Climate Quest

Stylized illustration of a city skyline with tall modern buildings, a prominent tower with a spire, and mountains in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

Group Project (8 weeks)

Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, Figma, SketchUp & Lumion.

Role: Graphic Designer for Logo, Posters, Wayfinding, Illustration,
3D-Mockup & Researcher

An interactive exhibition that transforms climate data into a tangible, emotional experience through an animation, games, and participatory elements. It engages audiences in reflection and collective action toward sustainability.

This exhibition, developed in response to Adobe's challenge, envisions a sustainable future for Aotearoa through immersive, interactive design. Centred on UN Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action, it transforms abstract climate data into an emotional and participatory experience.

By placing Adobe's creative tools at its core, the exhibition empowers young urban Aucklanders to engage with climate issues and recognise their role in shaping a sustainable, inclusive, and connected future.
Our target audience is young urban Aucklanders aged 18–25, a generation that is hyper-connected, creative, and deeply concerned about climate change. While they care about the crisis, many feel overwhelmed by its scale and complexity.

With over 260,000 young adults aged 15–29 in the Auckland region, this is a significant and engaged demographic, active across gaming, social media, and online activism. To reach them, the exhibition speaks their language: interactive, visual, immersive, and emotionally resonant.
How might we turn climate data into a visceral, immersive journey that empowers individuals by visualising the collective power of their choices?
An interactive exhibition that transforms climate data into a tangible, emotional experience through animation, games, and participatory elements. It engages audiences in reflection and collective action toward sustainability.

This is the exhibition floor plan showing a colour-coded wayfinding system that accommodates three entrances. Each entrance is assigned a distinct colour, guiding visitors to the first station. From there, subsequent colours lead visitors through the next stations.

Top-down view of an underground room with blue, eel-like creatures on the floor, a black skull at the bottom, and a black table with a monitor on the far wall.

Infographic Posters

Three illustrated panels discussing climate change impacts on Aotearoa, featuring clouds, water, and environmental motifs.

Cards designed by the other graphic designer, Jess.

A two-panel educational graphic about reducing sea level rise through climate action. The left panel shows instructions to take an action card and scan it, with a smiling cloud character holding a phone. The right panel emphasizes the importance of everyone’s contribution in impacting climate and sea levels, featuring cartoon Earth and Sun characters.

Mobile app screens with a blue sky and cloud theme, about reducing CO2 emissions. The first screen shows a smiling cloud with a 'Scan Card' button, the second screen features a 'Climate Quest' section with a QR code, and the third screen thanks the user for their contribution with a congratulatory message and animated confetti.

The iteration process :

Illustration showing different stages of water flow in a room with a circular layout, demonstrating how water moves and disperses in each stage.

Exhibit with four touchscreen kiosks displaying 'Climate Quest' and a poster about climate change to the left. In the center, a screen shows an animated character with blue hair raising one arm. To the right, part of a white cartoon cloud and text are visible.

The animation and game

A digital display showing a city skyline with a tall tower, cloudy sky, and information about sea level monitoring. To the left, a panel provides instructions about scanning a card, and a tablet on a stand displays a similar interface.

Simple line drawing of a bear with blue eyes.

Empowerment wall, scan the action card to watch the sea level decrease.

A collection of colorful illustrated cards with climate action tips and actions, including topics like local produce shopping, streaming tips to reduce carbon footprint, washing clothes in cold water, composting, switching off appliances, and reducing energy use.

A two-part illustrated educational infographic titled 'Climate Quest'. The left side shows instructions to help reduce rising sea levels by taking sustainable actions, with a smiling cloud character holding a smartphone. The right side encourages scanning an action card to see its impact on climate and sea levels, featuring a pink cloud and ocean background, with cartoon earth and sun characters celebrating everyone's contributions.

Greenhouse gas emissions are steadily warming the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs about 90% of this excess heat, causing seawater to expand. Warmer waters also melt roughly 1.2 trillion tonnes of ice from both hemispheres each year, raising global sea levels by 3.6mm. In some parts of New Zealand, such as Christchurch, the land is gradually sinking due to the 2011 earthquakes. The combination of rising seas and sinking land makes sea level rise even worse.
Rising sea levels are already impacting Aotearoa. This is not a distant problem; it is happening now. Coastal areas in New Zealand are facing more frequent flooding and erosion, especially where the land is also sinking. The effects are not limited to the coast. As more land becomes uninhabitable, more people will be forced to move inland, increasing pressure on already strained cities, infrastructure, and communities.

Floods that once happened only once a century could soon become annual or even monthly events, especially when combined with king tides and storm surges. Despite the urgency and potentially catastrophic consequences, these warnings still feel distant to many people, particularly young urban New Zealanders.

All the data is available, but it is difficult to relate to something that seems so abstract. We realised that facts and numbers alone are not enough. People need to see and emotionally connect with the future to truly care.
In this project, I particularly enjoyed the collaborative nature of working with my team. We were closely involved in each other’s contributions throughout the process, sharing ideas, providing feedback, iterating and refining the work together. This created a strong sense of teamwork and resulted in a more cohesive final outcome.

It was also my first time designing wayfinding for an exhibition, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It challenged me to think beyond aesthetically and consider how visual communication can guide visitors through a physical space and create a cohesive experience.