A hand holding a fanned set of Climate Justice in Action booklets for FES, the top cover showing a figure balancing a globe between a polluted cliffside and a green renewable-powered village

Friedrich Ebert Foundation India: Publication Design

Publication DesignInfographics New Delhi 2019-2025

FES Report

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung India asked us to turn an international conference into a publication people would keep. India, EU & Just Energy Transitions: Strengthening Climate Diplomacy for Sustainable Futures was organised by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education with FES, in association with UNESCO, and brought together policymakers, academics and civil society on India–EU cooperation, carbon neutrality and just transitions.

FES India provided the base content. Studio 1947 took it from raw proceedings to a finished report: concept and direction, the illustration system, layout, and print production.

Two copies of the India, EU and Just Energy Transitions report fanned open on a pink-to-blue gradient, showing the front cover illustration and an inside recommendations spread

The Report

The cover carries the whole argument in one image: two hands holding a green city, wired to wind, solar, hydro and a coal plant below, plugged into a handshake. Inside, the report is organised as numbered recommendations, from mobilising climate finance to ensuring equity and social responsibility, each opened with a full illustration so a busy reader can follow the structure by pictures alone.

Front cover of India, EU and Just Energy Transitions: hands holding a green city wired to renewable and coal energy, with the Manipal, UNESCO and FES marks

Illustration as structure

Bidisha and Pragya drew the report in a loose watercolour-and-ink style, deliberately unlike the stock-photo look of most policy documents. Wind turbines, coal barrels bleeding red smoke, a mountain village, a market crowd: each image sits with its recommendation and names the place the policy is meant to reach.

Programme agenda spread: an illustrated handshake of hands in different skin tones beside the red Programme Agenda page with UN Sustainable Development Goal icons

Spread showing recommendations 03 to 06 on mobilising climate finance, fostering just transitions, governance and equity, each with its own watercolour illustration

Also for FES India: Artificial Intelligence in India

The report sits within a longer relationship. Since 2019, first independently and now through Studio 1947, Rabi has designed FES India's Artificial Intelligence in India paper series: twelve volumes on AI and democracy, governance, education, sustainability, cities and ports, held together by one cover system, a robotic hand offering a sphere, with a single line icon and a solid colour per volume.