Civil Defence Emergency Management Group’s 10-year Strategy

Wellington Region Emergency Management Office

A high-level strategy document that presents the risks, vision and goals for the next ten years of effective emergency management in the Wellington region.

The Wellington Region Civil Defence Emergency Management Group (the CDEM Group) brings together a number of agencies to deliver civil defence and emergency management across the region. These include the nine councils, emergency services, lifeline utilities, WREMO, and any other agency with civil defence and emergency management responsibility.

This year, the Group is developing a 10-year strategy for the region. It covers an environmental scan of risks and opportunities, a vision and goals for the Group, and priorities and objectives for each goal. Importantly, this strategy marks a significant shift in thinking. They’re moving away from top-down, hierarchical decision-making and toward an approach that draws on the strength and skills of the community.

The vision is clear: empower the people and services of the Wellington region to organise, prepare, and respond effectively to growing risks.

To bring this to life, we began by deeply understanding that vision. From there, we pulled out the key messages and built visuals and design around them. The result transforms complex strategy content into something understandable, relevant, and impactful.

Expertise

Infographic design
Illustration
Information design
Icon design
Report Design

Our design reflects the CDEM Group’s vision of strong community leadership. To bring warmth and a sense of community involvement, we created bespoke illustrations that put people at the heart of the document. From there, colour, icon design, and infographics do the heavy lifting – transforming complex strategic and technical content into clear, visual stories. Together, these elements reflect the community itself, building trust and supporting informed decisions.

The Strategy reflects the vision of many groups and services coming together and the design aims to reflect that collective strength. Multiple arrows all moving in the same direction is a motif used throughout the document.

The three strategic goals are highlighted with arrows to give a sense of direction and movement. The colours connect through the document – helping navigation and connecting priorities and objectives to the overarching goals.