Power of the People

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Power of the People: Community-Based Design for Socail Advocacy by Leah Morgan

A thesis in partial fullfillment of the requirement for the degree of master of Science (Communications Design)

School of Art + Design Pratt Institute December 2010

Received + Approved warren bernard, major advisor

date

jeff bellantoni, chairperson

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contents

1 introduction New Model for Effective 2 Democratic Design 3 definitions Case Studies: 4 Past Public space Current Case Studies: 5 Public Space Case Studies: 6 Current The Internet Vs. Offline 7 Online Activism solution 1: 8 Design poor body image solution 2: 9 Design Marriage equaility for LGBT 10 conclusion

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Introduction How did I become so fascinated with communication design’s potential as a tool for social activism? And why? It all began when I was a teenager. During those formative years I found religion: a religion called punk rock. It started out with making collages with Kurt Cobain cut-outs. It then proceeded to a full-throttle embrace of everything punk-rock. I learned to be critical, to reject materialism, to question the status quo, and to challenge systems of power. I never thought of punk rock in terms of a visual culture: it was a holistic system of ideals with visual signifiers representing those ideals. The concepts came first, the images second, or maybe the other way around. Non the less, the revolutionary spirit and the D.I.Y. aesthetic had a symbiotic relationship. During my punk rock stint, I became familiarized with vegetarianism; riot grrl feminism, queercore, and other political activism. And without being consciously aware, I devoured the visual language of the culture. Riot grrl was an especially profound discovery for me. Hole’s album, “Live Through This.” introduced me to the “revolution girl style now.” The cover featured a mascara-smeared homecoming queen, a destruction of perfection I embraced. The song “Doll Parts” spoke to the part of me that so badly wanted to reject the beauty ideals I felt pressured to attain. I collected records of female-led bands that had home-made lyrics and D.I.Y. album art.

Top: Ellen Von Unwerth, Live Through This album cover by Hole, 1994. Bottom: Cover os Spin magazine featuring Curt Cobain, 1995.

I started a zine in the D.I.Y. style, and read others such as Cometbus. Zine-making is surprisingly similar to book layout, but we did it all cutand-paste with xeroxes back then. I even used a typewriter so I could control exactly where the letters fell on a page. Fast forward to my college years. I had an activist spirit, and decided to study at a liberal institution, The New School. I was conflicted about what to pursue: my love of making things or my love of changing things, so I studied both. But at my degree’s end, the two seems not mutually exclusive but rather inclusive. However, after a few years working at an art gallery, I wasn’t really doing much professionally to connect the two. I started my M.S. in Communication Design in 2007, without much conscious thought about punk rock. As kids cut out foam core (at the New School we wouldn’t even drink Starbuck’s because of the fair trade implications, let alone dare think of using a material that never biodegrades!) and created fake ad campaigns for “stuff,” I began to wonder if I had “outgrown” (as I was told I one day would) that youthful optimism. I asked myself if I could finally join “the straight world,” and took a job designing for a for-profit, no-ostencible-benefit-to-society company.

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Aaron Cometbus Cometbus #50, 2006.

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Top: Unknown, album cover of Total Entertainment by Pansy Division, 2003. Bottom: Unknown, riot grrrl in typewritten font, circa 1990. Left page: Unknown, album cover of Julie Ruin by Julie Ruin, 1998.

I left my first day of work with a pit in my stomach. The culture at the company included comparative glances, diet discussions, and a screaming boss lady. My punk rock roots betrayed me as I tried day after day to abandon my design/activist ideals. I quickly gave notice in a professional manner and found a new job working for an environmental company. I had to learn the hard way that given my personality, designing for greater good is the only path for me. I’m sure I’ll have detours and personal discoveries along the way. But there is nothing I care more about than using my skills as a visual communicator for social good.

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2 r e t p a ch

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social justic + design authorship + community-based design

social justic / socially responsible design

communitybased design

design authorship

A new model: community-based design as a tool for social advocacy

Design has the power to educate and incite action. The process applied to design for social causes often mimics a commercial model. I believe that a new model is necessary. First, I hypothesize that creating a human connection where there is disconnection is essential when designing for social advocacy. People can easily separate themselves from issues; however, when confronted with words or images depicting human suffering, it is harder for them to disregard social injustice. One way to create this human connection is through community-based design. Community-based design involves a designer collaborating with a community to create a message. The visual message can take many forms, but it’s power depends on words and images of community members. An honest, accurate representation of the community helps create a human connection. Finally, I believe that design authorship empowers communities to create their own truth. Traditionally, people with money had the power to be heard, while systematically oppressed groups were ignored or misrepresented. Design authorship give communities the power to communicate their message, while simultaneously addressing issues that are not being addressed. The model I believe that will benefit advocacy efforts is one that combines community-based design and design authorship. Combining these three design theories—community-based design, social justice aspect of social responsibility, and design authorship—can better serve community needs. By creating a platform for community involvement, communication designers can help increase awareness around social-political issues and help advance action towards a solution.

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s n o i t i n i f e D 3 er

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Definitions WHAT IS COMMUNICATION DESIGN? Communication design (a.k.a. graphic design) is often differentiated from fine art by one thing and one thing only: a client. The graphic designer serves as the link between the client and the audience, helping the client communicate an intended message via images and/or text.

client

<---->

designer

<---->

audience

However, if graphic design is defined as communicating a message with image and text, the client is no longer the crux of its existence. Using this definition, graphic design still differs from fine art in that its viewer receives a message intended by the creator, whereas the fine art’s message is interpretive and more subjective. Communication design still is used for client’s to communicate, but it is also used to communicate so much more. This refined definition allows graphic designers to create messages not only for corporate clients, but for anyone who has a message to deliver to an audience. The designer now is defined as a visual communicator, linking anyone’s message to an audience. This definition allows for a designer to serve not only as a link between a paying client and an audience, but also as a link between communities and an audience.

client community

<----> <---->

designer designer

<----> <---->

audience audience

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN GRAPHIC DESIGN Socially responsible design is transparent, honest, environmentally friendly, inclusive, and contributes to the well-being of society. It’s difficult to define a specific ethical code, but several attempts have been made over time. The first call to action was the First Things First Manifesto, created by Ken Garland in 1964. The manifesto urged graphic designers to use their skills as a visual communicator beyond commercial use. The name, “First Things First” implies that instead of putting profit first, and people second; designers put the health, rights, and common good of people before profit.

The manifesto defined social responsibility for graphic designers, urging

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First Things First Manifesto We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it. Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best. Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse. There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help. We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mind shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

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the question for the socially responsible designer is not simply, “what harm can I avoid?” but rather “what good can I create?”

professionals to reexamine the profession and pursue work which contributes to the greater good of society. In 1999, almost 40 years after it’s original release, Adbusters republished the manifesto. Prominent designers, such as Paula Scher, Irma Boom, Jonathan Barnbrook, and Milton Glaser signed the republished manifesto. The reissue was aimed at sparking debate, and to highlight what Rick Poynor, the manifesto’s creator, calls “little inclination of late to consider first principles.” The manifesto spread like wildfire, gracing the pages of print publications around the world, including prominent publications such as Emigre, Print, I.D., and Communication Arts. The reissue provoked both positive and negative responses from the design community. If the goal was to spark debate, mission accomplished. 1

The First-Things First Manifesto focused on the main tenant of design responsibility: placing people first, profit second. Other designers have expanded upon the manifesto by defining the principles of social responsibility, such as transparency, environmental sustainability, and ethical considerations when dealing with clients. Milton Glaser created a de facto manifesto outlining the rules of transparency with Road to Hell. He listed 12 unscrupulous design practices (akin to biblical commandments), which progressively caused more harm. Discussions of design responsibility often dodge absolutes, and Glaser aptly displays how designers lack a definitive code of conduct. He forces the reader to question, “Where would I draw the line?” perhaps making the designer evaluate the nebulous nature of all design-related responsibility. Although Glaser admits that he “personally [has] made a number of them,” the list itself seems to be a plea to younger designers to learn from his wisdom, and to practice utter and complete honesty in all design matters. The gray area discussed in Glaser’s “The Road to Hell,” applies to all aspects of social responsibility. Clients can present a challenge when a designer has the lofty goal of social responsibility. As Glaser aptly notes,“Our discussion on the ethics of designers always get impaled on the issue of whether a client’s desire for profit can be reconciled with our ethical desire to do no harm.” The gray area tends to expand when money is involved. 2

