- “Discuss the role that Graphic Design can play during periods of political and/or social upheaval."
An Example for design playing a role in political change is the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign which was designed by Scott Thomas, with help from other designers who worked on the campaign such as Shepard Fairey (designer and Illustrator), the design created was based on hope and change, the most famous design from this campaign was the Obama 'Hope' poster which was designed by Fairey. Speaking on the unique opportunity of working for the Obama Campaign, Scott Thomas said this whilst speaking for 99u (Self titled teachers on how to build an incredible creative career) "We didn't really have any precedence for this (job), there had never really been an internal design team in a political campaign before, we were very uncertain of how it would work" outlining the significant role which graphic design now plays in politics, it has become essential in modern culture in this sense of political upheaval. Shepard Fairey is a street artist who originally found recognition through his Guerilla art campaign ‘Obey’ in which he fly-posted the urban environment with stickers, Fairey explains that his work was inspired by the concept of phenomenology, a philosophical doctrine that states all knowledge comes from sense perception. In an interview about his work Fairey looks at his Guerilla art project as a propaganda, he spoke of the affects his work has on the public "People are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provokes thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewers perception" [Fairey, Shepard. "Manifesto - Obey Giant". Obey Giant. N.p., 1990. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.] Though he uses the techniques used in the Guerilla art project within his work for the Obama Campaign, it in a sense is the antithises, in a sense that the Obey project was to confuse and intimidate viewers, while the Obama 'Hope' poster is to think and to promote the idea of hope to be subconsciously associated with the image of Barack Obama. The poster uses patriotic colours of red, blue and white and a stencil portrait of Obama as the main feature. This has been described as one of the iconic images of the 21st century and is synonymous with the 08 Obama campaign. Another aspect of the poster that was pointed out was the fact that it was reused and edited so many times and gained so much attention from the public especially using social media as a form of promotion. It became a popular poster immediately, and a large part of that may have to do with the fact that a graffitist made the poster. By this I mean that the poster has a very modern appeal. It is interesting and different from just seeing a photograph of Obama with the word “HOPE” on it. This design was created to paint Obama in a good light, and inspire support which worked to gain him power this is an example political graphic design in a sense a form of modern propaganda, with every aspect of design being considered and aimed at a demographic in attempts to influence.
An example of graphic design playing a role in social upheaval, is looking at the events which took place Paris in 1968 which saw students and workers protesting against the ever increasing levels of unemployment and financial struggles under the conservative government at the time lead by Charles de Gaulle. The conflicts began with a series of student occupation protests against the capitalism, consumerism and order which was in the country at the time, the discontent spread to factories with over 11 million workers going on strike and joining the students in the protests against the government. During the protests of 1968 one of the products of the disruption were some of the most brilliant graphic works ever to have been associated with a social movement. From a design stand point alone they are some of the most interesting and influential designs ever produced. The artworks were not decorations but powerful pieces of propaganda which center stage on the streets in provoking awareness and action. The posters were all anonymous creations, the result of collaborations between idealistic students and striking workers. To this day not a single person has been credited for the provocative artworks. The university departments and student body of Paris' main art school, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, were on strike, and a number of the students met spontaneously in the printmaking department to produce the very first street posters of the revolt. On May 16th, art students and striking workers decided to occupy the art school just so that they could produce posters that would "Give concrete support to the great movement of the workers on strike who are occupying their factories in defiance of the Gaullist government. Even to keep them as historical evidence of a certain stage in the struggle is a betrayal, for the struggle itself is of such primary importance that the position of an "outside" observer is a fiction which inevitably plays into the hands of the ruling class. That is why these works should not be taken as the final outcome of an experience, but as an inducement for finding, though contact with the masses, new levels of action, both on the cultural and the political plane." [Vallen, M. (2001) ART FOR A CHANGE - posters from the Paris 1968 uprising. Available at: http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Paris/paris.html (Accessed: 24 April 2016).] The posters of the Atelier Populare were designed and printed anonymously and were distributed for free. The posters were situated around Paris featuring on barricades, carried in demonstrations, and were plastered on walls to inspire more to join the cause. Their bold and striking messages were extremely influential and still resonate in modern culture today. The handful of brilliant poster designs which were created during this period of social upheaval hold the very essence of activist art, they also represent just a fraction of the enormous output of the Popular Workshop which is the Atelier Populare. One of the key features of these posters were that they were all hand made silkscreen prints, they were all personal and creative acts of protest against the conservative government. These posters define the student and worker strikes in France of 1968, they are an iconic part of social upheaval in modern times, the style of work has been an influence throughout social upheaval since.
