Oslo Freedom Forum

The Oslo Freedom Forum is a transformative annual conference that brings together the world’s most engaging human rights advocates, artists, musicians, tech entrepreneurs, and world leaders. Attendees come together to share stories, brainstorm ways to expand freedom, develop solutions to fight injustices, launch initiatives, and celebrate activists to unleash human potential across the globe. The main event is held in Oslo, Norway with additional events taking place in different cities across the world throughout the year.

The Human Rights Foundation engaged YummyColours to develop the theme, visual identity, and design for the 2022 Oslo Freedom Forum with the theme being Champion of Change. After 2 years of being held virtually, this is a grand reintroduction of the conference in-person and post-pandemic. The goal for the project is to bring forth hope and optimism through every touchpoint of the conference—from the interactive expos to the theater sessions to the environmental graphics and collateral communication materials.

To bring the Champion of Change concept to life, YummyColours developed a visual system that embodies the essence of this theme. The graphic elements highlight the activists, their work, and their journey through silhouettes and color play. The combination of clean, simple typography, graphics, and black and white photography sets the stage for the moving stories to be shared. A soft, bright palette expresses optimism. The gradient is dynamic and animated, creating endless colorful background variations for the events throughout the year. A technique of blur and sharpen is applied to images representing focus and transformation. Repetition is used in graphics to express the persistence of the activists and how they never give up. Ultimately, it is about the poise, bravery, and poetry that is the life of the activist. The design intention of the conference is a celebration of activists as well as an inspiring call to action for everyone to become a Champion of Change.