However, the question for the socially responsible designer is not simply, “what harm can I avoid?” but rather “what good can I create?” Socially responsible designers are urged to expand beyond complying with a client by offering more humane solutions. As Thomas Matthews explains, “A good designer creates communication that is inspiring, meaningful, and sustainable. That means questioning. Questioning the brief, questioning the way things get done. Setting parameters and challenges even when the client doesn’t demand it...making something that is not just beautiful, but smart too.” Even though the designer’s job is to help the client communicate, social responsibility includes educating the client about social and environmental concerns, and pushing a solution that benefits both. 3

Socially responsible design does not allow designers to dodge culpability by pointing the finger at a nefarious client. It asks that designers take ownership of messages they create. Few designers are likely to state as Divya Chadha does, “I realize I am responsible for the messages that are being 1  Art Oma “First Things First” 2001 www.art-omma.org 9 March 2010 <http://www.art-omma.org/ NEW/past_issues/theory/08_First%20Things%20First%20Manifesto%202000.htm> 2 Glaser, Milton “Since Then” Looking Closer 5, p. 146. 3  - (p.130 Good: Ethics of G.D.)

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Road to Hell 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Designing a package to look bigger on the shelf.

Designing an ad for a slow, boring film to make it seem like a lighthearted comedy. Designing a crest for a new vineyard to suggest that it has been in business for a long time. Designing a jacket for a book whose sexual content you find personally repellent. Designing a medal using steel from the World Trade Center to be sold as a profit-making souvenir of September 11. Designing an advertising campaign for a company with a history of known discrimination in minority hiring.

Designing a package aimed at children for a cereal whose contents you know are low in nutritional value and high in sugar. Designing a line of T-shirts for a manufacturer that employs child labor. Designing a promotion for a diet product that you know doesn’t work. Designing an ad for a political candidate whose policies you believe would be harmful to the general public. Designing a brochure for an SUV that flips over frequently in emergency conditions and is known to have killed 150 people.

Designing an ad for a product whose frequent use could result in the user’s death.1

1 Glaser, Milton. “The Road to Hell.” Metropolis. August/September 2002 <http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0802/gla/>

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I am responsible for the messages that are being sent through the visual communication that I have designed. - Divya Chadha

sent through the visual communication that I have designed.” Yet this is what socially responsible design demands. 4

Clients are not a cut and dry matter. Some designers will only work with ethical clients, but as designer Michael Mariott questions, “Do you preach to the converted and work for a good cause, or work for more commercial enterprises and try to change things from within?” It is not uncommon for designers to refuse working for companies that employ child labor, test on animals, or produce harmful products such as tobacco. But many organizations with greater reach could use some education. Mariott concludes, “Ultimately you need to feel comfortable with your own ethical position.” 5

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Socially responsible design acknowledges work outside of the client-designer relationship. In fact, self-initiated projects for peace, social justice, and the environment are encouraged.

CODIFYING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY In 2005, Frank Baseman, Elizabeth Reznick, and Chaz Maviyane-Davies curated “The Graphic Imperative” exhibition. The title implies that the sociopolitical design is necessary, and that communication designers, with or without a client, need to express their concern. The exhibition was first hosted at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and continues to travel across the globe. Personally, the most important contribution of the exhibition was not establishing the imperative of activism, but codifying three distinct categories of socially responsible design: environment, peace, and social justice. Although the categories were applied to the posters in the exhibit, they can be applied across all mediums. Much work had been made in defining the principals of social responsibility, but the exhibition was one of the first to mention social justice as a key category. Social justice is defined as “the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society.” Currently in the US, there is a myth that we have reached equality. A prime example would be the press’s love affair with the phrase, “post-racial nation” following Obama’s election in November of 2009, in spite of statistics that supported otherwise. For example, in January of 2010, the unemployment rate for college-educated black men was twice as high as that of their white counterparts. However, it wasn’t statistics that debunked the post-racial myth; it was a narrative about a black Harvard professor mistaken for a hoodlum and assaulted by police officers at his own home. The Henry Gates story forced journalists to recant. But why was the public misled in the first place? Miscommunication. 7

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Communication design can help not only educate the public about the truth, but also encourage action to remedy the existing inequalities. Although it has been the focus of very few designers, Deborah Szebeko of thinkpublic design studio recognize communication design’s potential in this particular area. “We can use our skills to empower people and give 4  (p.121 Good: Ethics of G.D.) 5  - Michael Marriott (p.117 of Good: Ethics of G.D.) 6  - Michael Marriott (p.117 of Good: Ethics of G.D.) 7  “Social justice” 2010. dictionary.com. 9 March 2010 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ social+justice> 8 Herbert, Bob. “Blacks in Retreat” New York Times. January 19, 2010. The New York Times Company. 9 March 2010 < http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/opinion/19herbert.html>

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them a voice, supporting individuals and communities to co-design and articulate their ideas and experiences into user-led policies, services, communications and products...it encourages the state to improve services, and leads to design solutions that really benefit and meet the needs of the public.” 9

Defining Community-Based Design Community-based design involves designers collaborating with a community to co-create something. The medium used for the process and final outcome is not limited to a particular form. Examples of some mediums used for community-based design models are quilt-making, blogs, interactive installations, and public art. The designer either creates a platform for a community to use (i.e., Ji Lee’s speech bubble stickers that anyone can adhere to public advertising and write their own message on), or guides a community in the production of making something (i.e., LA’s Feminist Studio Workshop teaching over 300 women print-making techniques to create the “Postcard Project: Celebrating Our Heroines”). New technology has made community-based design part of almost every internet user’s life, thanks to social media. Social media involves a designer creating the platform for the community to use, as in Twitter tweets, Facebook wall updates, Myspace custom profile pages, Tumblr photo collections, Yelp ratings, and wordpress blogging. Often with social media the designer is crafting the experience of the user, with aesthetics influencing this experience. The popularity of social media familiarizes users with community models in which users generate content. Although the nature of many social media sites are to connect with friends, civic activity is becoming a part of these networks. Community-based design shares many theories with human-centered design, created by design firm, Ideo. Ideo provides a “toolkit” for nongovernment organizations (NGO’s) and other social initiatives. The toolkit is free to download from Ideo’s web site, and as of December of 2010 the toolkit was downloaded 44,800 times. 10

Like community-based design, human-centered design focuses on ethnography. Ideo explains: People are the experts. They are the ones who know best what the right solutions are. [Our toolkit] doesn’t offer solutions. Instead, it offers techniques, methods, tips, and worksheets...that gives voice to communities and allows their desires to guide the creation and implementation of solutions.11

Like community-based design, community members are integral to the design process. The beginning of the human-centered design process begins with talking with and listening to the community that is being served. However, unlike community-based design, the final design solution does not necessarily include the words or images of community members, although in many cases it does. For example, in Ideo’s application of the human-centered design for Red Cross’s donor experience, blood donors’ “Why I Give,” testimonials were 9  - Deborah Szebeko / thinkpublic (p. 135 Good: Ethics of G.D.) 10  Ideo. Human Centered Design Toolkit. 2010. Ideo. 2 April 2010 <http://www.ideo.com/work/item/ human-centered-design-toolkit/> 11  Ideo. Human Centered Design Toolkit.

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Ideo, case study photos from their human-centered approach with Red Cross, 2009.

posted alongside their photos. Ideo began the process, as always, by listening to community members, in this case blood donors. They asked donors why they donated blood, as well as non-donors what prevented them from donating blood. Ideo found that among non-donors, the primary reasons for not donating blood were “an emotional response to needles, a perceived lack of time, and a general lack of knowledge about the process and demand.” During the creation phase, Ideo found that the testimonials of donors were strong counterpoints to the non-donors fears. For the final phase–implementation–these testimonials were included in the non-threatening blood donor stations. 12

Community-based design is not synonymous with crowd sourcing, although the two models both pool from the public. Community-based design is a collaboration where members are motivated by working together for enhanced problem-solving. No one particular person “wins,” and the motivation is enhanced problem solving that benefits all. Crowd sourcing, on the other hand, often involves a financial reward that is given to a person or persons deemed to have the best solution. GIRL EFFECT: MEDIA 5 GIRLS: MANY LIVES

Importance of community-based design KEEPING GIRLS SAFE

Brent Stirton/Getty Images

STEPHANIE THE BIG PICTURE

STEPHANIE, 20, KENYA

In one year, adolescent pregnancy costs Kenya $503.9 million in GDP. The effect on one girl? Becoming an adolescent mother here means girls forego an average of $2,470 in annual potential earnings.

