Finnish Design Studio Addresses Climate Change Issues Through Stamps

Based in Finland, Berry Creative is a design studio that has received plenty of recognition for its revolutionising stamps that highlight the climate change concerns in the modern world. It was awarded the Graphic Design of the Year 2020 by the Dezeen Awards. The Climate Change Stamps, commissioned by the Finnish Post, seek to provide an ingenious means of expressing the harmful consequences that rising temperatures will have on Finland.  

In an Interview with Karmactive, the creative director of Berry Creative, Mr. Timo Berry elaborated on the thoughts put in behind these stamps. “ When we were looking at the stamps, we were really wondering how much we can do alarmist messaging. Usually it’s better to have, you know, positive messages but we figured that there’s actually very very little positive about this whole topic, so we went for an alarmist imagery and the sense of urgency for example in the color scheme.”, he said. 

A snow cloud, a picture of limited immigration, and a bird are the stamps’ three basic designs and are printed as black silhouettes on a gradient background of various colors. Printed in heat-sensitive color-changing ink, these symbols shift from black to transparent when stroked with a finger, exposing other designs below.  

The bird changes to a skeleton, paying homage to the extinction of many of Finland’s native species of birds. The snow cloud transforms into a thunderstorm depicting the loss of winter snowfall. And lastly, the depiction of immigration dissolves to reveal mass migration as climate refugees are forced to leave their homes and relocate. 

“I think the biggest discussion we had was about the climate refugees, of having an uncontrolled number of refugees from the warm areas of the world, where the drought is going to make the world uninhabitable” He said. Mr. Berry’s initiative to bring a creative streak into the field of stamps on the demand of the Finnish Post, has made a huge difference. Raising concerns over highly alarming matters, Berry Creative has very efficiently managed to create a simple yet effective way of spreading the compelling message of climate change in Finish mail boxes.