Seeds of Tomorrow
Created in 2024
For 8 weeks, the graduate students from NC State’s MADTech program combined with the students from MEA (Marine Earth and Environmental Science) 493, Climate Change: Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking. Our task was to use the research gathered by the MEA students to tell and visualize a story of an aspect and consequence of climate change to the general public. It was up to the design students to choose the appropriate media for the topic.
Final Product
Click on the following images to scroll through the respective iPhone and desktop Figma files.
Story Overview
Many climate stories fail to resonate because they rely on dense science, lack human connection, or feel too distant to matter. When climate change is portrayed as either catastrophic or comfortably solvable, audiences tune out—feeling either hopeless or complacent. The key is to make the issue personal, specific, and tangible, balancing urgency with hope.
I proposed using time travel as a storytelling device to show how today’s choices shape tomorrow’s climate. By visualizing a dystopian future, we could motivate present-day action. Focusing on a specific region in the U.S. Midwest made a global issue feel immediate and local. Our goal wasn’t to convert skeptics, but to spark urgency and inspire collective action.
Target Audiences:
- Primary: Working- and middle-class Midwesterners who care about climate change but prioritize short-term economic concerns over large-scale policy.
- Secondary: Middle- and upper-class Midwesterners who believe in climate change but underestimate its local impacts.
- Tertiary: Americans unaware of how climate change threatens agriculture, water resources, and household costs.
We chose an online news article format for accessibility, shareability, and credibility. I modeled the design after The New Yorker—a publication blending fiction, illustration, and progressive journalism. While that audience aligns most with our secondary group, the format could easily cascade to regional outlets like the Chicago Tribune or Star Tribune to reach our primary audience. I designed the layout mobile-first, opening with a striking full-screen phone graphic to immediately draw readers in.
Plot Overview
Beginning: In 2100, an Illinois farmer reflects on how their family’s land has been transformed by climate change—drying soil, erratic rainfall, and failing crops. When researchers invent time travel, they recruit the farmer to journey back to 2025 and warn communities about what’s coming.
Middle: The farmer travels to 2025 and speaks at a town hall. Through the eyes of a skeptical attendee, we see the farmer use a holographic projector to reveal the tangible effects of climate change—floods, droughts, algal blooms, and invasive pests. The discussion evolves from “what’s happening” to “why it matters” and “what we can still do.”
End: Returning to their own time, the traveler remains uncertain whether their message will create lasting change—but hopeful that awareness has been sparked. As they reflect, they say, “We planted the seeds—now we wait to see if they grow.”
Message: The Midwest—and its agriculture—faces severe climate risks. Acting now through strong climate policy and local adaptation will save far more than the escalating costs of inaction.