In 1971, in England during the run up to the 1980 general election, the conservative party, lead by party leader of the time Margaret Thatcher, released a campaign against the British Labour party called "Labour Isn't Working" which was a political ad campaign. The campaign poster depicts the image of a long queue of people who are lining up outside of an unemployment office, the poster was deigned to show the high numbers of UK unemployment which were ever rising at the times due to the running of the country by Prime minister at the time James Callaghan and his Labour government. Above the imagery used on the poster reads 'Labour Isn't Working' in large bold caps, whilst at the bottom of the page in smaller type reads 'Britain's Better Off With The Conservatives', these use techniques which were used in the posters of the 1968 protests, the use of bold slogans which make people think and influence there mind. The posters were designed by world renowned advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi which was founded in London in 1970, the design produced brought American style of political design to the UK. The campaign was a success with it gaining the Conservative party a lot of media coverage for the poster which the Labour party detested and argued against which only gave the campaign for coverage to the country, helping them to victory, making Margaret Thatcher, who at first did not like the poster, Prime Minister of the UK. The poster has been influential in political campaigns since its production with many parodies and reissues being produced not only by the Conservatives but also used by the Republican Party of America changing the campaign title to 'Obama Isn't Working' during the 2012 Presidential Election., In 2013 organisation Curch Action on Poverty used the poster to launch their campaign called "Britain Isn't Eating" changing the original by making the long queue of people walking into a food bank instead of a Unemployment Centre. The Labour Party used the poster, which was originally used against them, during the 2015 UK General Election to attack the Conservative Party changing the slogan to "The Doctor Can't See You Now" alongside the subtitle "The Tories Have Made It Harder To See A GP".
Another example of graphic design playing a role in political upheaval is the cover of the 1911 anti-military publication designed by John Heartfield (1891 - 1968) a German Photomontagist, best known as a political propagandist was for anti-nazi causes was for a German dadaist (Dadaism was a type of anarchy through art which was born out of outrage for social, political and cultural values of a period of time. It embraced all elements of culture such as art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics) periodical called 'Jedermann sein eigner Fussball' translated to 'Every man his own football' the cover includes Heartfield's cover photomontage of a number of Weimar government leaders such as General Hindenburg and President Ebert, like they are posed for a beauty contest, mocking the heir-achy of the Weimar government (A federal republic of democracy which replaced the German empire in 1919). Heartfield's Jedermann is also a satirical view of the layouts of conservative periodicals of the time, it has significant historical importance in that it was the first published political use of photomontage, the importance of this is clear in the sense it is still used in the design of political art work now. The publication was very anti-government which at the time in the Weimar republic of Germany was a controversial move, Beth Irwin Lewis writes 'Anticipating the government's confiscation of the issue, the editorial staff marched on February 15, 1919, through Berlin neighborhoods accomponied by a frock-coated musical band. The entire issue sold out in a few hour' 'On the basis of this Jedermann issue, charges were brought against Herzfelde as the editor and Mehring as a writer for "Seeking to bring the Reichswehr into contempt and distributing indecent publications." [Lavin, M. (2001) Clean new world: Culture, politics, and graphic design. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press]. Although neither were jailed at the time, Herzfelde was later imprisoned without a hearing from March 7 to March 20 1919, along with many other communists following a general strike in Berlin. Malik's history is marked by a series of major censorship trials instigated by the Weimar Government', as now the freedom of press allows pieces similar to Heartfield's Jedermann cover to be printed.
An example of graphic design playing a part in modern political and social upheaval is the organisation Adbusters. Adbusters was founded by canadian filmmakers Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz, in 1989, the duos project is self described as anti-advertising, it blames advertising for the creation and maintaining of consumer culture in the world. Lasn and Schmalz believes that the advertising industry attempts to associate desire and identity with the products they are selling. Adbusters believe the work they're doing "fighting back against the hostile takeover of our psychological, physical and cultural environments by commercial forces." [Lasn, K. and Schmalz, B. (2016) Journal of the mental environment. Available at: http://www.adbusters.org/ (Accessed: 24 April 2016)]. One of the campaigns which the Adbusters runs is Culture Jamming, which is a tactic used by anti-consumetist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Culture jams are done to expose the political assumptions behind commercial culture. Some of the tactics employed in culture jamming are fashion statements and editing images of products and commodities challenging the concept of what is cool. Culture jamming uses mass media to create ironic parodies about itself, for example using a poster to mock a poster. The Adbusters magazine is now a world recognised bimonthly publication described, by authors of 'The Rebel Sell', Joseph Heath, philosopher and Andrew Potter, as "the flagship publication of the culture jamming movement." [Heath, J., Potter, A. and Heath, J. (2005) The rebel sell: How the counter culture became consumer culture. United Kingdom: Capstone Publishing.] The group are responsible for launching the Occupy Wall Street campaign.
