The archive · Public & Social · Legal decision · 2021–2022
AllRise turns its ICC complaint on Bolsonaro into The Planet vs, an open-source brand
AllRise's ICC complaint against Bolsonaro became The Planet vs, an open-source brand system anyone could remix into their own protest.
AllRise · 180 Amsterdam
What it had to solve
Bolsonaro's destruction of the Amazon was devastating for global warming, and there was no legal way to stop him — until October 2021, when environmental-law NGO AllRise filed a landmark complaint at the International Criminal Court asking it to treat crimes against nature as crimes against humanity. But to win in court, AllRise had to win in the court of public opinion first.
How it works
Bolsonaro's destruction of the Amazon was devastating for global warming, and there seemed to be no legal way to stop him. In October 2021 environmental-law NGO AllRise filed a landmark complaint at the International Criminal Court asking it to recognise crimes against nature as crimes against humanity and prosecute the Brazilian president. AllRise knew the filing alone was not enough: to win in court, it first had to win in the court of public opinion.
So the complaint was given its own brand. 180 Amsterdam created The Planet Vs. Bolsonaro, a launch campaign built on an open-source design system — a standardised IMPACT typeface, a simple colour scheme and universal templates, stickers and GIFs, all chosen so that anyone on the planet could use them. A hero film, print and digital assets and a website carrying the full legal complaint and a petition gave supporters one united voice.
The system was deliberately democratic: anyone with an internet connection, whatever their technical skill, could customise the assets and publish their own message across platforms from Twitter to Facebook, leaving people with no excuse not to get involved. The launch timed itself to the weeks before COP26 in Glasgow, putting a legal precedent about ecological crimes into the global climate conversation.
The work entered D&AD's awards archive under Impact and the D&AD Annual 2022. It also proved repeatable: AllRise later filed The Planet vs Austria with the Austrian Constitutional Court in 2023, showing that a branded, crowd-supported complaint had become a template for holding governments accountable for environmental harm.
Why it lands
- The legal filing and the public campaign were built as one object, so every share advanced the case rather than a separate slogan.
- An open-source design system removed every skill barrier, letting supporters anywhere produce on-message visuals in minutes.
- Naming the complaint gave an abstract ICC procedure a protagonist and a courtroom drama people could take sides in.
- Choosing universal system fonts and colours made the campaign feel like it belonged to everyone, not to an NGO in The Hague.
- Launching ahead of COP26 anchored a slow legal process to a moment of global attention.
What it did
The open-source system turned the complaint into a global movement's visual language, letting supporters publish their own Planet-vs messages without design skills. The work entered D&AD's awards archive under Impact and the D&AD Annual 2022, and AllRise later reused the branded-complaint format for The Planet vs Austria in 2023.
What you can take
When the real fight is legal, make the legal case a brand: give supporters a ready-made visual language, and their public pressure becomes part of the court strategy.
Since then
The Planet Vs. Bolsonaro lived on as a template. AllRise reused the model in 2023, filing The Planet vs Austria with the Austrian Constitutional Court over excessive land sealing, and escalated the case to the European Court of Human Rights after the Court dismissed it in 2024. The original campaign entered D&AD's awards archive under Impact and featured in the D&AD Annual 2022, while the open design system stayed available so supporters could keep making the case in their own words.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card