On the list of the world’s most dangerous places to be an adolescent girl, Kibera, Nairobi, ranks high — if not at the top.

Education isn’t much better. More than 1.6 million Kenyan girls are out of school. If they stay in school, Kenya’s adolescent girls could boost their economy by $27.4 billion: $25.1 billion if they delay childbirth and $1.6 billion if they stay HIV-free. In Kenya, girls aged 15–19 are three times more likely to be HIVpositive than their male counterparts. Girls 20–24 are 5.5. times more likely. carolina for Kibera/binti Pamoja fosters leadership among girls, providing safe spaces for peer mentoring in the slums of urban Kenya.

In this slum, a million people live in an area 75% the size of Central Park. More than half of the population is younger than 20, orphaned in effect by immigration, or in fact by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Half of these kids are HIVpositive — and of these, 85% are girls. No one has the means to earn an income — except girls, who quickly discover upon adolescence that their bodies are assets. It’s an asset that’s often violated, leading to pregnancy, school drop-out, HIV risk, and continued suffering for girls and their children.

Her future could have been lost. But she had the support of Binti Pamoja, a girls’ safe space that offers four walls, a roof, a locked gate, and the support a girl needs to stay healthy in her own community. There, she learned how girls can protect themselves. After her son’s birth, she trained as a Binti leader, joining other girl leaders as they’ve spread throughout Kibera. They’ve brought safety to hundreds more girls and are giving the girl effect the tiniest of chances. In Kibera, and in every urban slum throughout the developing world, it’s the only place to start.

That was Stephanie’s situation three years ago, after she was raped in her neighborhood.

Community-based design is democratic. As opposed to other forms of mass communication, which depend on having funding to create and distribute a message, community-based design allows for those without money or power to publicly voice their concerns. As Sheila Levrant de Bretteville explains, community-based design “provide[s] models for inclusion.” Minorities— ethnic minorities, women, gay, lesbian, bi-, and transgendered people—­ who have systematically oppressed are given a chance to communicate. As deBretteville explains, when using community-based design, she is able to explore “who and what has been overlooked and devalued, and how I can bring those at the periphery into public view.” 13

For more inFormation about the girl eFFect, contact media@ girleFFect.org

Wieden + Kennedy, excerpt from The Girl Effect Media Kit, 2009.

Community-based design is a powerful tool for human connection. Most community based design illustrates the social nature of human beings. Because we are interested in connecting with others, community-based design entrances us. Using a designed platform for human connection can range anywhere from reading others’ comments on a blog post to spray-painting on Banksey’s fake “official graffiti area.” Because many people are involved in community-based design, it’s an appropriate method to employ when dealing with complex issues. The collective voice is heard through various iterations (not all issues can be accurately summed up in a one page ad). One example of its this ability to convey complex information is the Aids Quilt. AIDS had affected hundreds of friends’ and families’ lives, but this effect was an abstraction until the AIDs quilt. It not only physically expanded a vast amount of space (representing the size of the problem), but also visually represented the spectrum of people who had died from AIDS in a very humanistic, palatable way. The quilt empowered people to broadcast their message: that AIDS could not and would not be ignored. It also served as a medium for healing, bringing affected people together for shared support.

12  Ideo. American Red Cross Donor Experience. 2010. Ideo. 2 April 2010 <http://www.ideo.com/work/ featured/red-cross> 13  - (p 137 Good: Ethics of G.D.)

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The volume of input on community-based design helps mold a more refined solution. Groups make better decisions than individuals, as supported by behavioral studies. One study found that given the same weather forecast, farmers who collectively decided when to plant their seeds yielded a better result than those who made the decision independently. Design-related examples of group-think include Last.fm’s song selection based on a pool of user input, and Threadless’s T-shirt selections based on community votes. Groups are also better at delaying rewards, a crucial quality when dealing with the gradual nature of social change. 14

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Allowing and encouraging a community to speak for themselves creates an honest representation of groups’ message. The message is sincere, believable. One example is The Girl Effect’s use of photos and personal stories of girls in developing nations who received an education on behalf of Girl Effect’s micro-loans. Too poor to afford an education, the girls talk of how prostitution was the only viable means of earning money. By witnessing photos of the girls partaking in beekeeping, community-organizing, and other business endeavors possible thanks to their education, viewers are confronted with a human reality. The girls are not fetishized as exotic Africans. Rather, an honest, human narrative is woven through the viewers’ consciousness.

Design as Author/Entrepreneur Generally, designers are sought after someone has defined a problem and needs an aesthetic solution at the end of the process. When a designer acts as an author, however, he or she is part of entire process, not only finding a solution but also defining the problem. The designer is problem-seeking rather than just problem-solving. The designer is involved not just at the end, but throughout, the entire process. In the past, publishing was limited to mass production. However, thanks to technological advances, today there exists an increased ability to produce a small quantity of professional-quality products. One example is book publishing companies, such as Lulu and Blurb, which allow consumers to self-publish books in small runs. A major harbinger to design entrepreneurship is the do-it-yourself (DIY) movement. Artists and designers, especially those involved in sociopolitical protests, have been silk-screening, xeroxing, and self-creating visual communication for decades. Designers who created client work also designed protest posters and picket signs. For example, the iconic peace symbol was self-initiated by Gerald Holtom for the grass roots Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958. Ellen Lupton’s book, DIY, brought the movement’s long-standing practices into design field’s purview. Design authorship and social activism almost always go hand-in-hand. The symbiotic relationship reveals the wisdom of communities: those within a group who are directly affected are aware of problems long before institutions and the public at large. For example, the GLBT community organized protests and visual communication regarding the AIDS epidemic in response to lack of action. ACT UP, the AIDS quilt, and Tibor Kalman’s image of Kennedy with AIDS-induced skin discoloration all exposed a social epidemic being ignored. 14  Gerner, John. “Why Isn’t The Brain Green?.” The New York Times Magazine. April 19, 2009. 15  Ibid.

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community-based design allows for those without money or power to publicly voice their concerns.

Community-based design has shown to bring humanity to issues. Design authorship has addressed critical social issues Importance of authorship before institutions, including non-profits.

Milton Glaser coined the phrase, “citizen designer,” to specify self-initiated design which advocates for social and political causes. Glaser urges designers to participate as active citizens by utilizing their design expertise. Glaser himself frequently acts as a citizen designer. The most well-known example of his benevolent work is the omnipresent I Heart NY logo, created not for commission, but as an homage to the city he loved. When the logo was appropriated for everything from I Heart Virginia to I Fucking Heart NYC, no copyright lawsuit ensued because Milton Glaser wasn’t profiting from the logo. And following the disaster of 9-11, Milton Glaser created a new version of the I Heart NY logo with of a heart burned on the top corner and the words, “I Heart NY More Than Ever.” Just like the original, it was created not for profit, but to unify the community.

Design authorship allows socially-minded designers to take a proactive stance. The creative problem-solving used for design thinking enables designers to also potentially notices problems before others. There is no need to wait for client to have a great idea because the designer already has one. Prominent examples of design entrepreneurship’s power include Shepard Fairey’s iconic “Hope” poster (which was self-initiated and not commissioned by the Obama campaign); and Barbara Kruger’s pro-choice activist piece with the words “Your Body is a Battleground.”

Why Combine all 3? Campaigns for education and action are complex. Most advertising models are based around the quick-fix of a purchase high. Unfortunately, social change is not as simple as switching to a new shampoo. It seems logical that the design process for social campaigns would need to differ from that of commercial advertising. Community-based design has shown to bring humanity to issues. Design authorship has addressed critical social issues before institutions, including non-profits. Utilizing the two for social justice campaigns is one method of increasing awareness and action.

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: t s Pa 4 er

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e c a p S c i l b Pu

Historical Case Studies Evaluating past campaigns can ensure the success of future efforts. Community-based design, initiated by designers, is nothing new. However, before the advent of the internet, public spaces were the primary domain to display advocacy efforts. Some of the case studies combine social responsibility and design authorship, others combine social responsibility and community-based design. Occasionally, a design effort combines all three.

