How Wikimedia brought the Wikipedia Test to life with Superside
THE CUSTOMER
Powering open knowledge: Inside Wikimedia’s global mission
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia, dedicated to promoting knowledge equity and free access to information across the globe. As the world’s largest free encyclopedia, Wikipedia relies on contributions from a vast community of editors and volunteers. Within this mission, the Foundation’s Brand Team—which includes Global Creative Director Einav Jacubovich—plays a pivotal role in shaping the messaging and communications that support advocacy, fundraising and engagement initiatives.
THE CHALLENGE
Wikimedia needed a way to communicate a critical but nuanced concept: the Wikipedia Test. It’s a simple idea—if a policy unintentionally harms Wikipedia, it probably harms broader free information projects on the internet too. It’s essentially a conceptual litmus test meant to evaluate whether new internet policies might unintentionally harm open knowledge platforms like Wikipedia.
Superside Illustrations for Wikimedia
The problem? Most lawmakers don’t consider Wikipedia or platforms like it when drafting tech policies.
What often we see happens is that policy makers will have well-intentioned policies… but they don't even think about Wikipedia.
The challenge was not only in messaging but also in engagement. Wikimedia needed a creative way to:
- Explain the concept quickly and clearly
- Capture attention at high-traffic events like RightsCon
- Invite participation and feedback from allied organizations
We had not yet figured out how to bring it to life. And we had the opportunity to try to figure it out for RightsCon.
THE SOLUTION
Partnering with Superside, Wikimedia transformed the Wikipedia Test into an interactive card game, launched at RightsCon 2025 in Taiwan.
The premise? Match real-world policies with their unintended consequences—from editor surveillance to censorship—to reveal how well-meaning laws can backfire on open knowledge.
The cards came alive thanks to playful illustrations that struck a delicate balance: serious enough to convey the stakes, yet fun and visually arresting. Think:
- A gavel smashing a speech bubble
- Editors behind bars with the logo on their jumpsuits
- Scissors slicing through speech bubbles, symbolizing silenced dialogue
We thought we really need to find a way to make this fun, to make it pop and to make people stop at our booth to want to play with it. That’s where Superside came in.
Superside’s illustrations elevated the experience, using vivid and humorous visuals to spark curiosity and conversation.
A number of people… said that they felt that this is a very fun and original way to show such an important topic in an easy to understand manner.
The illustrations were repurposed for posters that drew foot traffic to the booth with bold, open-ended provocations like, “Could your policy unintentionally wreck Wikipedia?”
The impact? Immediate. The booth stood out. People stopped. They played. They talked. They got it.
A lot of people commented that they stopped to look at it because of the illustrations… and it made them consider something they've never considered before.
Driving policy conversations beyond RightsCon with powerful creative
The Wikipedia Test card game didn’t just succeed at RightsCon—it had lasting value. Wikimedia reused posters and cards at SXSW and is continuing the campaign digitally with Superside’s help, now crafting animations and assets for a Medium post targeting policymakers.
We’ve continued to use this as we're speaking to policy makers as we're introducing the idea of the Wikipedia test.
The broader partnership with Superside has enabled Wikimedia to increase its output, empowering a five-person creative team to support the needs of an entire global foundation, including product, advocacy, fundraising and the wider editor community.
One thing I can say for sure is that working with Superside we're able to increase our output substantially and take on more work than we could otherwise.
With Superside’s support, Wikimedia can achieve both quality and quantity—while extending the reach and resonance of its mission-driven storytelling.
It doesn't matter if we're building social assets, creating animations, doing a case study video, Superside has been able to help quickly and in a very seamless way.
Want to turn complex concepts into compelling, engaging campaigns?
Let Superside help bring your message to life.