TED Countdown

Role: Art Director, Brand Creative
Team: Mike Femia, Casey Walter, Nancy Hu, Sarah Lee, Sarah Jane Souther, Jonathan Mallow, Logan McClure Davda, Anne O’Dell, Elizabeth Zeeuw, Gilberto Tadday, Bret Hartman, Diana Pietrzak, Casie Jensen, Mina Sabet, Martha Estafanos, Gordon Cochran, Chris Milani, Ladan Wise, Stephanie Furlong

Countdown is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. Building upon the wonderful brand system originally developed by Jessica Walsh’s team at &Walsh, the goal was to implement the brand system across a multitude of touchpoints while also working to expand and adapt the system in order to meet Countdown’s growing needs. Whether designing environmental signage for events, data visualization for city governments, social marketing assets, or custom illustrations for climate art open calls, the collaborative effort has spanned across a multitude of stakeholders and helped empower a vast array of teams to execute Countdown’s output. It was my job to lead all design work and development that became necessary for the identity, as well as the execution of all assets.

In October 2021, TED hosted its first Countdown Summit conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, bringing together hundreds of leaders to share a blueprint for a beautiful net-zero future. I led design for all environmental graphics and traveled to Edinburgh to oversee installation and help build any digital assets needed for the conference.

TED Countdown Livestream

Role: Art Director, Brand Creative
Team: Mike Femia, Nancy Hu, Casey Walter, Jonathan Mallow, Logan McClure Davda, Anne O’Dell, Mina Sabet, Martha Estafanos, Gordon Cochran, Chris Milani, Michael Nigro, Steve Robbins, Andrew Davis, Alan Clary, Andria Parides

Building upon the success of the initial Countdown events, TED hosted a virtual event that brought together key solutions from the Countdown Summit conference, stories of local action from around the world, social and cultural discussions, and powerful performances to ignite a global call to action.

This event needed to differentiate itself from previous Countdown broadcasts, as well as feel accessible to a potentially younger and less climate-knowledgeable audience. The goal was to expand the Countdown identity to achieve a more upbeat visual tone, while also providing more flexibility for animation and production. It was my job to lead this development and its translation into animation. We built an expanded color palette and new pattern library to augment the graphics package while still maintaining the original Countdown spirit that the community already loved so much. In close collaboration with Gordie Cochran’s team at Colours and Shapes, we developed the animation system that brought the Countdown message to life in an exciting and dynamic new way.

TED Countdown Summit 2023: Detroit

Role: Art Director, Brand and Marketing
Team: Mike Femia, Casey Walter, Sarah Jane Souther, Jonathan Mallow, Logan McClure Davda, Mina Sabet, Martha Estafanos, Gordon Cochran, Chris Milani, Diana Pietrzak, Casie Jensen, Allecia Verheire, Elizabeth Zeeuw, Jason Redmond
Illustrators: Kristen Uroda, Rachelle Baker

The TED Countdown Summit 2023 was an invite-only gathering in Detroit, Michigan, that brought together a diverse group of global innovators, business executives, scientists, policymakers, next-generation leaders, artists, activists, and more — all determined to create a better future.

To deliver a distinct brand experience and pay homage to the event's host city, we partnered with two Detroit-based illustrators. Kristen Uroda crafted the Detroit Summit illustration library, while Rachelle Baker designed the mural adorning the Detroit Book Depository building — a permanent installation. As Art Director for Brand and Marketing, my role involved developing all creative briefs for the project, leading the collaborative process with these talented artists, and guiding all visual development for the event across various TED teams, including the implementation of these illustrations. The result was a wonderfully refreshed Countdown identity, and a celebration of the great spirit of the Motor City.