Artist Circle on Climate Displacement

The Stakes

UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute convened a six-month Artists Circle on Climate Displacement. The institute needed a public home for the circle's learnings, projects, and questions, one that could carry the depth of the work and reach people well beyond the original cohort.

The Constraints

• Six months of collaborative, multi-voice artistic research to shape into one coherent publication.
• A general public audience, not just researchers or the artists themselves.
• The site had to stay useful after the program ended.

Key Decisions

• Visuals from the research itself. I based the illustrations on metaphors the participants used, so the site's look came out of the work rather than being applied to it.
• A multi-section web publication. Projects, findings, and open questions each get their own section, so visitors can skim or go deep.
• Yellow for urgency and hope. The palette centers on yellow, a color that can hold both at once.

The Outcome

The site is still live on the institute's website, with community boards that continue to draw people into conversation around climate displacement, art, and storytelling.