Social Responsibility The most prominent and far-reaching examples of campaigns that have addressed community concerns have been launched by the Ad Council. Other non-profits, including TapRoot, DesigNYC, WorldStudio Foundation, and Winterhouse Institute, use Ad Council’s business model to link designers with non-profits in need. The majority of these campaigns used traditional advertising business models, and were extremely successful. A slogan, a spokesperson or mascot, and polished advertisements ensured the campaigns’ success. For example, Smokey the Bear told us, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Thanks to Smokey, forest fires have decreased from 22 million acres to less than 8.4 million acres per year (about 1/3 of the original amount), since the campaign’s launch.16 And the Crash Test Dummies (so lovable that a band used the name) warned us, “Don’t be a dummy,” and to buckle up. The American public heeded their advice: seat belt use increased from 14% to 79% from the campaign’s launch in 1985 to 2009; an estimated 85,000 lives, and $3.2 billion, has been saved. The success of other Ad Council Campaigns is evident: the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor ads increased mentorship from 90,000 a year to 620,000 in the first nine months; due to the “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” campaign, 68% of Americans said that they have stopped someone from drunk driving; and since the Environmental Defense campaign launched in 1980, recycled content increased 385.4%. Each campaign educated the public and effected their behavior. 17

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Campaigns launched by the Ad Council are crucial for social responsibility; however, communities historically have had issues that were not addressed by non-profits or Public Service Announcements (PSA’s). Many of these social issues have been progressive, and perhaps too risky for a large entity to be associated with. Others simply were unknown by the public at large, and the communities took the liberty to set the record straight. Frustrated by the lack of education and awareness, artists and designers created their own solutions to problems they were all too aware of. 16 17  18  19  20

Ad Council “Campaigns” 2009. 7 Nov. 2009 <http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=15> Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid.

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Design Authorship + Social Responsibility

Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger strattles line between art and design, and her roots in graphic design are obvious influences in her work. Kruger admits,“When I first started, all I wanted to be was Designer or Art Director of the World!” She eventually left the design world in response to power inequalities. “So many demands are just about power and hierarchy within a corporation or group,” Kruger explained, “and because all of that was so apparent to me, I didn’t want to be a dancing bear in that sort of vaudeville act.” 1

2

Barbara Kruger, Your Body is a Battleground, 1989.

Instead of becoming a corporate marionette, she channeled her skills into community and fine art. Feminism and patriarchy were common themes in her work. her most famous piece, entitled “Your Body Is a Battleground,” captured the voice of the feminist community. The original poster was created for a rally protesting a supreme court case attempting to overturn Roe vs. Wade in 1989. The prominent phrase, “Your body is a battleground,” as well as the supplemental text which read, “support legal abortion, birth control, and legal rights,” were battle cries. Urging women and men to come to the protest, the poster declared, “We will show that the majority of Americans support the right to choose.” Although created without collaborating with other women’s rights activists, as a feminist herself, Kruger’s work accurately represented the community. So that the image could be relevant in other contexts, a simplified rendition was created with only the words, “your body is a battleground,” with the event details removed. The poster has been imprinted in the lexicon of pro-choice advocacy. Several of her other works challenge patriarchy on behalf of women everywhere. For instance,“We Don’t Need Another Hero” (1986) speaks for women who no longer play the role of victim, challenging and seeking to end the fair-tale construct of a damsel in distress. Her bold typography; simple color palate of black, white, and red; and iconic imagery formed a body of work that represented feminist sentiment across the nation. 1  Women of Design, p. 14, 2  Ibid.

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Barbara Kruger, We Don’t Need Another Hero, 1986.

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Design Authorship + Community-Based Desgin + Social Responsibility

The Situationists The Situationists were a radical collective formed in 1957 in Paris and active until 1972. The group critiqued media’s capitalistic interest, which they believed degraded the quality of life and human happiness. Guy Debord’s book, Society Spectacle, largely influenced the group’s theory and practice. The book articulated, “All that was once directly lived has become mere representation,” meaning that rather than truly living, the public was perpetually striving to attain representations of happiness depicted in consumer-based media. Debord labeled mass media as a “superficial manifestation,” of life, and was the first to equate commodity fetishism with the “ecstasies...and miracles of the old religious fetishism.” In order to disrupt the false sense of enlightenment, the Situationists sought to attack consumer culture as well as educate the public of its manipulative grasp. To provide an alternative to living vicariously through media representation, the group constructed situations (i.e., pranks) for true human engagement. The Situationist practiced many post-modern tenets, notably appropriation, which they called detournement. Comic strips were commonly used to communicate their philosophies, such as the one on the prior page, in which a father defines detournement to his son. 1

2

Guy Debord, Society Spectacle, 1967.

A primary example of the coalition’s use of detournement and constructed situations was the 1966 prank, “De La Misere En Milieu Etudiant,” translated as, “On the Poverty of Student Life.” Situationist members infiltrated the University of Strasbourg by joining the student union. After successfully forming a university anarchy club, the group began to use the university’s funds to create materials with Situationist philosophies. The prank evolved, reaching its apex, when the group distributed 10,000 booklets containing Situationist theory as if it were an official campus publication.

1  Guy Debord, Préface a la quatrième édition italienne de “La société du spectacle” (published by Editions Champ Libre, Paris, February 1979). 2  Ibid.

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Jacqueline de Jong, publissher, The Situationist Times, No. 5, 1962-4.

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Post-card project from Feminist Studio Print Workshop In 1973, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Judy Chicago (best known for her feminist artwork titled “The Dinner Party”), and Arlene Raven founded the Women’s Building in Los Angeles. The building became a haven of feminist activism. Sheila Levrant de Bretteville was the de facto graphic designer for the space, creating its identity and designing promotional materials, including the iconic poster for the first-ever “Women in Design Conference” in 1975. The space fostered a community atmosphere. De Bretteville took an especially democratic approach to the Feminist Studio Workshop, where she taught print-making to women of all backgrounds. A sublime example of The Feminist Studio Workshop’s community-based approach is “Postcard Project: Celebrating Our Heroines,” which was collaborated by artist-in-residence, Cheri Gaulke in 1985. Over 300 women participated, combining image and text to commemorate women of historical impact. The project’s purpose was to herald the historic contributions of women whom texts and academia had skipped in preference of a patriarchal view of the past. Gaulke taught the women, who were not necessarily self-defined artists, the print-making process. The end result shows how one person can empower a community to create a message that represents all members.

Women’s Action Coalition (WAC) WAC was a collective of female artists, designers, and feminists organized in February of 1991. In a backlash against poorly-executed protest graphics, the group prided themselves on high-quality visuals. The creative collective proclaimed, “We will exercise our full power to launch a visible and remarkable resistance.” Bethany Johhs and Marlene McCartney were the prominent designers within the collective. They created a majority of the collectives protest posters, as well as the collective’s logo: an all-seeing eye surrounded by the words, “WAC is watching, women take action.” 21

WAC’s first graphic protest was the Blue Dot campaign, created in 1992 in response to sexual violence against women. Both the trials of Clarence Thomas and William Kenedy Smith (from St. Johns University) contributed to growing media attention to rape. Performance artist Laurie Anderson conceptualized using a blue dot as a symbol of protest. The blue dot was appropriated from the televised trials, in which the rapist was covered with a blue dot to protect his identity. Women, enraged by ongoing sexual violence, protested outside of the St. John’s rape trial holding two-sided placards. One side was a solid blue dot, the other, a hand gesturing stop with a block of text reading, “No means No,” a now a common-place phrase in our cultural lexicon. 21  Ivinski, Pamela A. “Women Who Turn The Gaze Around,” Looking Closer 2. New York, NY: Allworth Press, 1997.

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Samples from the Postcard Project: Celebrating Our Heroines, 1985

Prints from The Feminist Studio Workshop in LA, circa 1970’s.

