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Creating Greenpeace's Protection Money report
Protection Money is a Greenpeace report which exposes potential abuses to the UN's REDD program, the system by which developing countries are to be supported to lessen C02 emissions from deforesation whilst building sustainable industries. The report is available for download here.
Throughout 2010 I worked worked closely with Greenpeace's Forests Campaign, creating this report and it's contents which transformed a complex and potentially baffling issue into a cogent and reader-friendly experience. I was commissioned to supply a host of creative services vital to the report, including;
- Map Authoring - showing where the carbon, peat, forests and animal habitats are in relation to forestry concession
- Diagram Designs - explaining how bureaucratic sleight's-of-hand were being used to misrepresent plans to the UN
- Layout Design - from defining the narrative of the report to laying out the content on pages
- Supporting an international campaign- a localised version of the report for release in Indonesia.
Map Authoring
Prior to creating this report, the process for authoring maps for Greenpeace was known to be imperfect. GIS mapping programs used by mappers produce immaculate data but the maps they visualise can be ugly to the point of being illegible. To resolve this I set myself the task of learning Avenza's MaPublisher which meant I could import mapping data into Illustrator whilst retaining the data.
The mapping data in this report had to be perfect for two reasons. Greenpeace's intention was to use maps as a tool for calculating the volumes of carbon and the precise physical size of the areas of peatland and forest currently at risk of deforestation. The second motivation was to improve the quality of the maps, to make them authoritative by showing the mapping information in a precise manner whilst removing the visual clutter of previous maps.
We created and used two maps in the report. The first shows the Development Zones in Indonesia, huge tracts of forest and peatland which have been designated by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry as viable for conversion to plantation. Alongside the Zones map is a diagram which makes sense of the map, showing how the thee different zone types make up the total area 'available' for deforesation. This is over-laid with the Indonesian government's own understanding of how land is already used. Taking this data and map together conveys that there is no area actually left for new plantations to expand into - without destroying more forest.
The second map is the more complex Values within Development Zones which locates endangered animal habitats as well as peatland, forest and the carbon stored therein. Soon after the publication of this report I created the interactive online version of the same map. This allows the user to choose their view of Indonesia by selecting to see values, forestry zones and plantation concessions. By overlaying these one finds where tensions exist between nature and the plans of people.
Diagram designs
At the heart of this report was the need to show the quantity of volume stored which was being put at risk by the Indonesian Pulp and Palm Oil industries. These industries had been promoting the myth that more carbon could be stored in their new plantations than would be stored in forests and peat. To arrive at this convenient conclusion their numbers ignored the carbon stored in peat and so lessened the carbon store at risk by 90%.
In response to this I designed the Fig.9 Forest and Peatland carbon graph. The horizontal axis shows all the combinations of peat depths and forest types and how they combine, meaning that the volume of carbon stored varies greatly area-to-area.The vertical axis shows the carbon stored above and below ground and how that will degrade and emit over time. The colour palette of this diagram uses the same colours used in Indonesia Value Map to help readers relate deep, unseen carbon stores to physical locations.
To make the process of deforestation feel less abstract I created the six part series Fig.10 the process of peatland degredation to show what happens to the land from the arrival of the diggers starting the deforestation through to the 4m deep peatland collapsing as it emits from beneath a plantation.
Fig.12 plantations mask the true extent of deforestation shows the systematic nature of deforesation in Indonesia. Clearing naturally forested areas and converting those into commercially productive plantations can give the impression that one kind of forest can simply be replaced with another without harm.
The final two diagrams shown above, pages 38 and 39 of the report, explode the concept that plantations are simply another, new kind of forest. Taking pulp plantations as an example on page 38, I combined a series of photographs to illustrate the production cycle of pulp plantations. This page sat side-by-side with graphs on p39, the first of which shows the model the pulp industry was basing it's carbon storage projections on. A projection which asserted that plantations would store carbon even after they had been turned into paper products. The second graph shows the reality of plantation carbon storage.
Layout design
Here's a set of spreads from the report. The horizontal page orientation emulates a presentation format, allowing for single pages to easily separated from the whole report for use in presentations. Each page is built on a 12 column, 9 row grid. This was necessary to elegantly accommodate the varied content of the report from text heavy pages through to pages showing huge photos, maps and graphics. The two different kinds of content, narrative and data, are signified with the use of white pages for the former and yellow pages for the latter. The gridded pattern of the pages lends the whole publication a sense of being rooted in data, true to the research based nature of the content.
