Collins’ identity for a new climate movement emulates the healing feeling of sitting in the sun

Collins has designed the identity for a new global day of climate action, Sun Day, conceived by environmental activist Bill McKibben and Denis Hayes, the founders of the original Earth Day. With a strong focus on creating the necessary momentum for clean energy transition, the visual identity focuses on the collective and healing power of solar.

Inspired by the success of the first Earth Day way back in 1970, which led to the creation of the Clean Air II, Endangered Species and Clean Water acts in the US, Sun Day is a movement about action rather than invention – what can we do with the tools we already have to return nutrition to our planet? “The hard part – technology – has been solved,” says Collins founder Brian Collins. “What remains is the work of building the regulatory frameworks and securing the funding to deploy it at scale and speed. For so long, the sun’s heat was cast as a threat. Today, it is a solution.”

Bill McKibben, who has worked with Collins previously on 350.org and The Third Act, approached the design studio with a deceptively difficult question: how does mankind build an idea and design approach that feels cohesive enough to unify millions, yet still leaves space for personal, grassroots action? Signifying an inflection point in the climate fight, Sun Day’s visual identity communicates unity and health, much like the feeling of sitting in the sun.

The logo depicts half an image of a sun with interchangeable graphics on the other side, communicating mobility and culture. “Every logo, wordmark, and poster leaves the circle incomplete. It demands completion by the individual – an invitation to physically ‘finish the sun’ and join the cause,” says Brian. The flexibility of the logo embodies Bill’s mantra: “the most important thing an individual can do is be less of an individual.” The typeface, described as “living”, was built in collaboration with the foundry Commercial Type, and comes in three variants: Sun Day Print, Brush and Outline, referencing the handmade urgency of protest posters. Participants can fill them in, redraw and remix, all built for collective authorship.

Collins know that every protest must also live digitally, so it created a space for digital organisation. “For that, we turned to the remarkable people at garden3d who helped us ideate and build the digital experience for the Sun Day participant platform,” says Brian. “They developed a web app that would allow for everyone from Tulsa to Tahiti to draw their own sun and place it in a global gallery – so people could instantly see themselves as part of this emerging, global community.” Also acting as a bulletin board to learn about events in the nearby area, the identity centralises international momentum as the mission objective. The inspiring approach to activism brings people together in politics, art and community with no-frills design and a focus on clean energy. After all, we all live under the same sun.