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WAC’s following major protest was outside of the Church of St. Agnes, a Manhattan church, in response to the church’s bullying at an abortion clinic. Women carried signs reading, “Keep your rosaries out of our ovaries!” The collective was overwhelmingly democratic. As one member, artist Janet Henry explained at the time, WAC “is wide open. If there is something you are concerned about, you can get some people together, organize an action, and just do it.” 22

Guerilla Girls In 1985, The Guerrilla Girls began collecting statistics about discrimination in the art world against women, designing flyers with this information, and distributing them publicly. Following an exhibition at the MoMA which feature 13 women out of 169 artists, female artists were peeved. Meta Fuller, one of the founding Guerilla Girls, said that the group of women were asking themselves, “Why did women and artists of color do better in the 1970’s than in the 80’s? Was there a backlash in the art world? Who was responsible? What could be done about it?” 23

In 1985, the collective produce 4 flyers. Each flier was no frills, black and white, with type and little to no imagery. One of the four read, “Women in America earn only 2/3 of what men do. Women artist earn only 1/3 of what men do.” Another listed galleries that showed “no more than 10% of women artists or none at all.” Presumably the art worlds was unaware of the inequality. The Guerilla Girl’s mission was to use design to make a change. In 1989, The Guerilla Girls created their first color design which became their most well-known piece. The women were commissioned to make a billboard for the Public Art Fund in New York. After they “conducted a ‘weenie count’ at the Metropolitan Museum,” the women were armed with stats and a design. After it was rejected by the fund, Guerrilla Girls paid to have it displayed on New York City busses. Although the ad ran for a short period, the image, as well as other work by the collective, garnered much attention. Museums, universities, art galleries, and the press (including 24

WAC, Blue Dot campaign, 1992

22  Hoban, Phoebe. “Big Wac Attack,” New York Magazine. (Vol. 25, No. 30) 3 August, 1992. New York Media, LLC 23  Guerilla Girls. Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls. “An Interview.” 1995. ??? 12 March 2010 <http://www.guerrillagirls.com/interview/index.shtml> 24 Guerilla Girls. “How Women Get Maximum Exposure in Art Museums” 1995. Guerilla Girls. 9 March 2010 <http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/getnaked.shtml>

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Top to bottom: These Galleries Show No More Than 10% of Women Artist or None At All, Guerrilla Girls, 1985; Women in America Earn Only 2/3 of What Men Earn. Women Artists Earn Only 1/3, Guerrilla Girls, 1985. Right page, from top to bottom: Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?, Guerrilla Girls, 1989; The Anatomically Correct Oscar billboard Guerrilla Girls, 2002; The Trent L’Ottscar billboard: Even the U.S. Senate is More Progressive than Hollywood, Guerrilla Girls, 2003

NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post) have covered the advocacy efforts of the ladies masked in fake fur. The collective continues to thrive, expanding its critique beyond the art world to attack gender discrepancies in government, film, and other institutions.

Gran Fury & Act Up Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (Act Up) formed in 1987. The coalition was founded by Larry Kramer and a few other artists, after the New Museum offered Act Up a window to create a display with whatever content the group wanted. The collective chose to create a display that drew attention to the AIDS crisis which was affecting the gay community, and largely being ignored. The collective continued their efforts, mainly by sniping posters around New York City. One member of Gran Fury explains: “Between 1989 and 1991 we were able to see our images circulate in a way we never imagined. Even if they didn’t have the power to solve the crisis, they focused attention on it, and acted as a rallying cry, a point of identification for those inside the movement. Our projects developed a second life through the press coverage that accompanied them, so that their influence was greater than the physical space they occupy. “The Kissing Doesn’t Kill” project got media coverage across the country through wire services and public radio stations, and even spawned a debate over representation of gays and lesbians on the floor of the Illinois State Senate.”25

wInitially the imagery focused on gay men. Marlene McCartey joined the collective to bring attention to how AIDS was also affecting women. Her poster, “Women don’t get AIDS, they just die from it,” sent a direct 25  14 March 2010 <http://www.actupny.org/indexfolder/GranFury1.html>

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He Kills Me, Donald Moffett. 1987

message that ignoring women’s issues with AIDS was fatal. The coalition remains one of history’s favored efforts at bringing attention to the AIDS crisis.

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Read My Lips (boys), Gran Fury, 1988

This page: Silence = Death, Silence = Death Project (renamed Gran Fury), 1986 Right page: Women don’t get AIDS, they just die from it, Marlene McCartney,

The AIDS Quilt at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., 1987; quilt detail of several panels.

Aids Quilt The AIDS quilt was conceptualized, and actualized, by San Francisco gay rights activist Cleve Jones in 1987. The idea dawned on him following a demonstration in 1985. During the demonstration, in response to the lack of support for AIDS, activists wrote on placards the names of people they knew who had died of AIDS, ascended ladders, and posted them onto the San Francisco Federal Building. The placards posted to the government building reminded Jones of a quilt. Jones promptly began working on a more permanent commemoration. In June of 1987, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt officially launched. By October of that year, the quilt had already amassed 1,920 panels. It was prominently displayed on The Great Lawn in Washington D.C. The quilt travelled the nation, amassing more and more panels. Only a year after its initial display, the quilt consisted of 8,288 panels (meaning it was over 8 times as large as the quilt displayed in D.C.). The quilt continued to travel and grow. Currently, over 44,000 individuals have created a 3-by-6-foot memorial panel. In 1989, the quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. It is said to be ”the largest community art project in the world.” As stated by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt web site, “The Quilt is a unique creation, an uncommon and uplifting response to the tragic loss of human life.” 1

2

1  Names Project Foundation-AIDS Memorial Quilt. “History of the Quilt” Names Project Foundation-AIDS Memorial Quilt. 14 March 2010 < http://www.aidsquilt.org/history.htm> 2  Names Project Foundation-AIDS Memorial Quilt. “History of the Quilt” Names Project Foundation-AIDS Memorial Quilt. 14 March 2010 < http://www.aidsquilt.org/history.htm>

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: t n e s e r p re 5

t p hc a

e c a p S c i l b Pu

Community-Based Design Today: Public Space + The Internet

the two Democratic spheres Currently, community-based design exists in two democratic spheres: public space and the internet. Prior to 2000, community-based design was created solely in-person, with the end-product displayed in public space. With the popularization of the World Wide Web, online has become the prominent domain of design activism. As commercial enterprises began to use web 2.0 principal—such as conversing with the audience, rather than talking to the audience—social advocates followed suite. Although the public space has housed progressive pursuits, the web has prevailed over the past decade as the democratic design space.

Public Space Over the past decade, public space has continued to be used for collaborative message-making. The goal of most of the public art has been to provoke critical thought, and on occasion, political action. Public art and design has primarily critiqued consumer culture and the desecration of shared space by advertisements. Culture-jamming and mash-ups attack the misguided spiritual pursuit through consumption. Street art is simultaneously an attempt to point out and reverse what theorists declare “the isolating effects of capitalism.” Street artists create a connection with the audience through sincere (and not profit-driven) efforts for public discourse, which in turn, united a community of conscientious consumers. 26

Others designers have gone beyond critiquing consumer culture by providing a participatory alternative to consumption, such as the creators of Found and Post Secret. By encouraging the public to create rather than consume, these designers illustrate the lost human connection through passive consumption and the increased connectivity through active collaboration. In addition, they awaken the creativity inherent in all, dispelling the myth that only professional artists have the capability to create. 26  Bishop, Claire. Participation (Documents of Contemporary Art). London: Whitechapel & Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press (2006).

Top, Kaws street art critiquing consumerism. Bottom, Kaws commisioned advertisement in Times Square.

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Faile’s street art, critiquing the male gaze, commidfication of sexualtiy, and a refreshing reprieve from boys-club street graphics.

Banksy, Early Man Goes to Market, 2005

Design Authorship + Social Justice In Public Space

Banksy, Designated Graffiti Area, 2006

Banksy, Two Men Kissing, 2005

Banksy Like many street artists, Banksy critiques the overabundance of advertisement in public space; however, unlike Kaws who appropriated advertisements with his signature skullish-Micky-Mouse head; or Neckface who subvertised a batman billboard to say “Neckface returns;” or Faile’s fake ads that mash-up kitschy and punk graphics; Banksy avoids subtlety. His message is clear to the masses. Much of street art’s protest is silenced by the beautiful imagery; or perhaps it’s anti-consumerist stance was half-baked (i.e., Kaws, like many street artist, created official ads for the system he formerly attacked, whereas Banksy has refused offers from companies like Nike). Banksy’s “Another Crap Advert” is clear. The subverted billboard is figuratively and literally black and white. Banksy’s capitalist critique continued in unusual places, including museums (which presumably are accessible to the public). For several days, a rock engraved with a cave man pushing a shopping cart went unnoticed by museum staff. “Early Man Goes to Market,” attributed to “Banksymus Maximus” was finally revealed to curators by Banksy fans. The prank was eventually added to the museum’s permanent collection.

