How can young creatives “divest” from polluting clients? We ask students and experts

Today, three out of five young creatives say that they’re uncomfortable working with high-carbon brands like oil and gas companies, according to 2022 YouGov research released by the creative campaigning group Glimpse. But as creatives move through the industry, they face increasing pressure to work with brands that don’t align with their views, often with no clear solution presented. A recent exhibition curated by Glimpse dives into this subject, asking advertising and design students to create work that functions as a letter to their future selves, to remind them of their current values when it comes to climate change.

As part of the Note to Self exhibition, the students have also penned an open letter to CEOs at some of London’s top agencies. It reads: “We don’t want our talent used to promote unsustainable products, brands and behaviours, but we worry that as junior employees we might not have that choice. So we’re asking our senior self (and your current one) to say no to polluting clients like oil companies, SUV makers and airlines.”

So, how can young creatives be equipped to move through a broken industry? We spoke to industry experts curated by Glimpse to find out how they work as sustainably as possible within the industry and push for change, while asking students entering the industry for their perspectives.

Cameron Aitken, Natalie Goh and Farzaneh Heidari are all students who submitted winning works to the Note to Self exhibition – responding with diverse interpretations to the brief. For example, in a group project titled Yore from Daniela Urquijo, Liuli Wang, Sichen Li, Veronica Shishkina and Natalie Goh used the power of scent and memory to serve as a reminder of the group’s views on the climate crisis today. Meanwhile, Cameron Aitken, a student of Graphic Design at Kingston School of Art, created an “analogue woven translation of a 3D-scanned organic scene”, functioning as an archive of nature and a reminder “to step back from purely computational working methods”, the designer explains.

Farzaneh Heidari, who studies Graphic Design at Oxford Brookes University, created a work in support of the Iranian Revolution and the #WomenLifeFreedom movement, with the aim “to end this brutal regime and make Iran and its people free and save its beautiful environment and landmarks”, as Farzaneh explains. The work looked back to a day during primary school when Farzaneh “was asked by my teachers to make an American flag featuring the phrase ‘Death to America’. [...] Now, I live in a place where I can express myself freely. Therefore, for this project, I decided to have a similar approach to what I did in school, with a slight shift!”

The projects throughout Note to Self are designed to hold special relevance to designers as they look back on the early stages of their careers. While the onus can’t be placed solely on individual creatives to take the lead on climate action, there are some experts who are pushing for change successfully within the industry. For example, Stephanie McLaren-Neckles, a senior lecturer at UAL and co-founder of learning platform Let’s Be Brief, has been able to push for projects with a clear social and community impact – although Stephanie states that a large part of this came from having experience in the industry. “It’s challenging at the start of your career to have the initial confidence to articulate your opinion,” says Stephanie, “but exercising it is a good place to start.”

Jon Alexander, co-founder at New Citizenship Project, points out that this activism doesn’t have to be undertaken alone: “For me this is all about community. You can’t start a rebellion on your own, and you definitely can’t sustain one.” Purpose Disruptors’ Jonathan Wise agrees: “There is strength in numbers. Find the kindred spirits who share your concerns about our climate emergency in your organisation and share your questions and concerns. What can you do together, that you can’t do alone, to help your agency make the climate more central to the work it does?”

For Jon, the work at New Citizenship Project is also less about resistance, and more about “designing for transformation”. The company begins by asking any potential clients what it is trying to do in the world, beyond maximising profit. “If there isn’t an answer, we can’t work with them,” he says. “If there is, we can, and we start by asking how it might achieve that goal by working with people as participants”.

As Stephanie puts it, the power young creatives have “lies in their insights, attitudes and take on the world”. So, what do young creatives entering the industry for the first time want to see change? Cameron explains that, when it comes to industry leaders, “I would like them to advocate that, as designers, we are limited in what we can do. Alleviating symptoms of the climate crisis is ultimately a political issue. I would like advice on how to avoid doing more harm than good.”

Ruth Newton from Glimpse understands the reluctance that many young people feel about speaking out, but says that doing so is “probably the single most powerful thing you can do to influence the climate crisis as a creative”. She goes on: “We know it can be intimidating saying no to clients in an agency setting. That’s why we’re inviting young creatives to make some work with us and share how they really feel.”

Readers can find out more about Glimpse’s campaign here.