Generation Climate

Urgency you can see.

Client: Generation Climate, funded by the Government of Canada
Role: Lead designer; art direction on the logo by TMU Marketing & Creative Services
Scope: Identity, colour system, social, posters, training materials, decks, website
Design outcome: A national brand that carried nearly 270,000 youth climate conversations

Overview

Generation Climate works to counter climate misinformation and equip young people in rural and suburban communities through conversations, online training and local climate action.

01

The challenge

Generation Climate set out to counter climate misinformation among young people across Canada. Its brand had to cut through crowded feeds, make the urgency of climate change felt at a glance, work equally in English and French, and give a university-backed initiative an identity young people would see as their own.

Generation Climate poster clipped to a chain-link fence

Generation Climate myth and truth handout with a flame pattern, lying on grass

02

The process

I inherited a first-round identity from TMU and, as lead designer, created a new one rooted in climate itself.

Starting systemBoxed wordmark, flat colour, circle badges and stock photography.

ResearchTemperature and topographic maps as the source.

Reference: Environment Canada winter temperature map

Reference: world annual mean temperature map

References: Environment Canada climatology map and other published temperature and topographic maps

DirectionHeat-map patterns, red for urgency, Clash Display for headlines.

LogoDesigned by TMU Marketing & Creative Services, shaped by my sketch and art direction.

Original, by TMU

My sketch, used as inspiration

In progress

Final

03

The new Generation Climate system

Heat maps became the identity. Bold, saturated colour fields carry the sense of rising temperature and the need to act now. As lead designer, I developed the complete visual identity and website, and oversaw the logo, provided by TMU Marketing & Creative Services, giving design feedback to keep the mark consistent with the brand. The bilingual English and French wordmark sits on the heat-map gradients, so the identity works across Canada from the first touchpoint.

ColourCoolHot

AaGreyNeutral#999999 · 7.37:1

AaPurpleTransformation, strength#7474C1 · 5.01:1

AaNavyFreedom, trust, renewal#002D72 · 12.97:1

AaTealFreedom, trust, renewal#00A3AD · 6.84:1

AaGreenHope, peace, harmony#BFBE00 · 10.58:1

AaYellowYouth, positivity#FFC609 · 13.33:1

AaOrangeEnergy, intelligence#FF7200 · 7.65:1

AaRedUrgency, action, courage#E40032 · 4.83:1

A neutral grey and seven colours ordered like a temperature scale, each paired with black or white text and checked for contrast. The colours blend into grainy gradients and heat-map fields that sit behind posters, posts, slides and the website. This shared colour system lets each piece look different while staying unmistakably one brand.

Bilingual lockup

English and French sit side by side from the start. Early explorations put the mark in every palette colour; the final system uses only black and white. With the gradients and heat maps carrying the colour, a one-colour mark stays legible on any background and never competes with the artwork behind it.

Type and frames

Clash Display for big, direct headlines. Replica for body copy. Retro computer windows, polaroids and paper hold photos, video, quotes and activities.

In use

Generation Climate social post — Social posts

Generation Climate social post — Social posts

Generation Climate website home page — Website

I designed the website as an extension of the identity: the same type, colour and framed photos carried through to layout, navigation and content. Instead of stock imagery, the site and brand materials feature the program’s real people: canvassers, trainees and organizers in real conversations out in their communities, set in the brand’s window and polaroid frames.

Canvassers, trainees and organizers in the brand’s frames

Twelve slides from the Climate Leaders Training deck for canvassers — Climate Leaders Training deck

What the work supported

Nearly270,000conversations about climate change with young people across Canada

1,000+young people trained in climate science, policy and action

Thousandsof young people committed to taking climate action

These are the initiative’s results; the identity and website were its public face.

All work Next: Overcoming Digital Divides

Project	Disciplines
Heads Up	Campaign identity, web design, illustration, information design, print
Generation Climate	Brand identity, visual systems, web design
Overcoming Digital Divides	Visual direction, illustration, report design
Dais Reports	Editorial design, information design, illustration
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Union Marketing Rebrand	Brand identity, graphic design