AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Play & Learning
GOALS
Quality Education
KEYWORDS
font, communication
COUNTRY
Finland
DESIGNED BY
Helsingin Sanomat
WEBSITE
https://kampanjat.hs.fi/
Climate Crisis Font
Free front for visualising the urgency of the climate crisis
Climate change is a lengthy and abstract phenomenon, and as such difficult to grasp for us humans. We have been wired to react more to the threats we can easily observe. This is why the Nordic’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat created The Climate Crisis Font – an OpenType variable font that helps people see the urgency of climate change in a more tangible form. The font’s weight responds to NSIDC’s (National Snow and Ice Data Center) Arctic sea ice data from 1979 to 2019 and IPCC’s prediction all the way to 2050, showing how the ice is expected to shrink because of climate change based on current forecasts.
The heaviest font weight represents the minimum extent of the Arctic sea ice in the year 1979, when satellite measuring began. The lightest weight represents IPCC’s 2050 forecast, when the Arctic sea ice minimum is expected to have shrunk to only 30 % of the 1979 extent.