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Shepherd Fairey, Obey and Andre the Giant has a Posse, 1993

In addition to anticapitalist statements, Banksy’s work tends to focus on peace efforts as well as social justice, as illustrated by his mural of two men kissing. Banksy is one of the few street artist to actually create participatory art: his Authorized Graffiti Area stencil invited graffiti artists to engage with blank white walls and transform them into a social statement. Eager to collaborate, artists revealed their desire to create rather than simply consume messages in the public sphere. Banksy’s stencil and the public graffiti can be seen as an effort to take public space out of the hands of advertisers and back into the hands of the public.

Shepard Fairey / Obey Shepherd Fairey first used public space for cultural criticism with his “Andre the Giant has a Posse” and “Obey” stickers in 1993. Long before corporations had coopted guerilla marketing, Fairey created the fake campaign to illustrate the behavior of consumption. The phenomenon spread like wildfire, and enthusiasts denounced authority by embracing the tonguein-cheek warning while simultaneously doing just what they said they were against: obeying. Although no one was acquiescing to the capitalist whims of a company, they were complying with Shepard Fairey’s social experiment. The success of the initial Obey strategy led Fairey to adopt the symbol as his person mark. Although he created massive amounts of murals with the original “Obey” image, he soon began incorporating it into other posters placed in public space. The zeitgeists didn’t die, even decades later. Fairey continued to snipe posters with Obey and Big Brother themes, with an evolved skill and finesse. Post 9-11, he created a large body of work dedicated to peace. Rather than showing horrifying images of war as often done, he depicted utopian images of a world without war. Included in this body of work were several posters of women, notably one wearing a hijab. Although the artist nor critics have not deconstructed these images, it would be safe to say that his positive depictions of women wearing the traditional head-wrap is an effort to combat racisms towards Middle Easterners, a rare statement in this day of terror alerts and fear-based messages regarding people from this region.

Shepard Fairey’s poster for Obama

From top to bottom: Shepherd Fairey, four Obey posters, re-released 20 years after the initial guerilla campaign; middle-eastern influenced poster and mural, 2010.

Although Fairey gained notoriety among the art community with his ominous “Obey” street art and mock-campaign of “Andre the Giant,” he gained historical acclaim with his Obama posters. Prior to these posters, his works provoked thought and criticism, but didn’t incite action. But over the years, his revolutionary spirit matured. No longer was he simply pointing the finger, he was raising his fist. As he mockingly had asked us to “obey,” he sincerely demanded that we “vote!” (with an exclamation point, nonetheless). Ferry set about printing and distributing these posters as a community effort to fund raise for the Obama campaign. In spite of public misconception, the image never was part of the official Obama campaign. The community distribution was so successful that the revised poster (unofficial, but with input from the campaign) was added to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The image is iconic, imprinted in history and in the minds of an entire nation.

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Top: Shepherd Fairey, Progress and Vote posters, 2008 Left: Shepherd Fairey, revised poster based on Obama’s campaign suggestions, 2008

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Copper Greene, iRaq iPod parody self initiated, 2004.

Nenad Cizi & Toni Tomasek, Got Oil poster created for Magdalena Young Creatives Festival, 2004

Top: Patrick Thomas , No War, self initiated stencil sent as greeting, 2002. Right: Kyle Goen , Elect a Madman -- You Get Madness, self initiated poster and installation at Stay Gold Gallery in Brooklyn, 2004.

Anti-bush posters During Bush’s presidency, a bevy of artists and designers created political messages protesting his decision to use billions of dollars for an illegitimate war. These individual acts existed alongside group efforts, such as community-protests. Artist self-initiated the creation and distribution of posters, which were wheatpasted in public space, circulated online as printable PDF’s, mailed to friends, and displayed in art galleries and other public institutions. These posters show the power of design authorship. They were the political precursors of the ultimate anti-bush poster (the Obama poster).

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Ron English Abraham Obama, 2008.

Ron English - Abraham obama Many have seen the image of Obama’s and Abe Lincoln’s facial featured merged into one uber president, but few know the creator. Ron English is a long-time street artists who wheatpasted the posters over advertisements in public space to promote Obama as a presidential candidate. The poster pays homage to one president for abolishing slavery; while honoring the thenpresident-nominee who represents the triumphs and tribulations of black men and women in America today. Void of any text, the poster forces the viewer to figure the meaning out for him or herself. A pessimistic interpretation could also note that the poster represents the long-lasting struggle of ethnic minorities in this nation in spite of laws passed over a century ago in attempts at creating equality regardless of skin color (this interpretation is explicitly not the intention of the artist).

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Ad Busters Adbusters is a not-for-profit media foundation prominently known for its magazine. It’s subvertisements—reappropriated advertisements that reveal the ugly truth behind advertisements—are also part of the foundation’s claim to fame. The organization defines itself as “a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society.” At first glance, the magazine looks as slick as advertising and other mainstream media; but a deeper look reveals an artfully composed, intelligent publication critiquing misuse of power and consumerism run amok. In addition, each issue is ad free, so the flow is uninterrupted and the content not altered due to advertisers’ agendas. 27

Economic, ecological, and social issues are the primary focus of AdBusters. Professional designers, such as Jonathan Barnbrook, collaborate with the magazine to raise questions such as, “Is economic progress killing the planet?” 27  “About AdBusters,” adbusters.org. 2010 Adbusters Media Foundation. 30 April 2010 <https://www. adbusters.org/about/Adbusters>

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Jonathan Barnbrook, Is economic progress killing the planet?,

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The most popular topic of criticism is corporate control of culture. The foundation created an appropriated American flag, with corporate logos in place of the fifty stars. The flag is distributed by the foundation, as well as included in public art. A billboard with the flag appeared in New York with the text, “Declare Independence From Corporate Rule.” A silhouette of a graffiti artists was placed to appear as if he were writing the message, adding additional meaning: not only free yourself from corporate control, create your own messages. The billboard is a sublime example of Adbusters’ philosophy. They are not anti-media or even anti-buying; but they do believe in a democratic message-making system, corporate accountability, and curtailing consumption to a sustainable amount.

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Jonathan Barnbrook, First Things First Reissue, 2000

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Design Authorship + Community-based Design + Social Justice In public Space Community distribution of posters by a single designer is the most common group effort; however a few collective message making efforts have taken place in public space. Most current examples primarily use public space, but incorporate the internet at some point in the process to reach a broader audience.

Sheila DeBretteville Sheila DeBretteville is a prominent graphic designer known for her community-based installations. One example of her installations is“Step(pe),” a sitespecific installation created by DeBretteville in 2006 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The stone monument invites the public to fill in the missing text with chalk. DeBrettville explains that the final outcome was a serendipitous solution: Due to time limitations I decided to make only the first letter and the punctuation of the texts we had written, and then happily realized that this formed an invitation to all to enter the process of signification at the threshold. The lost letters - effaced by history like the tower - are nevertheless clear to the initiated who chalked in the words at the opening ceremonies. 28

The open invitation to participate in the installation has evolved beyond DeBretteville’s expectations. She exclaimed,“the museum in Yekaterinburg has organized the city’s poets to write in relation to this piece, so it is generative in ways I never imagined!” 29

From top to bottom: Sheila DeBretteville, poster for Women in Design: The Next Decade conference, 1974; Sheila DeBretteville, Step(pe), 1999; Sheila DeBretteville, Biddy Mason: Time and Place, 1989-1990.

