favourite campaigns of all time (just from a graphic and visual standpoint), Green Peace’s ‘confirm humanity’ advertising campaign which was designed by the notorious DDB agency in Mexico. It comprises of several advertising posters all showing a different consequence of the climate crisis.
This campaign doesn’t hold back the devastating truths of climate change, its brutal design is there to simply put the facts across to make people realise the worlds actions have consequences.
My first time seeing it I felt very disturbed, and I think that’s what good graphic design should be able to do. It certainly invokes a feeling of disgust towards human nature.
Yolanda Wafaquani’s Graphic Design Blog 