Breakthrough is a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges. I’ve worked with them for various projects since 2019 but mainly provide design assistance for conferences and summits the institute hosts.
In 2019 Breakthrough went through a rebranding and I was brought on to refresh the materials for their annual conferences. Breakthrough hosted two regular gatherings. The “Ecomodernism” conference and the “Breakthrough Dialogues”. In 2024 they added a new event“Abundance” while sunseting the Breakthrough Dialogues and bringing a long running periodical passed out at that conference to Substack.
The ecomodernist
In 2004 Ted Norhaus, founder of the Breakthrough Institute wrote an essay titled “the Death of Environmentalism” with co-author Michael Shellenberger. It would go on to influence the creation of “An Ecomodernist Manifesto” and later “the Ecomodernist” which was a work distributed at Breakthrough’s long-running Dialogue summits.
The summits have ended but “the Ecomodernist” lives on as a substack now. Updated branding came with the updated format and I was tapped to create a logo and quick one page guide for the Ecomodernist’s new digital form.
Ecomodernism
Breakthrough Dialogues
Hourglass illustration by Dirk Fowler
Precipice illustration by Dirk Fowler
Scales illustration by Dirk Fowler
Abundance
Abundance DC is the newest event series for Breakthrough. Held annually in Washington DC it carries the tradition of bringing together cross-partisan professionals to a forum of discussion.
The Abundance Conference aims to advance practical, action-driven politics focused on expanding prosperity and revitalizing governance. It challenges outdated frameworks and entrenched barriers while building coalitions capable of delivering meaningful results.
I had the opportunity to create the word mark and a supplemental illustration for the conference’s branding.
After two plus years of a pandemic BTI held an intimate indoor holiday meal at the end of 2021 for their small staff. I was tapped to design the menus for their event. Each menu was personalized with the name of the employee and a few different menus that took into account dietary restrictions for each individual.