“Biddy Mason: Time and Place,” created from 1989-1990, is one of DeBrettville’s most recognized projects. She used images and the life story of Biddy Mason to preserve a community space that was going to be redeveloped into a massive parking garage. The individual story represented one woman and the entire community simultaneously. Thanks to DeBretteville’s efforts, the street installation remains, as well as the community surrounding. Another community design project, “At the Start…At Long Last” is an installation within the 207th Street subway station in New York City. Over two-hundred tiles are etched with quotes from local community members. 28  26 April 2010 <http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/sheiladebretteville. php?i=847> 29  Feo, Katherine. “Sheila de Bretteville: Designer, Educator, Feminist,” Notes of Design. 27 June 2007. Notes on Design. 25 April 2010 <http://www.notesondesign.net/people/interviews/sheila-de-brettevilledesigner-educator-feminist/>

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Sheila DeBretteville, At the Start…At Long Last, 1999.

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Speech Bubble Project Ji Lee wasn’t the first to use street art to protest advertising overload; he was, however, the first to involve the community in the discussion. Lee created a manifesto about the project: Our communal spaces are being overrun with ads. Train stations, streets, squares, busses, and subways now scream one message after another at us. Once considered “public,” these spaces are increasingly being seized by corporations to propagate their message. We the public, are both target and victim of this media attack. The Bubble Project instantly transforms these annoying corporate monologues into open public dialogues. They encourage anyone to fill them in with any expression, free from censorship. More Bubbles mean more freed spaces, more sharing of personal thoughts, more reactions to current events, and most importantly, more imagination and fun.

His speech bubbles evoked unexpected responses from citizens around the globe, ranging from political statements I’m not going away” on an iPod ad). Anyone can go to www.thebubbleproject.com and download a printable speech bubble to paste, and users are encouraged to upload photos of filled-in bubbles on the site’s photo stream (side note: the photo stream is embedded a flickr slide show. Double social media!).

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Found, Dirty Found, and a sample of what is inside.

Found Found may not have any social or political overtones, but the existence of it speaks to the current hunt for human connection and search for meaning beyond commercialism. Found is a collection of ephemera sent in to the magazine’s publishers. The first magazine was inspired by a note found by Davy Rothbart that read, “Mario, I fucking hate you...You’re a fucking liar. I hate you...P.S. Page me later.” Rothbart shared the note with his friend, Jason Bitner, and the two then set about collecting as much found photos, notes, and tidbits that were windows into other people’s lives. They selfpublished the first issue of Found in June of 2001, a time when internet use was booming. The public embraced a reprieve from the cold digital world and a step away from consumer culture. Press exalted how Found “showcases how much we all have in common. We all think our ideas and sorrows, our aches and joys are unique, when in actual fact we’re all the same...” 30

30  “Press,” found.com 2009. Found. 1 May 2010 <http://www.foundmagazine.com/press>

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Postcards from Post

Postcards from Post Secret

Post secret Post Secret was born when Frank Warren started handing out and leaving postcards in public places in 2005. One side of the card was blank, the other was marked with instructions and a return address. Before long, Mr. Warren was inundated with not only cards he had distributed, but others from farreaching places, each card revealing a secret that had never been told. Warren posted the postcards to his web site, postsecret.com, and due to popularity, published a book the same year. The secrets range from strange (“I hate basketball”) to straight-up depressing (“I started shooting heroin again”), and everywhere in between. Teen angst, everyday insecurities, and life-stage musings all are revealed through the post-card format. Some will break your heart (“I don’t know what to say to God anymore”) while others will make you laugh, (“I give decaf to customers who are rude to me”). All will touch a nerve and connect you to the emotional human existence. Post Secret served as a catharsis for a community, enabling hundreds of participants to therapeutically create letter-sized art. Recognizing the therapeutic capacity of the project, Frank partnered with National Hopeline Network, donating a portion of the books proceeds to the suicide hotline.

WTO protest projections by Johannes Gees “Hello Mr. President,” a community-based protest to the World Trade Organizations dubious use of funds, was ahead of it’s time. In 2001, during the World Economic Forum held in Switzerland, Johannes Gees collected messages from people around the globe on hellomrpresident.com. The messages were limited to 160 characters and could be in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. During the forum, selected quotes, such as “I feel poor,” and “Peace,” were projected onto a nearby mountain. Gees called the “demonstrating in remote mode.” 31

31 Guernsey, Lisa. “If Protesters Can’t Take to the Streets, They Can Go to the Mountains,” The New York Times. 25 Jan. 2001. The New York Times Company. 2001.

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Johannes Gees, WTO protest projections, 2001.

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e n i l n o : t n e s e r p 6 er

t p a ch

Design Authorship + Community-Based Design Online

The social media zeitgeist has familiarized internet users with communitybased design. The online community has been codified by Groundswell authors, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, in a ladder diagram, where with increased online participation, a category appears higher up the ladder. Inactives, those who are online zombies, are at the base of the ladder. In 2006, 52% of internet users fell into this category. The other 48% of online users participate in one form or another: Spectators consume content such as podcasts; Joiners engage with social media networks; Collectors tag and use services such as delicious; Critics vote, write reviews for products, or comment on blogs; and Creators upload photos and videos, write a blog, have their own web site, or create original content in some form online. Of the new-media population, creators and critics were 13-19% of the online community, meaning that about 1/5 of internet users in 2006 created original content. Since 2006, the percentage of internet activity has increased. The commercial sector has many successful models that not only help define community-based design, but also can inspire models for sociopolitical use.

Photo from My Parents Were Awesome Tumblr blog, 2010.

Tumblr/my parents were awesome Tumblr is a blogging platform that’s especially photo friendly. Eliot Glazer’s parent-photo compendium, “My Parents Were Awesome” is Tumblr at its best. Glazer selected a pre-designed tumbler theme by Mirza that’s simple and aesthetically pleasing. The blog has two columns: the main column prominently displays “awesome” photos, and the sidebar reads, “Before the fanny packs and Andrea Bocelli concerts, your parents (and grandparents) were once free-wheeling, fashion-forward, and super awesome.” Anyone can submit photos of their parents via e-mail, and Glazer selects which are posted on the site. 32

32 Glazer, Eliot. My Parents Were Awesome..15 March 2010 <http://myparentswereawesome.Tumblr.com/>

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Photos from My Parents Were Awesome Tumblr blog,

awkward family photos Awkward Family Photos is an ad-supported blog with a great concept that over-rides the somewhat tacky custom design. It’s powered by wordpress, a free blogging platform. The site professes, “Let’s be honest– we’ve all got them. At some point in our lives, someone close to us has made us pose for an uncomfortable photo. Well, here’s your chance to share your family’s awkwardness with the world.” The site has an a photo submission form, and although it nowhere states that not all submitted photos are posted, the quality of posts implies that not every photo makes the cut.

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threadless Threadless is a self-proclaimed “community-based T-shirt company.” Artist upload images of their proposed T shirt design, and users vote whether or not it should be printed. The artist benefits by avoiding start-up costs and gaining access to T-shirt production; the company benefits by having a pool of creativity that a community supports. The shirts from the site are much more artistic and intelligent than most T’s.

F My Life Woa is me. If you have a troubling story, F My Life is the site to share your misery. Not all submissions get posted, but if they pass the computerized moderating system and the human team of moderators, the world gets to vote on whether the post is utter misery or if you might need to just suck it up. Based on the votes, the post will go to the “top” of the page or “flop,” and get bumped down, thus being less likely to be read. Top post have sad tales such as this one: “Today, I saw an elderly man fall in a crosswalk, so I jumped off my bike to help. As I helped him across, the light turned green. At that point I noticed my phone had fallen out of my pocket in the street and was run over by several cars. I then watched across a 6 lane street as someone stole my bike. FML” The site began in 2008, and continues to thrive. The FML iPhone app has received over 10,000 ratings as of March 2010. 33

Summary of what works

Photos from Awkward Family Photos blog, 2010.

The key to these successful user-generated content sites is the editorial process. All the sites either have a designated person or committee that edits submitted material; or the sites allow the community to vote on the material. The community votes either bump material to the top of a page (i.e., F My Life), or filters the material so that it appears on a prominent page while low-ranking material is relegated to archives (i.e., threadless). All of the case studies mentioned capture the social nature of humans, and capture the ineffable quality of friends, family, love, life, and social connection. 33 F My Life.“Top F My Life’s” 2010. Maxime Valette, Guillaume Passaglia, & Didier Guedi.15 March 2010 < http://www.fmylife.com/tops>

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Design Authorship + Social Justice + Community-Based Design Online Design Ignites change Design Ignites Change is a mentorship program founded by Worldstudio. The organization “challenges students to use design thinking to explore and create solutions for pressing social problems.”34 Professionals guide students in creating visual solutions. Over a hundred projects have been created, such as The Revision Project, an effort to educate and empower locals to develop brown fields into utilized community space. Another example of a projects created by the mentorship program is Corcoran College of Art and Design’s effort to encourage carpooling in Washington D.C., as shown on these two pages.

