Moxie

Like most places, the scale of waste in the Wellington region is a problem which goes beyond overflowing landfills. To achieve maximum effectiveness in tackling this problem, the eight councils in the Wellington region decided to join forces and create one big six-year plan for the entire region. Moxie worked with the project team to create a compelling campaign to get people engaged in the consultation process and beyond.

Waste is a significant contributor to climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and pollution. It’s not too flash for people’s health, either. This first-of-its-kind collaboration across all eight councils takes a region-wide approach to tackling waste. The idea is that it’s not all gloom and doom and that we all have a role in managing and minimising waste.

The brief

The draft Wellington Region Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP) offers a vision for the future and incorporates local action plans for each district. The requirement was to create an awareness-raising campaign that would alert people to the consultation phase of this initiative and how they could have their say.

The creative concept needed to work beyond this first stage and act as the flagship for subsequent information campaigns through the six years of the project’s life. It needed to be appealing to all demographic groups across the region.

There was only a month to achieve a big and ambitious campaign — the project team threw down the gauntlet, and we accepted.

Moxie’s solution

The concept was inspired by the idea of LESS waste in the GREATER Wellington Region and a play on the mathematical symbols for lesser than < and greater than >. These symbols also resemble Pākati, the notches often carved between rows of spiralling lines, or haehae, on areas of Māori carvings to express movement.

We used these well-known symbols in a circle with the headline LESS WASTE, GREATER PLACE. The circle references wholeness, unity, and the planet. But, more importantly, it references the ‘Circular Economy’, which is at the heart of waste minimisation. The logo was then extended with a friendly, positive colour palette and typography with an upcycled feel.

In addition to the campaign logo and tagline, we designed templates for a broad range of print and digital campaign assets and a brand style guide to enable in-house designers at each council to use the brand consistently and effectively. Four short animations as a call to action rounded out the campaign asset suite. We completed and supplied all the collateral within the tight deadline.

Wellington Region Waste Management & Minimisation

Less waste, greater place