Traces of Identity: Imprints of Culture, Community, and Climate

GCF Global Conference With Indigenous Peoples Visual16
Client
Green Climate Fund
Themes
  • Collaboration for Social Change
  • Climate Finance
  • Climate Action
Services
  • Brand Identity Design
  • Creative Direction & Design
  • Illustrative Design
  • Immersive Event Design

The Challenge

How do you design a global conference identity that reflects the depth, diversity, and lived realities of Indigenous Peoples?

For the Global Conference with Indigenous Peoples, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) needed a visual system that could be accessible across cultures, languages, and formats. It had to feel inclusive, human, and rooted in authenticity.

The Solution

We developed ‘Traces of Identity’, a hand-crafted visual language.

Moving away from digital-first design, we used leaves, flowers, and organic materials to create stamped patterns representing five pillars: Culture, Community, Nature, Land, and Water.

The patterns bring warmth, texture, and meaning into every touchpoint of the conference experience.

The Results

3

Days of dialogue, learning and co‑creation. 

100

Participants strengthening global, multi-stakeholder collaboration

1

Unified visual identity deployed across all touchpoints, ensuring consistency and clarity

Our Journey with GCF

Our partnership with GCF spans multiple years, grounded in trust and shared values around human-centred design.

In 2022, we collaborated with the GCF Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM) to develop an interactive board game, which was brought into the 2026 Global Conference with Indigenous Peoples as a participatory tool.

It was especially rewarding to see two projects, developed years apart, intersect meaningfully in practice.

A Word From Our Project Leads

"It was a great privilege to work on a branding project carrying such deep meaning and rooted in the heritage of Indigenous Peoples. We were aware that this was not a simple task—to engage with and translate something so layered, complex, and culturally significant in a respectful way."

- Isidora Bjeljac

"From the very first brief, my colleague and I knew that this visual identity had to embody the authenticity and the lasting imprint left by Indigenous peoples—their language, history, and sense of community. We wanted our branding to mirror that same human touch.

Inspired by these communities, we created the concept 'Traces of Identity.' Each theme was represented by a shape from nature, then hand-stamped onto paper. This process allowed us to create authentic, 'human-made' imprints that can stand alone as individual stories, but together, form the vibrant collective identity of the Indigenous peoples.

In an era of rapid AI expansion, this project felt like a necessary return to roots. It was a reminder of the beginnings of human creativity, where art was crafted solely by hand using elements from our immediate surroundings. In many ways, this was our 'ode' to those who remain true to their traditions and heritage."

- Ružica Trbović

Project Credits

Brand Identity Design

Future by Design

Creative Direction & Design

Future by Design

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Green Climate Fund

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