Celebrating 75 years of science-backed policy advisory

CLIENT

Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG)

BRAND & COMMUNICATION
January – November 2023

The problem

2023 marked the 75th anniversary of Germany’s Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG). The team at BfG is striving to strengthen its positioning toward its partners, policymakers, and civil society. Given the rising urgency of climate collapse and extreme hydrological events, they wanted to raise awareness of the importance of science-backed advisory to policymakers. The team needed a partner to curate, present, and frame their content in an approachable way. They also wanted a timeline that represented the many changes within their institution over the past 75 years.

Our solution

Our starting point was a list of bullet points of the organizational changes. Our goal was to visualize the context of these changes with the environmental and man-made catastrophes, political developments, and laws of the past century. To make the content more interesting, we searched the institute’s archives and digitalized slide films, negatives, and photographs. We also hired a photojournalist to capture the work of the institution’s different teams. Under the motto “Water. For 75 years our element,” we developed a website with an interactive chronicle, an anniversary brochure with interviews with eyewitnesses, and more.

Our impact

As a studio, we feel that political work, as well as political activism, is extremely important, which is why we want to increase interest in government work and the institutions that serve it.

From our perspective, water scarcity is one of the most pressing issues of our time. However, most citizens aren’t aware of the importance of science-backed advisory toward policymakers just yet.

Our approach to casting historical events through human-centered storytelling makes the issue more accessible to people outside of the professional audience.

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