Background: The LA Countywide Sustainability Plan aimed to identify a comprehensive set of the most pressing issues in the region and to set out a bold action plan to tackle them. One of the strategic outreach and involvement challenges required by the LA County Chief Sustainability Office (CSO) was to equitably appeal to the county’s 10 million diverse residents through the plan.
Role: Brand identity design; project visioning workshop facilitation; communications and messaging strategy; website design; and stakeholder engagement.
Design research question: “It’s not just what you say; it’s how you say it”. How might a communications and messaging strategy help to enable the countywide sustainability plan to resonate with a broader spectrum of people and their values?
Response: During the first stage, we sought to understand the project’s cultural identity through contextual research during visits to the county. These observations formed the basis of workshop materials for an exploratory brand visioning workshop during which we facilitated project stakeholders and partners to explore values that resonated with them and the County at large. The synthesised workshop outputs informed the design of a suite of communication and messaging materials for a variety of in-person and virtual channels, which included an interactive project information website, workshop materials for consultation sessions, and a brand and writing training guide.
Impact: With an ‘equity-meets-design’ approach and both inclusive and accessible in-person and virtual methods, the project bridged the complexities of LA’s broad and diverse audiences. Ultimately, the Plan enhanced the voices and influence of Angeleños and received the NLA Sustainable Communities award.
For more: see the article featured on burohappold.com or visit the project information site.