an image of a framed poster reclining against a grey wall and dark grey concrete floor

peering into our future

Scope of work:

A 360°campaign approach covering everything from branding to launch, followed by post-event social media engagement.
Strategic planning with multiple non-profit stakeholders and vendors to define goals, audience touchpoints, and desired emotional impact.
Creative direction realized through visually striking and emotionally resonant campaign materials.
Art direction for the visual identity, campaign trailer, microsite, and all branded extensions, including a publication registered with the National Library Board of Singapore.

Unsettling for A Cause

“What will become of our future if we fail to conserve our waters?”

This question inspired Mutant to launch their CSR campaign, Peering Into Our Future, to highlight the urgent need for ocean conservation. Five acclaimed Singaporean authors crafted dystopian short stories envisioning Singapore’s future, urging action.

These stories were compiled into the anthology, Peering Into Our Future: A Series of Unfortunate Short Stories. The campaign extended beyond the anthology with a microsite, visual identity, illustrations, animated trailers, social media, newsletters, and a launch event, amplifying the message and inspiring public engagement in ocean conservation.

Watch the trailer:

Campaign Outcome:

Won both the CSR and Sustainability Award, and NGO and Charity Award at the 2023 PRCA APAC Awards
Launched the campaign and participated in the Waves of Change 2022 exhibition at the ArtScience Museum
Secured interviews and coverage across Tier 1 media outlets & strong influencer engagement
Secured interviews and features for our NGO partners actively doing the fieldwork to save our ocean: Coastal Natives, Our Singapore Reefs, and Ocean Purpose Project.

Concept

We wanted to paint for Singaporeans a dystopian future of their home and urge them to save Singapore, stat, and we wanted to do it through the power of storytelling. On the brief, I wrote, “it needs to feel dystopian with a hint of hope if we act now”.

The centerpiece of our CSR campaign is an anthology of 5 short stories by local writers, vividly describing a future Singapore that has lost its ocean. The creative team understood the assignment; the art needed to entice people to read.

The spark behind the idea is the line “Black Mirror X Singapore”. How would that look like, and what’s the most effective way to bring that to life? Due to a limited budget, the team agreed on using illustrations rather than a live-action production.

Selected campaign moodboard, showcasing the overall messaging and art direction for the campaign. This extends across all communication channels.

Trailer Script, Storyboard & Key Visuals

To launch the campaign, I proposed creating a trailer to introduce the public to Peering Into Our Future.

The authors shared elevator pitches of their stories, which I used to craft the trailer’s script. A team of illustrators then brought the script to life by developing a storyboard based on the campaign’s moodboard. Keyframes from the storyboard were adapted into key visuals, which became the centerpiece of the campaign across all communication channels.

By leveraging the storyboard illustrations as our bank of key visuals, we achieved three key objectives: keeping campaign costs low, speeding up the adaptation of campaign collaterals, and maximizing the value of creative work for a CSR initiative like Peering Into Our Future.

To tie it all together, we created a microsite to host the anthology of short stories and inform the public on the public reading of these short-stories by its authors at the ArtScience Museum, Singapore.