Climify

Season 2: Episode 7 – Gabrielle Merite

What convinces someone to commit to climate action? Why isn’t the terrifying data enough for some? Politics? Religion? Geography? Culture? Do we need better design? All of the above. Scientist and information designer Gabrielle Mérite explains why if you want to help convince people to act on the climate you want to connect to their culture and community, and maybe not mention the word climate at all.

Originally from France, Gabrielle Mérite is an information designer specializing in empathetic data visualizations for truth-seeking, ethically driven organizations. Deeply passionate about social justice and humanity’s responsibility for one another, her work breathes life into numbers so people can genuinely feel their importance. After receiving an M.S in Biology and working for several years as a scientific journalist, she exchanged words for illustrations, to communicate analytic findings visually, with honesty and compassion. Since then, she has worked with ethically-driven and creative organizations like the United Nations, UNICEF, Pentagram, and WeTransfer, to help uncover truths and share them with intention.

On the web

gabriellemerite.com

twitter.com/data_soul

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Season 2: Episode 6 – Stephen Nesbitt

Did you know low-lying clouds cool the climate or that communities designed in a grid can limit extreme weather events? We didn’t, and it’s likely fair to say you might not have either. In this episode, Atmospheric Scientist and Professor Stephen Nesbitt shares his expertise in clouds, meteorology, and climate technologies illuminating ways designers can create more climate resilient communities and engaging climate stories.

Prof. Nesbitt leads a research group in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, where his research and teaching interests reside in the remote sensing of precipitation using radar and passive microwave sensors, mesoscale meteorology, cloud dynamics, and microphysics, land-atmosphere interaction, numerical simulation, data science, and high-performance computation. He has taught courses in synoptic and mesoscale meteorology and weather forecasting, remote sensing, radar meteorology, tropical meteorology, mesoscale modeling, and geophysical data analysis. He has participated in 21 field campaigns on 5 continents and was the principal investigator of the international NSF/NASA/NOAA RELAMPAGO field campaign to study high-impact weather in Argentina in 2018-2019, which studied the intersection of weather, climate, hydrology, high impact weather in subtropical South America.

twitter.com/70_DBZ

swnesbitt.com

illinois.edu/profile/snesbitt

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Season 2: Episode 5 – Chandra Christmas-Rouse

What do you want your community to look like? What would you like our future to be? We are all part of the problem and the solution. The future isn’t written and the climate crisis will unfold based on our collective and individual actions. It can be a terrible global catastrophe or a more managed set of problems that we can adapt to. What if we chose to restore our communities and the natural world instead of falling into despair and inaction? Urban planner and afrofuturist Chandra Christmas Rouse shares in this episode how her faith in design and humanity can create a world we want and deserve.

Chandra Christmas-Rouse joined Metropolitan Planning Council in March 2022 as Equitable and Sustainable Communities Manager. A background in community development and environmental justice informs her design approach of working with community stakeholders in a participatory process to support capacity building, achieve place-based solutions, and reimagine systems. Chandra supports MPC’s housing and water policy and equitable transit-oriented development (eTOD) programs by advancing research, policy advocacy, and outreach efforts. 

Prior to joining MPC, Chandra developed program, policy, and capital initiatives with local partners that focus on environmental resilience, equitable transit-oriented development (eTOD), and healing-centered engagement at Enterprise Community Partners. Her past experiences include integrating policy and strategy consulting with technical knowledge to advance economic mobility and sustainability for a number of organizations and firms including UN-Habitat and Jacobs Engineering Group. 

Additionally, as an interdisciplinary creative and educator, Chandra creates participatory projects that engage local Black geographies, histories, and spatial imaginaries. She has been named a 2020 Threewalls RaDLab+Outside the Walls Artist Fellow. She serves as the co-chair of Elevated Chicago and on the board of Equiticity. Chandra holds a BA in Environmental Sciences & Policy with distinction from Duke University and a Master of Urban Planning from Harvard Graduate School of Design.

maplibsproject.com

metroplanning.org

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Season 2: Episode 4 – Sadie Red Wing

It took just a hundred years time to devastate thousands of years of knowledge and culture when colonizers stole North America from the indigenous peoples. To this day, much of the Western world ignores their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which holds many solutions to our climate crisis. What if agribusinesses healed the soil, instead of depleting it? What if designers knew how to make their own inks from plants, papers from grasses, and other objects without damaging the planet? What if what we made with Gaia’s gifts regenerated her like the Buffalo does the soil? Lakota designer Sadie Red Wing explains more about all of this and more in this episode of Climify.

