A letter to my design colleagues
This whole climate thing is scary, right? I’m worried. But, working in the climate space for the last 5 years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet dedicated, smart, passionate people doing truly innovative work in addressing our climate emergency.
There are so many scientists, reachers, policy makers, community organizers, and activists on the front lines doing the hard work. They are making huge strides.
Don’t get sucked into this whole doom & gloom narrative. It’s bullshit. Yes, things are fucked and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Temperatures have risen 1.2ºC on average. That means drier conditions, more wildfires, farmers changing the crops they can grow, sea levels rising, more intense hurricanes, shifting weather patterns… you get the picture.
And this is just the beginning. It will be your kids and their kids (your grandkids) and so on and so on, who will see a lot more.
But, there is hope. We know how to address our climate crisis. We know what to do, it’s just a matter of building support for these solutions so they break through to the right people. It’s a matter of getting a colossal amount of folks engaged in doing more than just moving the needle, but turning up the volume until we blow the fuckin’ speakers.
In order for those scientists, reachers, climate entrepreneurs, and the like to be loud as hell, they need our help. They need us to help them help others see whats possible. We make a living visualizing ideas that don’t exist yet. We create plans and make new, impossible solutions possible.
You already know this. We use creativity, imagination, and optimism in our work. Combine that with our design know-how and, well shit, now we’re talking.
What we’re doing with Climate Designers, a passion project from The Determined, is something unique. We want to provide the resources, knowledge, and community for designers to take climate action in the work they do. And at the same time, inspire, motivate, and graduate climate designers by providing climate-focused resources for design educators.
If you want to work on climate projects full time, awesome. If you work on projects nights and weekends, but don’t want to quit your day job, great. Wanna volunteer once a month? Perfect. Doesn’t matter. Every little bit helps.
If you are up to the challenge and you want to contribute your skills in taking climate action, hit me up. I have lots of resources, ideas, and connections. I will make time to talk to you.
The last few months, I’ve been part of a team of amazing people producing a multi-week summit called the Climate Designers Party Program.
Out of all the things I’ve put out in the world, I’ve never been so stoked about this event. We’re talking about some big topics; designers as culture makers, all design must be regenerative, all design must be inclusive, and all design must measure impact.
We have some fun stuff scheduled and we’re adding more each day; interactive workshops, non-awkward networking events, comedy, and music.
This event isn’t meant to inspire you. It’s meant to give you the tools, knowledge, and resources, to apply towards any work you do in the climate space. You will take what you gain from these sessions and apply to your work “on Monday”, ensuring that what you produce has the most positive impact.
The summit will be full of cutting edge leadership concepts and the skills you need to implement them. Working on climate in any job in any company will be default soon enough. Attending the summit is your next step in getting the skills you need to create, lead, and join this work.
So here’s my ask
It would mean so much if you could attend. I know you will get a lot out of it. Consider this “professional development” investing in your career, your creativity, your connections, and our climate.
Can’t make it? No worries.
Perhaps then, you can help share the summit with your fellow creative colleagues, friends, and networks. I would be truly grateful. We have a Media Kit making this super easy to promote. HMU and I’ll send you the link ;)
We’re inviting every kind of designers to the party; graphic, fashion, product, industrial, UX/UI, service designers. Any photographers, illustrators, film makers, writers out there? All creatives are welcome! So get your friends together; text them, tag them, @ them. Share this far and wide. It’ll be fun. I promise.
Oh, and one that thing… I still can’t believe we get paid to use our imagination and be creative. We have the coolest job in the world, right? Now, imagine the entire design community coming together and contributing solutions to the gnarliest challenge our species has ever faced. That’s one hell of a design project.
Onward.
