Statement
Engaging with the group deepened my climate justice perspective. I’d never considered printing’s environmental impact, so discovering its significance in carbon emissions was significant. The research into carbon emissions for one print on different printers has deepened my understanding of what printing entails. Breaking down the carbon emissions into the different components of printing (printer, paper, ink, energy) has helped me understand how each component has its own emissions and what this means for printing one poster. By focusing the research on the personal printing behaviour of students and staff in relation to the institute, I have become more aware of printing myself. I feel that I now think more about what it means to print and no longer think that it is something I can do without thinking about it. It’s not that I no longer want to print or am completely against printing, because that’s not realistic and it’s not necessary to solve the climate crisis. In my opinion, it’s about doing what you can when you can and making small, meaningful changes at different levels.
Annotated bibliography
2 references from the reading list:
Laranjo, F. (2014). Critical Graphic Design: Critical of What? | Modes of Criticism. [online] modesofcriticism.org. Available at: https://modesofcriticism.org/critical-graphic-design/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2026]
Ramia Mazé (2014) identifies3 critical modes within design: self-reflexive practice, disciplinary discourse, and social engagement. I think with this briefing it was important to our project to change our critical mode from self-reflexive to social engagement. If we think about how graphic communication design can visualise the impact and the scale of climate change it is important to not only think critically about oneself within the topic but also how the social structure can be changed and be examined. Even more so because I feel that with a topic as big as climate change really is an interaction between being critical in a personal self-reflective way but also in a way that questions the larger institutes. Marzé (2014) also notes that some view this level of criticality as a “luxury” that is difficult to sustain under the standard economic conditions in which most graphic design is produced today. Yet within educational context, it is not only necessary but urgently needed to teach designers how not only to think critically within their practice but also in their design.
Drucker, J. (2014). Graphesis. Harvard University Press, pp.180–192.
The main thing this reference has really shifted my perspective on and helped my inquiry was that by changing the way we share and visualize information into a way that resonates with people it can create a sense of collective/community and an even deeper communal sense of understanding. It made me reflect on how we could transform the data we got from the net0 team into something that resonates with more people. Framing the data personally within UAL created both a network of understanding and a sense of creative ownership. When people could measure their own impact alongside broader scales, it built a sense of community around the changes possible within a larger institution. This understanding was reinforced by Drucker’s argument that. As designers engaging with climate change, I believe community is our greatest asset. A collective approach, I feel, is what allows us to achieve genuine change within the larger sociological structures.
2 references outside the reading list:
Miller, M. (2020). What Is ‘Visual Sustainability,’ and How Can Designers Challenge Power Through Form? [online] Eye on Design. Available at: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-is-visual-sustainability-and-how-can-designers-challenge-power-through-form/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2026].
The article addressed many questions that came to mind when I started thinking about sustainability in design and how this can be achieved in different ways for this project. It deepened my understanding of sustainability in design. In this brief we had to confront difficult questions on what Graphic Communication Design can mean within bigger and more complex topics such as climate justice. When it comes to graphic design and sustainability, it is easy to think that printing less and drawing attention to the problem is the only thing we as designers can do about climate change. The article beautifully outlines the different levels at which design can effectively address sustainability. This was very interesting for our research because we were looking for ways to move away from an awareness campaign and transform it into a structural and effective way of achieving change in the context of sustainability. For me personally the article gives me a sense of perspective in the debate of design in climate change. It shows that not all decisions need to be radical to be meaningful.
Alistair Hall (2024). Sustainable Graphic Design – We Made This short guide. [online] We Made This. Available at: https://wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2024/01/sustainable-graphic-design/
The reference talks about how graphic designers can reduce their environmental impact by adapting into sustainable changes in print and digital design. The article shows a great variety of different options and decisions a designer can make when thinking about reducing their environmental impact. Seeing all these options really showed what changes can be done on different scales. I feel like that was an important aspect of our research. The one thing about this reference that bothers me is the tone of voice the author uses. It is written with a blaming attitude towards design and it practices. This tone is noticeably judgemental. The tone of voice was a big part of our project, because we wanted to make reducing your environmental impact accessible and one that’s encouraging. I think a big part of dealing with a problem as big as climate change, it is important to show the importance of it without making people scared or feel bad. Because fear of blame can be overwhelming and makes people paralysed from making changes.
2 design practices/ projects:
Tree, E. (2026). What do children have to say about climate change? This collaborative poster series investigates. [online] Itsnicethat.com. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/my-pockets-day-one-graphic-design-project-200125 [Accessed 16 Feb. 2026]
“The Day One” is a screen-printing project about climate change that is created with young people and children. In the early stages of the project, this reference helped me to think about what I wanted to achieve with our research and visual communication. It was important that we emphasised the significance of the message, but when we were looking for visual practices that could be applied to this type of information, this reference clearly showed us how that could be done. How to approach the reality of the data in a light-hearted way was the main question I struggled with because we were dealing with a lot of heavy data on a big global topic. As quoted in Tree (2026), the organisers stated “We want people to see the prints and feel a bit less paralysed by fear, a bit more mischievous and a bit more hopeful that there are lots of people who want things to get better.” For me this quote really encapsulates the way I wanted to approach the data and our inquiry.
A. Rafii, A. (2025). Homepage – Icarus Complex. [online] Icarus Complex. Available at: https://icaruscomplexmagazine.com/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2026].
Icarus Complex is an independent media outlet that explores the systemic roots of climate crisis. They highlight different innovative ideas that address climate change across a variety of scales. For our practice Icarus Complex was a good example to see how we could integrate a solution-oriented mission in our inquiry and project. Data can be overwhelming and unclear when you look at it. So, it was important to find a way to visualise it in a way that communicates the impact and the influence of it while remaining clear to the observer. The decision to narrow the research down to the individual person meant that, rather than turning it into a kind of blame campaign, it was important to show that small changes are also important in the grand scheme of data. Therefore, the Icarus complex was a good reference for the inquiry to reflect on how we could proceed in a solution-oriented manner in our project. This would enable us to use graphic communication design to investigate whether this could truly influence behaviour and what is important to make complex data meaningful.
Bibliography
Alistair Hall (2024). Sustainable Graphic Design – We Made This short guide. [online] We Made This. Available at: https://wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2024/01/sustainable-graphic-design/.
A. Rafii, A. (2025). Homepage – Icarus Complex. [online] Icarus Complex. Available at: https://icaruscomplexmagazine.com/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2026].
Drucker, J. (2014). Graphesis. Harvard University Press, pp.180–192.
Laranjo, F. (2014). Critical Graphic Design: Critical of What? | Modes of Criticism. [online] modesofcriticism.org. Available at: https://modesofcriticism.org/critical-graphic-design/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2026].
Miller, M. (2020). What Is ‘Visual Sustainability,’ and How Can Designers Challenge Power Through Form? [online] Eye on Design. Available at: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-is-visual-sustainability-and-how-can-designers-challenge-power-through-form/ [Accessed 17 Feb. 2026].
Tree, E. (2026). What do children have to say about climate change? This collaborative poster series investigates. [online] Itsnicethat.com. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/my-pockets-day-one-graphic-design-project-200125 [Accessed 16 Feb. 2026].
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