Sadie Red Wing is a Lakota graphic designer and advocates from the Spirit Lake Nation of Fort Totten, North Dakota. Red Wing earned her BFA in New Media Arts and Interactive Design at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She received her Master of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University. Her research on cultural revitalization through design tools and strategies created a new demand for tribal competence in graphic design research. Red Wing urges Native American graphic designers to express visual sovereignty in their design work, as well as, encourages academia to include an indigenous perspective in the design curriculum. Currently, Red Wing serves as an Assistant Professor at OCAD University (Toronto, ONT).

sadieredwing.com

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Season 2: Episode 3 – Kate Yoder

How we rebrand climate change is the million-dollar question. The solution is not one big rebrand, but many specific messages that connect better with different diverse groups of people, where recipes for climate action inspire others to make their own sustainability decisions. Learn more in this episode about what is needed to change your unsustainable habits and people you know, what doesn’t work to motivate others to act, why we need to celebrate climate progress, and the importance of designing through removing (and not making) from Kate Yoder, a climate journalist at Grist Magazine.

Kate Yoder is a staff writer at Grist covering climate change with a focus on language, culture, history, and behavior. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Mother Jones, and Wired, and her essay "War of Words" won a Folio Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism.

twitter.com/katemyoder

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Season 2: Episode 2 – Weslynne Ashton

Our current human-centered cradle-to-grave design process only exacerbates our waste woes and worsens the climate crisis. How then can the designer transition their process away from this to one that creates to value and improve all life? A first step could be to understand the potential negative impacts of our work, to avoid them in the future. To see what those impacts could be, designers need to understand that everything is connected; a principle that is embedded in life-centered systems thinking. In this episode, Dr. Weslynne Ashton provides you with a better understanding of life-centered systems thinking, how she uses it in her classes and research, and provides readings and resources so you can begin your journey using systems thinking in your own design work and classroom.

Ashton+Dahle 2022 Systems and Systems Theory Seminar

Nogueira-etal 2019 RCR Expanding perceptions of circular economy - 8 capitals

Dr. Ashton is a sustainable systems scientist, whose research, teaching, and practice are oriented around transitioning our socio-ecological systems towards sustainability and equity. She studies the adoption of socially and environmentally responsible strategies in business, and the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in addressing social and environmental challenges. Her research is grounded in industrial ecology and the circular economy. Her current work focuses on increasing sustainability and equity in urban food systems and developing regenerative economies in post-industrial regions, newly industrializing countries, and small island states.

id.iit.edu/people/weslynne-ashton

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

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Season 2: Episode 1 – Dr. Jacquelyn Gill

Do you wonder if the little things you do to help fight our climate crisis matter? You’re not alone. Maine-based paleoecologist Dr. Jacquelyn Gill shares with Eric the amazing power of embracing hope over wallowing in despair to battle for every fraction of a degree. Tune in to learn more about why little things do matter, Jacquelyn’s thoughts on how designers play an important role in telling stories of climate data, and why designing on longer timescales helps make the most responsible creations.

“Discourses of Climate Delay”, the climate article mentioned by Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Gill is an ecologist and biogeographer interested in how landscapes change through space and time. She combines an interdisciplinary approach and a deep-time perspective to inform conservation and ecology. Here, she writes about ecology and climate change over time from the last ice age to the present day, and how our understanding of the past can help prepare us for the future. She also writes about Academia, diversity in STEM, science communication, and the occasional dung fungus.

In Fall 2013, Jacquelyn joined the University of Maine as an Assistant Professor of Paleoecology & Plant Ecology with the School of Biology & Ecology and the Climate Change Institute. In addition to geeking out in the lab, in the field, and online, she enjoys games, knitting, science fiction, discovering new craft cocktails, cuddling her furry mesofauna, and exploring Maine’s forests, rivers, and islands.  

twitter.com/JacquelynGill

contemplativemammoth.com

beastlab.net

warmregardspodcast.com

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

« Back to episodes

Episode 17 – Eric Benson & Marc O’Brien

Climate Designers co-founder Marc O’Brien joins Eric to discuss their eight major takeaways from season one of Climify. What did the climate experts think we should teach in the classroom? What impact did Climify have on the design community? What should we discuss on season two and who should we invite to the program?