Supporting an International campaign
Protection Money was designed in the first instance in English but it was created to be easily recreated in Bahasa (the language spoken in Indonesia). As Bahasa is roughly 10% longer than English, the page layouts, typography and grid were all devised to work perfectly for both languages with only a little tweaking of the layout and with just one round of proof-reading in Indonesia.
The report was digitally printed and launched simultaneously in Jakarta and London. It is available as a pdf from Greenpeace's website.
The impacts of Protection Money
Protection Money has unpicked many of the myths which the palm oil and pulp industries of Indonesia were promoting.
Protection Money has shown the Indonesian government how their well-intentioned policies were being manipulated for profit.
Protection Money is helping the Indonesian government to develop policies which will further Indonesia's economic development without destroying the fragile and unique ecosystems of their country.
If you'd like to discuss this work or your creative needs please contact Paul.
The LBC 2011 Diary
This is the second week-to-view diary I Art Directed for publishers Elliot and Thompson during 2010. It's for LBC, a London radio station.
I took LBC's focus on talk and put it at the heart of the design. The photography and text which forms the month double page breaks is based on the opinions of LBC's broadcasters, getting them each to select and talk about the parts of London they like most through the year. Knowing how busy London residents are I added a little detail on the week view page, the invitation to the owner of the diary to note the one thing that they will do each week.
The main typeface featured in the design is Elephant, simple and bold, similar to the type used in the LBC logo but with a little more character. It is set in capitals for the month titles and lowercase for the body copy.
If you'd like to buy of one of these diaries you can get one here.
The Classic FM 2011 Diary
My idea for the design focused on creating a book which felt effortlessly classical, to align with the Classic FM brand whilst creating a suitably old-world feeling diary. The combination of Baskerville 1757 and off-white paper pages means the diary feels like it belongs to an age gone by. This aesthetic was built upon with my idea to put a double page break at the start of each month, adorned with a musical note and faced with text which refers to the note opposite and to that time of year.
If you'd like to get hold of one of these diaries you can buy it here.
Greenpeace CONNECT cover
I've redesigned the Greenpeace supporters magazine Connect. I'm pleased with it, and so are the Fundraisers at Greenpeace which is nice/essential. Here's a snap of the cover, look out for a longer and more detailed post which follows soon.
Valuable Mapping
Earlier this year Greenpeace International commissioned me to help them communicate what's happening to the Indonesian rainforests. The project has resulted in the creation of 'Protection Money', a 76 page printed report packed with maps and infographics which you can download. I'll post some photos of the actual printed report here soon but for now here are a few of the infographics.
Another output of the project was to put a map of Indonesia, which illustrates the 'values' in the land, (that's carbon stored in trees and peat, and animals). The map you can see here is a Flash generated prototype, created with the aid the stunning Avenza Mapublisher plug-in for Illustrator. There may well be a more interactive and dynamic version available in the new year but for now, go have a play and see how rich and diverse Indonesia is, and just how much of a conflict there is between the evil logging companies and the values
Pooh sticks anyone?
This book, 152 Wild things to do is all about rediscovering and reveling in nature, doing things new or long-forgotten. I art directed this book for publishers Elliot and Thompson, focusing on making it bright, helpful and distinctive with it's blend of chunky rounded sans and script type, warm photography and crisp natural illustrations.
Designing Positive Change
The Greenpeace UK Brand Identity and Communications Strategy
I visited the London offices of Greenpeace a few days ago and saw that the Brand Identity I created for them a few years ago is still very much in use. This blog wouldn't be complete without a post on this project so here is the story of that project. The project came out of a request to design a new set of stationery for Greenpeace UK. So I asked what seemed a natural question, "what am I to base my designs on?" The answer was interesting, there were no design guidelines. I proposed a project to resolve this lack of guidance and the Greenpeace UK Publications team agreed. The project was to deliver; a new Communication Strategy, Brand Statements (kind of pointed mission statements) to express organisational and campaign goals, guidance on Logo usage, a Colour Palette and some Typographic rules. All this was to be brought together in a Style Guide.
A Communication Strategy
The new brand had to be borne of a shared vision of who Greenpeace’s audiences actually were. We recognised that the key constituencies of Greenpeace are; The Powerful; politicians and industry leaders Supporters; the people who give time money and expertise to Greenpeace Allies; organisations, groups and individuals with whom Greenpeace share goals. I helped Greenpeace to establish an easy-to-relate Positioning statement to guide us through the project and to frame their future communications, it is: Intervene > Engage > Transform. Thereafter every single campaign action and piece of communication was to speak to at least one of those three descriptors. The new Communication Strategy grew from being part of the brand project into it’s own fully fledged piece of work, becoming a guide to the strategy which sat alongside the brand identity guidance.
