Artists for the Earth
Designer of UN Sustainable Development Goals logo makes Earth Day 2020 banners
February 28, 2020
What does Earth Day and German composer Johann Sebastian Bach have in common? The new Earth Day 2020 banners, according to renowned designer Jakob Trollbäck.
Asked about the look of the banners, which he and his colleague Nanna Göransson designed for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Trollbäck said it’s the visual equivalent to Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” — a composition of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys.
The banner’s connection to the composition, said Trollbäck, hinges on the banner’s Helvetica font, a font first developed as modern, neutral, and clear capable of universal use — much like Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” incorporates all 24 keys of the instrument and is thus used by many musicians.
In addition to font, shape and colors are also important for the banner. Trollbäck, whose Stockholm-based company The New Division promotes sustainability in its designs, is known for colorful logos and clear, unbureaucratic text, as seen in one of the most iconic campaigns of our age: the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Trollbäck uses these same principles for the design and messaging of the Earth Day banners.
“The other aspect of the Earth Day logo was finding harmony, balance and inspiration from the many circles in the text as a result of it having the number 50, for the 50th anniversary, and the year 2020,” said Trollbäck, whose team choose a no-frills look in the European modernist art tradition.
With the words “Let’s Make History” on the banner, the design also echoes the urgency of today’s generation, as well as the youth of 1970, when 20 million protestors took to the street to demand action.
“The phrase ‘Let’s Make History’ is more action orientated, so we used a more oblique style to donate motion,” said Göransson.
The Earth Day banners will be indispensable for the global activities on and around Earth Day’s 50th anniversary on April 22, 2020. Whether you are marching on an EARTHRISE climate strike in the U.S.; at a rally for the Great Global Cleanup in India; doing an Artists for the Earth arts project in Europe, as for example part of the Beethoven Pastoral Project; or collecting data for the citizen science initiative Earth Challenge 2020, get your banners ready and get noticed.
Download The New Division’s blue banner and white banner today.