The 'Occupy Movement' or most noteably the 'Occupy Wall Street Movement', are a group who organise marches, sit ins and peaceful protests. The movement is against social and economic equality around the world, they target Wall street, located in Manhattan, New York. Wall Street is known as the financial centre of the world, being home to a number of large stock exchange buildings. The 'Occupy' Movement uses a range of techniques to put across their message and there organised protests, a major one is there striking posters, the most notable one using edited images of an iconic statue from Wall street with a ballet dancer atop of it, with a smokey background where protestors can just be seen. The visuals used are striking and not to representative of whats going on, it just visualises going against the social norm, quite like there ethos where they try to get rid of the social and economic heir-achy that is now seen as the social norm in the 21st century. Not only posters, the movement use modern techniques to put across there message, such as using social media including twitter they get more attention to there cause by using hash tags on twitter to make there planned protests trend on twitter and be seen all around the world, they include these hash tags on there posters and other physical pieces, for example banners, leaflets and picket signs used at the protests. This is an organisation who try to inspire social change they believe there methods of social movement can replace conventional warfare. They use graphic design to produce a range of physical and digital pieces to put across their message, there designs need to be strong to carry there messages whilst protesting in large crowds, these are simple and hope to spread the message to gain more support.
The role which Graphic Design plays in times of social and political upheaval is one of influence, in a sense that it is used to influence the viewer to share the same view or to influence thought, this one an aim of the Atelier Populare when they produced there silk screen prints to show there struggle during the protests of 1968, it was to influence, inspire and inform people of what was happening running bold slogans such as "Sois Juene Et Tais Toi" translated to "Be young and shut up", slogans which show the oppression against the students of the time by the conservative government in power, these were fit for purpose posters meant to influence people to join the protest, it was a simple and cheap way to get the message to the masses, the use of guerilla distribution of fly posting it on walls meant that the iconic designs would be seen by many people across France. More recently the Obama 08 Presidential campaign designs by Scott Thomas shows the use of graphic design inspiring and influencing people, using graphic design in the form of posters, websites, stickers etc. to gain support and to make people think.
Colquhoun, R. (2013b) Political art and activism: Poster. Available at: http://nationalcollective.com/2013/02/18/political-art-and-activism-poster/ (Accessed: 2 April 2016).
Dawn Ades: 'Photomontage' (New York: Pantheon, 1976)
Beth Irwin Lewis: 'George Grosz: Art and Politics in the Weimar republic. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971)
Hagy, Jessica, and Lionel Giles. The Art of War Visualized: The Sun Tzu Classic in Charts and Graphs. N.p.: Workman, 2015. Print.
Bardellotto, Luigino. ¡Mira Cuba!: Manifesti Cinematografici, Politici E Sociali = Carteles De Cine, Políticos Y Sociales = Movie, Political and Social Posters. N.p.: Silvana, 2013. Print.
McCue, M., Team, T. 99 U., Burkeman, O., Blanda, S. and Behance, I. (2009) Scott Thomas: Designing the Obama campaign. Available at: http://99u.com/videos/5821/scott-thomas-designing-the-obama-campaign (Accessed: 2 April 2016).
Work: Saatchi & Saatchi (no date) Available at: http://saatchi.co.uk/en-gb/work/ (Accessed: 25 February 2016)
Vallen, M. (2001a) ART FOR A CHANGE - posters from the Paris 1968 uprising. Available at: http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Paris/paris.html (Accessed: 2 April 2016).
Chayasatit, A. (2014) It’s not very nice that: Graphic design and politics. Available at: http://www.peopleofprint.com/exhibition/its-not-very-nice-that-graphic-design-and-politics/ (Accessed: 3 November 2015).
Lasn, K. and Schmalz, B. (2016b) Journal of the mental environment. Available at: https://www.adbusters.org/ (Accessed: 2 April 2016).
Perisian revolt screen printed posters
discussion why propaganda doesnt exist anymore
PR and press to manipulate
perceptions
Alternatives and contemparary
adbusters occupy movements
graphic agitation
Remember the question
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