Chintan ‘Zero Waste’ Poster Design

Visual of an empty waste bin was used as the key ingredient in a thought-provoking educational poster about waste. The poster was given a strong brand look with an energetic feel.

Background and Purpose

Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group is a New Delhi, India based non-profit organisation working on issues related to the environment and environmental justice. Inclusive, Sustainable, Equitable Growth For All is Chintan’s motto.

As a part of Chintan – Bharti Foundation Waste Resource Center’s environment education initiative, design of a poster on Zero Waste theme was commissioned in 2006. It was meant to inform school children (in the NCR or National Capital Region of India) about the issue of waste in an interesting manner and urge them to do their bit. Text for the poster, written by the Chintan team, was thought-provoking.

The issue of waste

Design Rationale

Upon consultation with the Chintan team, it was decided to have a dominant visual / image of an empty waste bin in the layout. Waste bin is something everyone of-course identifies waste with, a round bin shot from the top also roughly looked like a ‘Zero’ shape-wise 🙂 One of the waste bins in use at Chintan office was thus (enthusiastically) photographed by staff of the organisation using a digital camera, for use in the poster.

Some of the photographs taken and shared by Chintan team members

The waste bin visual was cut out by the designer using an image editing software and poster text wrapped around it in the layout, reinforcing the Zero Waste message.

Cut-out waste bin image along with thought-provoking text

Energetic Look and Feel

The visual and text combination was placed in the poster layout. Overall look and feel of the poster including the typeface (Washout Thin) used conformed to Chintan’s brand / visual identity. Bright or neon-ish colours were used to make the poster look energetic, enthusiastic and appealing to young minds.