Climate Designers EDU

Climate Change Solutions Need the Design Educator, Now

Climify Design Assignments

Marc’s Twitter Example

Marc O’Brien
Marc O'Brien is a climate designer, strategist, and educator. He co-founded The Determined, a design strategy and creative consulting studio making climate-focused projects look good, sound awesome, be seen, and get the support they need.

Marc also co-founded Climate Designers, a hub for designers and creative professionals from all industries, committed to using our creative skills for climate action.

Since 2013, Marc has been teaching part time at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA where he teaches undergrads and grads in both the Graphic Design department and Interaction Design.

He geeks out talking about design and climate, how creativity can address global warming, and how designers can take climate action in the work they do. When not behind his laptop, he's out trail running, hiking, camping, traveling, hanging with friends at one of the many city parks, or exploring SF on my bamboo bike.  

marcobrien.net

linkedin.com/in/marcmobrien

Theme music by Casual Motive

At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.

« Back to episodes

Episode 5 – Deep Dive series

This episode references Climify’s Episode 5 – Fitbit for the Planet Design with Katie Patrick

In this episode, we are inspired by behavioral design and how this type of design can actively create change. We talk about giving power to creativity and vision while pushing away negativity and “doom”. We think about breaking down behavioral design into smaller steps and smaller initiatives to see measurable change. Rachel specifically reflects on her minor in Psychology and discusses the ways design psychology can be improved for future students. Furthermore, we discuss how we would like to see behavioral design implemented into the classroom like through UI/UX design and gamifying design. Lastly, we stress the importance of educators being real with their students while demonstrating hope and creative vision. 

Behavior Design

Value Action Gap

What's Behavioral Design?

Why Optimism and Creativity (Not Doom) Will Save the Planet, Katie Patrick Tedx Talk

katiepatrick.com

Deep Dive is a Climify miniseries that explores opportunities for climate education through the eyes of recent design students. As new grads now working the 9-to-5, we’ll discuss themes centering around climate design and what educators can do to approach these topics. The classroom needs to see more intersectionality between design and climate, and we’re here to advocate for that.

Rachel Cifarelli
Rachel is a freelance graphic designer and researcher using her skills to support and uplift those who are making the world a more sustainable place.

She received her B.A. in communication design from Elon University, where she realized she was actually good at designing content more extensive than birthday cards. Rachel also always knew she was an environmentalist, but it took her a long time to figure out how to blend these two passions of design and sustainability together. It wasn't until she discovered Climate Designers that she saw a whole new career path unfold in front of her, one where she could make a living doing something she loves. Today Rachel works with environmentally-minded organizations and businesses on projects like branding, fact sheets, promotional materials, and digital assets. Some of her clients include Sierra Club, Bedford 2030, and Brooklyn Organic Kitchen.

Rachel is also a researcher working on New Wave, a joint project with Climate Designers. What originally started as a class project during undergrad has grown into a sponsored research project that has garnered lots of support and participation. The goal of this research is to inform design educators how student designers understand sustainability in the design field and how they might like to see sustainability incorporated into their design curriculum. She wants to be part of establishing the climate design education in undergraduate universities that she never got from her own.

Outside of work, Rachel enjoys reading, taking walks around her neighborhood, and visiting the best local eateries and breweries in her town.

rachelcifarelli.com

linkedin.com/in/rachelcifarelli

instagram.com/rachelcifarelli

Grace Turcich
Grace is a Chicago-based graphic designer working at a marketing agency. She earned her BFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Graphic Design. Since Grace’s transition from a full-time student to a full-time employee, she wants to know what else she can do for the climate. As a new climate designer, she is constantly learning how design and climate are intersectional. Grace hopes to discover new ways of learning, how to challenge the status quo, and become part of the solution within the fight for climate action.

In her freetime, when she is not fighting for the planet, Grace is painting nail art, hiking, and baking a new recipe.

Follow Grace’s climate design blog on instagram @unearthclimatedesign and her website grace-turcich.com.

instagram.com/unearthclimatedesign

@climifypodcast

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