How communication work gets done: an internship at Viable Cities
Vendela Karlsson spent autumn 2025 embedded in Viable Cities' communications team, translating urban climate transition work into accessible formats. A small case study in how governance initiatives become legible — and who does that work.
Vendela Karlsson studies information design at Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna — a program focused on formatting and presenting information so it becomes comprehensible to everyone. In late 2025, she brought that training to Viable Cities as an intern, working on graphics, illustrations, publications, and presentations that make urban climate transition work intelligible to broader publics.
The work was flexible and collaborative. She was given directives and her own project folder on day one, then integrated into the full communications team rather than siloed with a single supervisor. She describes this autonomy positively: “I felt more independent when I got the chance to reach out to others during the work process on my own initiative.” The balance mattered — she was trusted to navigate the team, but never left unsupported.
What she took away wasn’t technical skill alone, but communication in its fuller sense: “How to balance different wishes to achieve a functioning end result, and how varied different people’s perceptions can be.” It’s a lesson that applies well beyond design work — governance, too, requires translating between frames, making visible what some stakeholders see and others don’t. Viable Cities’ model depends on this kind of labor: the patient, iterative work of making transition legible, not just technically correct.