Graphic designer Jakob Trollbäck remembers a 2014 meeting with film director Richard Curtis and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, then very much a work in progress, coming up in conversation.

Curtis, whose movies include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually and the Bridget Jones series, is also a UN Advocate for the SDGs. The meeting in Trollbäck’s New York studio suddenly turned to the 17 goals, with Curtis telling him: “I think this may be our last shot of fixing a lot of the things that’s wrong with the planet. And I also think that these goals are going to fail if we can't make them popular. Do you want to help me?”

Trollbäck, founder of The New Division agency, rose to the challenge. Over the course of a year, alongside designer colleague Christina Rüegg-Grässli, he designed the now famous multi-colour palette, individual icons and logo of the SDGs.

Their design had to tick three boxes: be accessible, universal and positive. The interconnectedness of the goals leant itself to the overall circular logo type, and the bright colours were key to making the framework interesting and likeable.

Some icons were almost instantaneous in their creation — such as the fish that represents SDG 14: Life Below Water — while others needed collaboration with the UN communications team colleagues to get right.

For example, Trollbäck remembers SDG 2: Zero Hunger; the initial design had a fork in it, until someone pointed out that two thirds of the of the world’s population don't use forks.

The World Economic Forum say 74% of the adults globally are aware of the SDGs.

This is the final episode of How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals, a Working Scientist podcast series that profiles scientists whose work addresses one or more of the SDGs. Episodes 13–18 are produced in partnership with Nature Sustainability, and introduced by Monica Contestabile, its chief editor.

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