Feeling hot, hot, hot! Adapt is environmental design artivism at its best
One of British Council’s 10 emerging designers of 2019, Adapt (short for Adaptive Capacity) is a climate club and creative organisation, using design, humour and contemporary culture that aims to “communicate climate issues in a new way.”
Comprising of creatives and climate activists Josie Tucker and Richard Ashton, Adapt aims to spread the message of climate action, they want to “share knowledge, encourage action and build a community of motivated activists.” Enter the studio’s curated environmental “Sadness is a no gO-Zone” exhibition.
SNGZ -which was presented earlier this year in Copenhagen and will be displayed this August again, in Copeland Gallery, Peckham- featured a combination of the studio’s work and 50 specially selected artists.
“With ever-more pressing news about climate change hitting our headlines on a daily basis, and a surge of action taking the country by storm, we invited people to learn about, and act on global warming through our specially designed space.”
Featuring works by ABC Dinamo, Dalton Maag, Javier Lopez, Propagate Collective, Snooty Studio and more the exhibition focused on happiness and motivation. The 50 artists responded to the brief using Adapt's existing language and the studio’s tongue-in-cheek slogans.
“Feeling Hot Hot Hot”, “Solar, So Good” and more messages resulted in more than 50 works of graphic design art with a pure environmental agenda.
“Approximately 1500 visitors came to the gallery to tackle the biggest issues facing the planet, from energy to travel to wilding through curated actions” notes Adapt who partnered with Ecosia to launch a challenge to plant 5000 trees.
Adapt has also partnered with the independent Green New Deal UK campaign group to design communication and campaign work.
“We began with creating protest placards, in agreement with UKSCN to be distributed and held at the December 2019 Climate strike. Many mass-printed placards are created for public strikes and protests, however we found that they usually displayed dull and lifeless designs, which were not contemporary or engaging” said Adapt.
“We wanted to create a design that felt bold, clear, colourful and playful at the same time. It was a massive success - all the placards got snapped up quickly, and became the primary visual at the protest.”
“We can't fix the planet unless we seriously work to overcome racism at the same time. The environmental movement has long been driven and galvanised by POC, so lets put equality at the heart of all environmental action” writes Adapt in its recent Instagram post on environmental racism and climate justice.
“An organisation claiming the power of the visual to promote climate awareness and activism” for the Design Museum, Adapt's agenda speaks volumes and we endorse.
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Tags/ exhibition, posters, uk, activism, environment, climate change, artivism, adapt, ecosia
