With artificial intelligence firmly established as part of our daily lives, climate change presenting an ongoing threat for decades to come and younger generations eager to join the conversation, creative design needs to reflect the immense impact of the concepts it is representing. Now more than ever, visuals are required to help humans envision a future that is hopeful.
Branding needs to be able to reflect the concerns and aspirations of audiences. A strong visual narrative can help evoke a range of emotions from viewers and inspire them to think critically about the world around them.
TEDxSydney’s events this year have centred around forces of change – carbon emissions, artificial intelligence and the power of younger generations. For each of these events, our creative partner, The Being Group, have aimed to craft visual identities that represent these concepts in a positive way.
With all their design endeavours, The Being Group believe collaboration is the best way to create impactful work. They regularly brainstorm their ideas with us using the Figma platform. This process was particularly important when developing the visual identity for our most recent youth event: “we created a mood board annotated with rationales in Figma. This included many different creative directions using outside references we found and our own experimentation. We then sent the mood board to TEDx who provided feedback along with their chosen creative concept.”
All three of our projects together have been driven by abstract concepts, allowing the design components to “communicate the big idea while still acting as a springboard for the viewer’s imagination.” To spark curiosity in audiences, The Being Group strayed away from literal or cliched representations of what the future might look like. For example, branding for our Net Positive Salon event did not include imagery of trees.
Although these forces of change have the power to dramatically shift the fabric of society, The Being Group believe that modern design should always enable viewers to consider the power of possibility.
“As a collective humanity, we all have enough anxiety about the future. But change comes from hope and not dread, so we want our designs to have an optimistic tone. When viewing the events’ communication, people should feel inspired to hear about new ideas and be part of changes that will improve the world.”
Like many of our speakers and guests, The Being Group’s approach strives to break down barriers. As they put it, “challenging or disrupting the status quo is pretty much why most creatives do what they do. Working with TEDx allows us to do just that. Our values and spirit for curiosity align beautifully. As a collective creative team, we’re not afraid to take risks and it has paid off.”
Their work utilises bright colours, sharp contrasts and movement to reflect the chaos and constant changes within our world.
“Motion is an incredibly integral part in any communication. We can encapsulate so much more in simple (or complex) motion than a static design or image ever could. With a predominantly digital approach to all our projects, motion is often the starting point when we conceptualise ideas.”
In a world bombarded by constant imagery, vague and stagnant designs that fail to reflect the impact of change will no longer serve a purpose in the creative space. Cut-through content that audiences can connect with on an emotional and intellectual level is the future of visual storytelling – a future that is hopeful.
For more information about The Being Group, head to their website here.