VIVIDSGNS

During my MA studies at University of the Arts London (UAL), I have been selected for the Climate Truth Crisis (CTC) programme, an Erasmus+ initiative that brings together students and staff from seven leading art and design academies across Europe, including: EKA Estonian Academy of Arts, IUA Iceland University of the Arts, ALU Academy of Fine Arts Sarajevo, KABK Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Vilnius Academy of Arts and Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering. It was an incredible experience to join this collaborative research project, focused on how visual communication can combat the spread of fake news and help us respond to the climate crisis. I participated in the learning activity in Tallinn, Estonia, and will do so again in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, developing work that can be submitted for assessment as part of my degree programme at University of the Arts London.

During the programme in Tallinn, Estonia (7–11 April), I participated in workshops centered on glossary writing and visualisation, with the aim of contributing to an upcoming website and publication. The final outcome was a public exhibition showcasing our work on posters displayed at the EKA Estonian Academy of Arts campus. As a designer, this experience demonstrated the role of graphic design in climate education, communication, and problem-solving - all directly aligned with my degree at UAL.

My poster was a visualisation of CO2 tax, a government-imposed pricing mechanism that taxes greenhouse gas emissions from burning fuel (oil, gas and coal), chosen due to strong imagery surrounding it, including a tax invoice document, graphs, and burning fossil fuels. The poster communicates the strategy of taxation to ensure climate change degrowth through a creative process of blending these visual elements to depict the correlation. The layered text “CO2NSEQUENCES” is wordplay between CO2 and the consequences of high emissions, in a bold red grabs the viewer’s attention.