Greenwashing and You

Greenwashing is one of the more insidious design problems of our moment. Companies have learned to speak the visual language of sustainability so fluently that consumers can no longer tell the difference between a genuine commitment and a marketing strategy. This project took that problem seriously, and then asked: what if the design that exposes it is just as compelling as the design that perpetuates it? Developed as an academic project, this editorial zine uses illustration, typography, and layout to make greenwashing legible to a general audience without dumbing it down. The visual language is deliberately disarming. Bold chunky type, warm amber and forest green, cheerful cartoon characters with hollow eyes and frowning faces. The tone is approachable, even playful, right up until it isn't. That tension is the point. Greenwashing works because it looks friendly. This zine fights it on the same terms. I handled both the editorial design and the illustration work, which meant every decision had to serve the same goal: make the reader feel comfortable enough to stay, and informed enough to leave differently than they arrived. The skull badge stamped with "100% Green Washing" is not subtle. Neither is a sad planet rendered in the exact visual language of a product that claims to love it. Good information design doesn't just present facts. It makes facts feel unavoidable. That was the brief I gave myself, and the one I kept coming back to with every spread.