Adaptive Dwellers is an interactive exhibition that explores the role of design in humanity’s adaptation to a world devastated by climate change.
Exhibited during NYCxDesign at
Wanted Design Manhattan
Collaborators: See full list here
My Roles:
• Graphic Design and Branding Lead
• Research & Strategy
• Spatial Design
• Art Direction
• Social Media
Premise
Students of the SVA MFA Products of Design present Adaptive Dwellers—a speculative, interactive exhibition that explores how a group of 18 displaced individuals in the year 2100 survives in the aftermath of environmental cataclysms caused by global warming. Unique survival tools, shelter, clothing, and survival strategies provoke conversation about deep adaptation in a catastrophically altered world.
The exhibition takes its cues from the research and predictions of leading climate scientists. By 2100, global warming is predicted to have risen by as much as 4°C; much of the world will become uninhabitable due to heat stress, desertification, water stress, constant flooding, and widespread airborne and vector-borne diseases.
This speculative scenario takes place inside a model home pavilion that invites visitors to learn essential survival skills and the urgency of their participation in mitigating current acts of ecological damage.
Exhibition Highlights
Branding
Inspiration:
The visual identity for Adaptive Dwellers took inspiration from the Whole Earth Catalog, Bauhaus, and the Land Art Movement.
We wanted to center the exhibition around the concepts of agency, collaboration, and adaptation to counter dominant apocalyptic narratives about the aftermath of climate change. The model home is a participatory space for learning and engaging in open conversations about climate change and survival.
Logo, Typeface & Color Palette:
The final logo is derived from an exploration of the conversation between the letter forms of “A” and “D” and geometries that elicit a pictorial reference to adaptation and optimism. The logo form references both the collective’s initials and a sun rising above a roof (of the model home). A lot of consideration of also given to how the logo would manifest throughout different exhibition components—from wayfinding to costumes to marketing collateral.
As for typography, the use of a mono font, Monosten, is intended to evoke a vintage feel, a move away from current trends of bold sans serif branding, as a way to capture the visitor’s attention.
The color palette is a bright and bold to further emphasize the exhibition as a space for agency and collaboration. The four colors chosen also reference one of the four elements that are central to the exhibition’s interactions.
Logo Iterations
Art Direction:
The art direction for social media and marketing material integrates the visual identity and color palettes with the story of the 18 Adaptive Dwellers collective. The photoshoots reference propaganda posters and collectivist movements, and also showcases the tools that were designed for the exhibition narrative. The tone is intended to be inviting and promoting an open-source and DIY mindset through branded instructional posters and postcards that share the research on basic survival skills.
Spatial Design
Concept:
For both aesthetic and functional reasons, we designed a booth that was modular and skeletal in form. The structure was initially built and prototyped inside SVA PoD’s studio and then transported to the site at WantedDesign—therefore, we design a pavilion that can be taken apart and put together easily while maintaining structural integrity.
Renderings by Sherry Wu
Inspiration:
The main sources of inspiration for the architecture of the exhibition came from an exploration of temporary structures in both art, trade show, and live-in shelter contexts. We wanted the shape to reference the typology of a generic home, while creating a semi-transparent skeletal structure from wood and corrugated plastic to indicate that it is a space that is not entirely inhabitable.
