Jingqi Fan’s 2°C Earth is a digestible, informative and interactive guide to the climate crisis

While spending the early part of 2020 in Fiji, graphic designer Jingqi Fan found herself subject to Cyclone Sarai as it tore its way across the islands. Her experience pushed her to take note of the devasting impact of climate change; eventually inspiring her to launch 2°C Earth – an interactive visual guide that explores five locations around the world whose natural and cultural heritage is severely under threat.

“‘World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate’, published by UNEP, UNESCO and the Union of Concerned Scientists, became the starting point in selecting each location,” Fan explains, adding that she “made sure to focus on culturally and environmentally significant destinations from different parts of the world with varying terrains and ecosystems.” The final selection of Vietnam, Jordan, South Africa, Ecuador and Australia sees each location represented by imagery licensed from Getty, Alamy and iStock, as well as the National Geographic Image Collections and government agency archives.

Impressively conceptualised, designed and coded by Fan herself, the 2°C Earth website has been created to be visually engaging, auditorily immerse and easily digestible for visitors who may be disengaged with the climate crisis, but are looking for education and inspiration. As a result, the experience is articulated in a minimalistic image-led manner with a particular emphasis on highlighting the dichotomy between the present and future states of global warming. This is communicated on each location’s dedicated page through a slider tool that transforms each image into an unsettling warped shadow of its former self.

The experience is made even more immersive by its multi-faceted typographic approach, which sees Schick Toikka’s workhouse sans serif duo Scto Grotesk A and B working alongside both FK Grotesk and ITC Garamond. Fan tells us that the latter, a display serif, was chosen for “its editorial look and 90s flair,” appearing at prominent sizes to “set contextual and descriptive information,” as well as pair elegantly with the site’s travel guide-inspired tone of voice. Scto Grotesk is “used to set impact-related information and data, courtesy of its sober and rational forms,” while FK Grotesk appears solely to give distinction to the project’s logotype.

A personal impact component is located at the bottom of every destination page, providing an engaging close to the experience by detecting real-time user locations to calculate carbon emissions. It’s a “slightly creepy but personal way for visitors to realise their potential impact on our environment,” Fan concludes.

Jingqi Fan

2°C Earth