Focusing on hope, connections, and impact

Think of climate change, and the images that immediately spring to mind are melting ice floes, burning Amazon forests, and a bleak future. It’s enough to make you feel despondent or passive. Yet climate activism is more important now than ever before as we have less than 10 years to halt our current climate change.

That’s why we worked with Greenpeace Netherlands to launch a major public campaign: Make Future. After all, it’s not too late.

Finding a common thread.

Drawing on the latest insights into effective system change, we developed a campaign that calls for three acts:

• Make friends
• Make trouble
• Make future

Why? Because by working together, by breaking rules (what civil rights activist John Lewis calls ‘good trouble’), and by speaking up, we can change the future.

We also wanted to change the frightening images often used for the climate movement. Instead, we wanted to view climate activism differently. That’s why we used bold typography and rainbow colouring reminiscent of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior in the Make Future design and identity. We called this playful and optimistic style ‘feel good trouble’ and used this attitude to adapt it to any and all communication channels – online, in print, or in outdoor events.

The power of nature and people.

Amongst the successful parts of this campaign, two highlights stand out.

Firstly, the epic film directed by Paul Geusebroek of HALAL. His film, A towering wave, avoids climate conventions and jargon, turning ‘Make Future’ into an iconic metaphor that brings together the power of nature and people with a simple message: make friends, make trouble, make future.

Plus, in the run-up to the Dutch parliamentary elections in March 2024, metres-high outdoor displays and a huge poster campaign called for people to act and make politics green. This included other ‘feel good trouble’ activations throughout the year that were organised on the Make Future platform.