Simon Mélizan

I am a multidisciplinary designer and climate justice activist from Trinidad and Tobago.

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My formal design journey started in Architecture. I hold two architectural degrees and have over three years of experience in practice. In between my studies I followed my love of the sea to sail across the Pacific Ocean on a 37ft boat. Following the voyage, I joined a dissertation studio focused on environmental crime in the Pacific, and my dissertation used architectural mapping processes to propose a remote sensing solution which can be used by political observers and activists looking to halt the unregulated ‘frontier’ of deep-sea mining.

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Following my dissertation, I collaborated with INTERPRT, a multidisciplinary research studio working at the intersection between research, the arts and human rights / environmental law. I contributed research to a project commissioned by the government of Vanuatu, in collaboration with Ecocide Law, which aimed to visualise decades of environmental damage in the Pacific, linking it to Royal Dutch Shell’s extractive activities. I also worked with the celebrated London architect, William Smalley RIBA, where I led three residential projects from design inception to planning permission, often working with historic building of high cultural significance.

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Following my time at William Smalley, I co-founded the Climate Crisis Film Festival, taking it from a small community event in 2019 to now the UK’s largest environmental film festival and one of the largest globally — we achieved these goals with a remote, global team (before it was cool); by borrowing processes from the startup world; and a dedication to finding new forms of audience engagement. In 2020 we launched the Climate Crisis Hub, the largest library of climate action on the internet. Alongside the CCFF and CCH, I have used my creative skills at ALAK Design to provide creative services to brands working for the good of the planet.