OPINION
How often in exhibition design have you seen eco messaging expressed through the colour green , backed up by planting and visuals ranging from photos of planet earth to illustrations of footprints , fingerprints and flowers - or portraits of appealing-looking children to embody a sense of the future ?
The same words and phrases will inevitably be in evidence too : ‘ eco ’, ‘ green ’, ‘ sustainable ’, ‘ carbon-neutral ’ and talk of hope ‘ for a positive future ’.
Climate change is without doubt the most pressing issue facing us - and yet there ’ s a sense of audience fatigue . If it ’ s true that visitors are succumbing to word and image blindness , they ’ re no longer hearing very important messaging . And , in the long term , that affects us all .
The exhibition industry needs to take responsibility for presenting so many eco clichés . It ’ s high time we stepped back and made messaging fresher by devising more original and convincing words and images - as well , of course , as continuing to walk the walk by creating more sustainable builds and improving the disposal and re-use of materials . There ’ s still a huge progress gap to be closed .
These grand aims do not come without challenges , however . By far the easiest to address is the question of graphics and messaging . Colour is a powerful and understood universal language , yet nature isn ’ t all green-for-grass , blue-for-sky and yellow-for-sunshine .
Moving beyond eco clichés
Ignition ’ s head of operations Sam Morris and client partnership director Katy Evans call for greater consideration when planning sustainable messaging and design
Sam Morris and Katy Evans outline the issues behind current eco designs
Nature contains every imaginable hue , from the greys and browns of rocks and trees to the rainbow examples of flora , so there ’ s just no need to use the most obvious colours . As for imagery and language ,
“ Nature isn ’ t all green-for-grass , blue-for-sky and yellow-forsunshine .” there are so many talented illustrators , graphic designers and copywriters out there . Set them a brief to combat the clichés . The risk of not being listened to is too high not to be taken seriously .
The challenge of moving beyond eco clichés gets tougher after that . Take biophilia for example . This much-used word translates as the tendency of humans to focus on and affiliate with nature and other life forms and , in the built environment , to the study of how people are affected by nature indoors too , encompassing everything from natural light and circadian rhythms to the blurring of outdoor and inside lines .
Unfortunately , this vast subject is often reduced to lip service in exhibition design in the form of plastic plants , with even Astroturf being used on occasion to ‘ represent ’ nature .
Why is this happening ?
Winter — 67