American Family Institute
The AmFam Institute asked NationSwell Studio to design a program focused on the needs and thought leadership of Youth Climate Advocates.
We knew that 80% of Gen Z consumers think companies should take action to address social issues. But the majority of Americans (56%!) don’t trust the current capitalist systems to do that, nor do they consider the business community to be a partner in progress.
Our driving insight: Outside of grassroots movements, young people are the most overlooked and under-resourced leaders in the climate movement. And if they can’t get a seat at the table alongside governments and large corporations, then that’s the problem we need to solve.
We spent the next year in an empathy-research phase. We listened to young climate activists and advocates – their concerns, their hopes, their demands – and created a Theory of Change to guide our work in response. As we moved through the program, the Theory of Change was tested and evolved based on input from the Youth Climate Advocates (“YCAs”).
When the framework was completed, we took our improved knowledge about this demographic, and wove it into a visual identity system for what we would call YCC (Youth Climate Collaborative).
We focused on three regions within the United States - Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes Region, and South West. Each location's identity system featured colorized satellite images of the region's topography, and a logo that spoke to that specific environment.
