You can power people power
Climate Emergency Fund is the world’s premier funder of disruptive climate action. They are safe bridge between funders and activists at the cutting edge of the climate movement. The visual identity we created for them is bold and simple. It doesn’t shy away from the urgency of our situation – instead it shines out as a beacon of hope in times of crises. The visual language solidifies the organisation’s clarity of message around the climate and ecological emergency, as well as its theory of change around how to tackle it effectively.
With/for: Climate Emergency Fund (2026)
The symbol is a siren, an emergency signal, our planet on fire, the sun and a beacon in the dark.
Climate Emergency Fund’s excellence relies on the trust they have built with activists and funders. By adding a warm and handmade element into the identity we allow their professional communications to hold onto that personal touch.
Together with illustrator Agnes Florin, we developed a set of 12 illustrations. Created with flexibility in mind they act as icons for program areas, but can also be used to illustrate slides, or break up a long text.
Emergency Heavy – Climate Emergency Fund’s custom typeface – is strong and unapologetic and communicates the urgency of the crisis. It is uppercase only and contains three subtly different versions of each letter, reflecting the variations present in the logotype and the natural inconsistency of wood type – or hand painted banners.
Emergency Heavy is drawn by E Chester / bspk.xyz, taking its starting starting point in Obbligato – a typeface he originally designed for the New York City Opera:
“The overall weight was increased, and the letterforms were treated as though they were old wood type: top and bottom curves flattened, lowercase jettisoned, descending elements eliminated. These weren't arbitrary stylistic choices but a conscious reference to the urgency of letterpress-printed broadsheets and street-level communication. The result is a typeface that foregrounds immediacy over perfection – a design philosophy that mirrors the Climate Emergency Fund's own mission.”
The second identity typeface for Climate Emergency Fund is called Esperanza – Spanish for ‘hope’.
Esperanza is a stencil typeface inspired by the lettering stamped into stoneware manufactured in the the Athens Pottery Works, Hudson Valley in the 1900’s.
Stencils have long been used as an accessible method to affix messages of resistance onto walls or pavements, making this typeface appropriate for a funder of grassroots groups around the world.
Climate Emergency Fund is black and white about the crisis and how we must collectively confront it and the colour scheme reflects this.
The diverse range of grantees add color to the visuals through photos of their campaigns from the frontlines of the movement.
Safe black #000f0f
The secondary color is emergency orange. The crisis, forest fire skies, an emergency siren, a beacon in the dark. It is used for highlights and calls to action.
The tertiary color is blue like a safe harbour, hopeful skies, or a legal route to fund the movement for change. Its used when the hierarchy calls for a secondary accent color.
Tax-deductible white #fbfbf8