Brand Statements
Publishing organisational mission statements is normally a cue to induce sleep but for Greenpeace it was apparent that by being an environmental protagonist they should make their motivations clear at all times.
Using the Logo
The Colour Palette
For Greenpeace colour is synonymous with The Rainbow which adorns their ships which traverse the planet so we wanted to create a palette which was varied. To form the Primary palette we took the colours used on the logo - green, black and white - and added blue and orange. The former representing water, the latter to be worn by activists involved in direct actions as well as to be used as accent colour online. Secondary and Tertiary palettes were created to work in concert with the core colours. The former, bright signifying mainly specific campaigns, andthe latter mainly pale colours and greys provided as a backdrop for the primary and colours. Greenpeace green, orange and light grey are used to great effect on the Greenpeace UK website.
Typography
As with the colour, the variety of type Greenpeace were using prior to this project was varied and inconsistent, my audit revealed some 11 fonts used on just 20 documents. Type selection had to be rationalised and so we selected a few and set down some principles. We decided to steer clear of the trend for having just one font for all media thinking it to be too conventional for such an unconventional organisation and inadequate for it's needs - we agreed that reports would look awful in Georgia, Times New Roman (yuk) or Arial. Foundry Sterling was selected to be the primary font of the brand. A sans font with requisite elan and a full family of styles and weights made it useful for everything from printed banners right through to reports. Helvetica was selected to be used on-screen as it’s the system font visually closest to Sterling. We recognised the need for using other fonts from time-to-time and so we set out guidance which allowed for that, so long as there was a compelling reason to break with style. The 'UK's worst fish retailer' campaign shows this well.
Style Guide
The style guide brought together the guidance, principles and rules developed during the project in one simple to use ring-bound document. This document is widely used within Greenpeace in the UK and beyond.
The Identity in use
Aside from the stationery which in part led to this project starting, Greenpeace often launches new campaigns which require new branded communications; briefings and reports, leaflets, banners, flags, stickers, t-shirts - I could fill the web with examples but above are just a select few of my designs which use the Brand Identity. If your organisation, campaign or business is thinking about it's branding I'd be happy to discuss your needs with you. Call Paul on +44 (0)20 8299 6523 or email me.
Slaughtering the Amazon - Update
Swimming with Punks
For a couple of months in early 2009 I worked with Punk Publishing, the people who create the Cool Camping books.
Together we created Wild Swimming Coast. It's a wonderful guide to the best and often very well hidden beaches, pools and caves of Britain's coastline. Featuring regional background and detailed maps, directions to the swims and hundreds of great photos - many by Daniel Start - the author.
I designed, typeset and photo edited the book so I'm very happy it has been well received It's currently being reprinted having received glowing reviews such as this on the Waterstones site, "this beautifully produced book is sure to inspire you to discover and enjoy all that's great about our British coast". I'm off to cool my ego down in the sea. Buy the book, find out more about wild swimming or check out Punk Publishing's other titles. If you have a book you want designing please contact Paul.
Slaughtering the Amazon
I've been working with Greenpeace designing this report which contains all kinds of visually compelling ways to show how Brazil's cattle industry, the world's single largest current cause of deforestation, is linked to supermarket processed meals, leather goods and beauty products. Using a variety of graphic techniques I created the report to appear as if it was pieced together in the field by a researcher; photos pilled up, arrows drawn onto maps showing the trade in cattle, detailed maps display the extent of the deforestation and satellite and aerial imagery side-by-side with ground level photography.
I created the wheel diagrams to succinctly express how big brands were linked to cattle coming out of the Amazon. These diagrams sat alongside maps showing the trade within Brazil and brand logos. To be absolutely sure the bloody nature of the subject matter was conveyed I splattered logos, data and many of the report's pages with graphic blood.
At 140 A4 pages, with original graphics and photography on eavery page, this is by far the longest, most complex and most involved report I've designed. It's also had the most impact. Since it's launch in June 2009 the World Bank has pulled funding from Bertin and many of the brands linked to deforestation have either cancelled or altered the terms of the contacts they have with their Brazilain suppliers. You can read more about the Brazillian cattle industry's impact on the Amazon at Greenpeace's site where you can also download pdfs of the report itself.
