planet first design
Amplify your voice with graphics to promote your brand’s podcasts or webcasts. Authentic messages combined with a design approach that considers the planet first to increase your organisation’s impact.
spreading your message
Social media post images, carousels, grids, stickers and stories designed to communicate and resonate with your followers. Crafted content to inform and expand your organisation’s reach.
delivering solutions
Working closely with the education sector or with your local community? Let’s produce some meaningful educational toolkits, to help your organisation inspire and motivate the next generation.
“His fantastic eye for design, his ability to ‘get inside the needs, aspirations and spirit of the project.”
Reading time: 2 minutes
A sustainable career move
One question I asked myself during the pandemic lockdowns – can graphic design be a catalyst for climate action? There is a silver lining that I witnessed from many working in the creative community during this period of reflection. We’ve been given a chance to reset. More questions surfaced, like can design influence a meaningful change to humanity? It can feel rather overwhelming. Where do you start? How do I find fulfilling design work, with a higher purpose but still make a sustainable income for my family. During my research I stumbled upon the US based Climate Designers community of creatives and I joined their UK chapter. Their mission:
“To provide the resources, knowledge, and community for designers to take climate action in the work they do. To inspire, motivate, and graduate climate designers by providing climate-focused resources for design educators.”
This online platform has provided inspiration, support and resources to help me become a more climate conscious designer and through Garlic Agency, I’m hoping to spark change through creativity. I have worked pro bono for UK charity ClimateScience, who create fun and easy-to-understand, reliable climate change resources for education. More recently, I worked on a social media campaign with charity Rewriting Extinction, a global collaboration aiming to save as many species from extinction as humanly possible. You can read more about my design business and personal values on my about page.
Barriers and boundaries
Climate change and therefore climate action is intrinsically complex but one constant is that the majority of scientists agree it’s real. Climate change affects people disproportionately. Research by Oxfam shows that the world’s richest 10% of people cause 50% of emissions. Whilst developing countries with ineffective governments and widespread poverty face the most profound risks from the extreme environmental changes. So how can my design agency begin to overcome these seemingly insurmountable hurdles?
- Help clients move away from convenience and conventional thinking by promoting use of the circular economy model – Take less. Make less. Waste less.
- Support charities and organisations working in the climate sector at discounted rates (or pro bono), to spread their campaign messages.
- Cutting down trees to disseminate knowledge seems rather hypocritical! I will be scaling back printed materials for clients and for my own business. Any print that is absolutely necessary will be carefully considered and produced sustainably.
- Provide sustainable website solutions for clients with carbon neutral hosting.
- Continue to be an active member of the Climate Designers community.
- Fund and be an active member of Only One charity founded by SeaLegacy.
- Dedicate my Instagram account to raising awareness and sharing resources about climate change, sustainability and environmental issues.
Changing the tide
Designing with the environment in mind. Considering what impact the project will have on the planet. The Planet, People, Profit (PPP) methodology feels more inclusive and more widely accessible, compared to previous design approaches. We should learn from the global pandemic. We should be asking ourselves what we can do, and we should be listening to climate change experts to educate ourselves.
Now it’s time to take action!
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Climate awareness and action deliverables
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Animated Key Messages
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Branded Web Banners
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Campaign Creative
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Demonstration Placards
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Educational Materials
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Fundraising Toolkits
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Google banner ads
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Guerrilla Marketing
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Inspiring Infographics
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Instagram Posts + Stories
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Scientific Reports + Documents
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Social Media Campaigns
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Third Sector websites and specific landing pages (designed & developed in Wix or WordPress)
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“A lot of effort is focused on background research and impressively well-thought out ideas and proposals.”
Why choose Garlic?
We are committed to and working towards sustainable business practices. If printed materials are necessary, then we recommend that our clients use paper sourced from well managed forests (FSC) and biodegradable inks if possible. We are a proud 1% for the Planet member, committing 1% of our annual income to support environmental organisations.
Garlic’s clients will testify to our ability to listen attentively, to understand the complexity of their product or service and to remain focussed throughout the design process. We’re passionate and committed about delivering tangible results for your business. View client testimonials here
Working closely together with clients, we aspire to be considered as a valued team member rather than an external supplier. We pride ourselves in being responsive, embracing the challenge of being a part of the growth and development of our clients businesses. Our FAQ page explains how we work
Our design process ensures projects meet deadlines and stay on budgets but also helps to spark our clients thinking. Clients expect us to voice an opinion, to challenge them, and to push the creative boundaries towards the deadline. Don’t worry if you’re new to briefing design projects – view our design process here
With over 25 years diverse graphic design experience in both print and digital, we are confident we can deliver creative solutions to surpass your expectations. Garlic has now successfully completed over 3,500 design and branding projects, all perfectly seasoned with creativity. See the creative results for yourself
creative conversations
Discuss a new project
Working from either my Istanbul studio or back in the UK, Garlic provides clients with a full stack of graphic design services and ongoing support. Use the form below to request a virtual meeting or a WhatsApp call.
