Case Study
Design and politics for Klimaliste Berlin
In a nutshell
On a mission to bring climate action into Berlin’s parliaments, I created the corporate design, logo and website for the new political party Klimaliste Berlin. I also supported the election campaign and ran for the borough parliament of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
How it started
In December 2019 Berlin’s senate called out the climate emergency after the citizen initiative Klimaneustart (back then called Klimanotstand) collected more than 43,000 signatures. However, Berlin’s government still hadn‘t understood the serverity of the climate crisis and wasn’t willing to act. So a group of climate activists from Klimaneustart decided to go into parliament themselves and founded Klimaliste Berlin. In August 2020 Klimaliste Berlin officially became a political party. It belongs to the nation-wide Klimaliste Deutschland.
Problem
Berlin has to become climate neutral by 2030 to comply with the Paris agreement to keep global heating below 1.5 degrees. Yet no other party has a 1.5 degree compliant platform that equally tackles climate crisis and social injustice. And no other party transports a positive vision of a carbon neutral world, which is necessary to make climate protection a collective effort of the whole society.
Mission
That’s why Klimaliste Berlin wrote a climate plan together with scientists, experts and citizens that offers over 500 practical actions for a climate positive and socially just Berlin. The mission is to support the radical change that is needed and to make climate justice priority in every political decision.
Elections 2021
Only one year after its founding, Klimaliste Berlin ran for the Berlin House of Representatives and Berlin’s borough parliaments.
When I joined Klimaliste Berlin in November 2020, a lot of things were just getting started: Most members were busy writing the climate plan, the election platform wasn’t ready yet and we didn’t have a communication strategy.
My role
Communication team
As part of the communication team, I developed the corporate design, created the logo, designed and maintained the website and worked on the communication strategy for the election campaign.
From December 2020 to May 2021, I led the graphic design team which was responsible for creating designs and graphical content for Klimaliste Berlin’s external communication incl. social media, newsletters, blogposts, flyers and stickers.
I created design guidlines and templates for content creators, set up a process using Figma and Trello to work efficiently with other teams, onboarded new members, allocated tasks and of course created a lot of content myself.
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
I also ran for the borough parliament of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and supported the election campaign in the borough through an endless list of tasks I’ve never done before and which were a lot of fun:
- Developed political positions
- Created and managed content for our Instagram account
- Designed merchandise like banners, flyers and stickers
- Painted and hung election posters
- Planted trees
- Organised events
- Joined demos and protests
- Collected signatures
- Did street campaigning
I especially enjoyed connecting and cooperating with local initatives like A100 stoppen, Kiez für Alle, Gneisenau-Kiezblock and 100% Tempelhofer Feld.
Elections are over but activism goes on
Sadly Klimaliste Berlin didn’t make it into parliament. But as long as political climate action remains absent, engagement and activism has to go on.
Despite the depressing topic of the climate crisis, I feel grateful for my experience with Klimaliste Berlin. It gave me hope, knowledge, new experiences and the best friends.
