Orange the World
A participatory campaign installation that invited audiences to confront digital violence against women and girls and take a visible stand against it.
European Union Delegation to the United Nations in GenevaNovember 2025
Context and challenge
Each year, the European Union Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva takes part in Orange the World, the global campaign against violence against women and girls. In 2025, UN Women focused the campaign on ending digital violence against women and girls.
Digital abuse is often experienced through private messages, comments and online spaces that remain invisible to people outside them. The challenge for the Geneva event was to give that abuse a physical presence while creating a meaningful way for participants to respond.
The activation also needed to handle the subject carefully. It had to acknowledge the language and behaviour women and girls encounter online without relying on shock, reproducing abuse for effect or turning individual experiences into a spectacle.
The aim was to create a participatory moment that guests could understand immediately, take part in during the programme and recognise later in the event’s photography, video and social media coverage.
My role
I developed the central activation concept and helped carry it from the initial idea through production, the event itself and the social media rollout, with support from the Delegation’s Head of Communications.
The installation took the form of a wall displaying examples of abusive online messages. During the programme, speakers removed those messages. Guests were then invited to add emojis and other symbols of support, gradually transforming the wall into a visible collective response to digital violence.
My work included developing the concept and campaign messaging, planning the visual execution, coordinating with the company producing the wall and collaborating with a youth activist working on digital violence against women and girls.
I also helped plan how the activation would unfold during the event, how the different stages would be photographed and filmed, and how the transformation of the wall would be communicated afterwards across Instagram, X and LinkedIn.
The wider event used the established Orange the World visual identity. The installation and its accompanying communications were developed specifically for the Geneva event.
Key decisions
Give an often-hidden issue a visible form
Digital violence frequently takes place through private messages, comment sections and online interactions that are easy for people outside the experience to overlook. The wall brought examples of that language into a shared physical space. The purpose was not to repeat the abuse for effect, but to make its patterns visible and give participants a common point of reference during the event.
Make participation part of the response
The activation was designed around a visible transformation. Speakers began by removing the abusive messages. Guests then added emojis and other symbols of support. The wall changed over the course of the event through a sequence of individual actions rather than through one finished display. Participation was therefore not an additional element placed around the installation. It was the mechanism through which the installation changed.
Use orange as an action, not decoration
Orange was already the campaign colour, but it needed to do more than provide a backdrop. It appeared in the installation, in the symbols added by participants and in the visual record of the event. This gave the existing campaign identity a practical function within the audience experience. The colour did not only identify the campaign. It marked the process through which the wall moved from displaying abuse to showing support.
Balance seriousness with agency
The subject required a careful tone. At the same time, the activation needed to leave participants with something more than a description of the problem. The concept acknowledged the abuse directly, then gave speakers and guests a specific action and a visible way to express support. This allowed the installation to end with a sense of collective agency without suggesting that symbolic participation alone could resolve the harm being addressed.
Outcome
The wall became the central visual and participatory element of an event attended by more than 300 ambassadors, United Nations officials, journalists and civil society representatives. It gave speakers and guests a defined role within the programme and created a clear visual sequence as the installation changed over the course of the event. That transformation also became the main structure for the event’s photography, video and post-event social media coverage. Rather than documenting a static backdrop, the content could show the wall at different stages and the actions through which it changed.
The activation was amplified through institutional and partner channels. Any more specific account of the response should be added only where direct feedback, reposting data or partner analytics can be verified. Advocacy around a sensitive issue does not have to remain at the level of speeches or campaign slogans. A carefully designed action can help people recognise the problem, participate in the response and leave a visible record of collective support. With more production time, I would have developed a fuller digital campaign around the event, including short explainers, statistics and contextual content on digital violence before and after the activation.
Credits Developed within the communications team at the European Union Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva, in partnership with UN Women Geneva and UN Geneva. I developed the central activation concept and contributed to the campaign messaging, visual planning, production coordination, event execution and social media rollout. The activation also included contributions from the invited youth speaker, participating ambassadors, event partners and the company responsible for producing the installation.