Jonathan Harris - We Feel Fine Jonathan Harris bridges humanity and technology, creating interactive sites that mine the web and organize information in a meaningful, beautiful, and harrowing way. “I believe in technology, but I think we need to make it more human.” Harris’s “We Feel Fine” project focused on human emotions. The site mines hundreds of blogs for the phrase, “I feel...”. According the site’s mission: “The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 - 20,000 new feelings per day. Using a series of playful interfaces, the feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions like: do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine’s Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest? And so on.”

34  “About,” DesignIgnitesChange.com. 2010 Design Ignites Change. 25 April 2010 <http://www.designigniteschange.org/>

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To Write Love ON Her Arms To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit aimed at youth struggling with depression. Their mission is to not only create a community where conversations for healing can take place, but also to provide information about the illness and link people to proper treatment. “Two-thirds of those suffering from depression never seek treatment,” the site states. But since its inception, the site has received to 80,000 messages. It uses the visual language of youth, and uses popular music to connect with teens. Social media is a huge part of TWLOHA’s outreach. As of March 2010, the non-profit had 448,854 FaceBook fans. 35

35  TWLOHA Facebook profile. 20 March 2010 <http://www.facebook.com/towriteloveonherarms>

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The Girl Effect (nike foundation) The Girl Effect campaign was designed by Weiden + Kennedy, and the expertise of an ad agency shows. Rarely are social causes designed with the level of detail and finesse that the Girl Effect displays. The site strays from tradition web sites: upon entering, the viewer is asked “The world is a mess. Agree or disagree?� Regardless of which answer the viewer clicks, he or she is redirected to a short movie. The motion piece, devoid of imagery, uses refined typography and an instrumental score to tell a captivating narrative. Once the viewer enters the actual site, there are documentary-style portraits accompanied by true stories of The Girl Effect’s female beneficiaries. The video circulated youtube, design blogs, and other communities online, promoting discussion. Why was this piece so riveting? The creators could not have made such a compelling narrative without actually hearing the stories of the girls themselves. Even though the video did not contain direct quotes or images from the girls in developing countries, the creators had heard their stories and were able to communicate their lives in an honest, accurate way. If viewers delved further, and visited the site, they could get the full story and witness the complex nature of education in developing countries.

30 reasons 30 Reasons is a site that hosted self-initiated efforts to create and distribute posters rallying support for Obama. Users could download hi-res versions of posters submitted by 30 prominent graphic designers, and they were given instructions how to paste posters in public spaces.

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Weiden + Kennedy,screenshots from The Girl Effect, 2009

Scott Thares, Poster for 30 Reasons web site, 2008.

Donors Choose web site, 2010.

DONORS CHOOSE It’s harrowing to hear stories about kids who have no text books, or a teacher who has to buy his or her own chalk. Donors Choose lets users turn heartbreak into heartfelt action. Teachers create supply request, ranging from a tub of green play dough ($13.22); to math mechanical kits ($214.96). When teachers receive a donation, they upload photos of their students using the gift. The site’s success is due to its ability to put a human face to the cause. As J.D. Lasica, founder of a similar site, socialbrite.com, explains, “Studies have shown that people are more willing to give when they see and hear an individual’s story versus an organization’s goal,” She adds sites like Donors Choose, “makes things personal.” 36

Changents Changents maximizes on online and off-line activism. The site boasts, “We are the leading site that connects people who are changing the world with those who want to help them.” Users can either post a service they need or browse volunteer opportunities. Organizations offering volunteer opportunities are called “change agents” and volunteers are called “backers.” The 37

36  Rowley, Melissa Jun. “4 Social Good Trends of 2009” Mashable. 2010. Mashable. 18 March 2010 <http://mashable.com/2009/12/22/social-good-trends/> 37  Changents. Changents.com. 2010. Changents. 18 March 2010 <http://changents.com/change-agents>

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Changents web site, 2010.

actions backers take range from raising awareness online to physically getting involved. The site explains,“Backers are the people who team up with Change Agents and lend a hand. Build the buzz by forwarding a Change Agent’s story updates to your friends, comment on a blog or picture, respond to a Volunteer Request or bring your own skills to the table. Your actions - big and small - contribute to each Change Agent’s success story.” Each change agent has a profile, similar to profiles on social network sites.

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Originally, the site creators thought it would raise online awareness and online donations. Deron Triff, Changent’s CEO, explains, “We’d assumed most of the volunteering would be online. But once the users started getting hooked by the change agents’ stories, it turned into this whole offline movement.” 39

Good.is & Good Magazine Good magazine and good.is are a prime example of a wholistic solution. The print magazine is dedicated to “good,” and has several features that are open to community contributors. The Good web site is a social network, blog, and news source rolled into one. Good is self-described as “a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and non-profits pushing the world forward.” 40

One of Good’s most powerful collaborations is “Transparency,” which designers are invited to create infographics to clarify a wide range of issues. Past Transparency topics have included infographs cover “Which Countries are the Happiest?”, “Which Countries Invest the Most in Alternative Energy?”, and “Worldwide Arms Sales.” Good also opens projects to progressive great minds. One example was an open call for infographs showing health care reform. Online, several entries are displayed, including Tom Wilder’s beautiful visual explanation. Anyone can create a profile and participate on Good’s web site; however, 38  Ibid. 39  Rowley, Melissa Jun. “How Social Media Creates Offline Social Good,” Mashable. 2010. Mashable. 18 March 2010 <http://mashable.com/2010/01/21/offline-social-good/> 40  Good. “About,” good.is. 2010. Good Worldwide LLC. 25 April 2010 < http://www.good.is/company>

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Transparency Info graphics from Good.

the site has a community of official contributors who are experts of subjects such as scientific progress, urban planning, design for greater good, and public education.

Boost Up Boost up is a community organized around increase high school graduation rates. The concept that anyone can easily send a “boost” to someone who may need a little encouragement. Boosts are sent via the site’s form as either an text message or an e-mail. Senders can select from a list of pre-written snippets of encouragement (i.e., Graduation is only a few months away. Don’t give up now.), or write their own message. The web site also gives statistics relating to the benefits of a high-school education, like “high school graduates are 7 times more likely to own their own home.” As of April of 2010, over 40,000 boosts have been sent through the organization.

We are what we do We Are What We Do started as a book of easy-to-do actions, which then blossomed to an international movement strongly fueled by the organization’s web site. The organization’s goal is to encourage small actions, such as using a reusable shopping bag, which collectively make a drastic impact. The site invites people to unite in two ways: first, by creating positive peer pressure by showing the collective effect of individual actions (you can see that the action, “Take public transport when you can” has been done 38,974 times); and second, users can suggest actions for the community to take, such as “Keep in touch with old friends” which has been done 665 times by site users. The 131 actions (as well as those submitted by users) fall into categories such as Save Energy & Water, Spend Time With Someone From

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a Different Generation, User Your Money for Good, and Have a Healthy Body & Mind. Although environmental actions are a bulk of the suggested actions, creating a healthy, happy community is given equal importance. As of April of 2010, over 4.5 million of the site’s actions have been taken.

Think B4 You Speak Think B4 You Speak uses traditional campaign models, such as public service ads for radio and TV, as well as print materials; however, their site allows users to contribute to the campaign by submitting alternative words to say in place of “that’s so gay,” uploading video responses, and writing comments about the phrase. Users can also download hi-res version of print material to distribute at their will.

causecast.org Causecast is similar to changents; however the typography and overall design is far superior.

Care2.org Care2 is a online activist network with over 13 million members. The site is similar to Changents and CauseCast, but the site has one unique contribution: online petitions. Users can easily take action by electronically signing one of these petitions, which as of June of 2010 have offset 3,148,924 pounds of carbon and preserved over 17 million acres of wildlife habitat.

Blogs: Heavy hitters dedicated to social responsibility in design Blogs not only raise awareness about social issues, they also spark debate, encourage discussion, and in turn, influence actions that readers may take. The following are the most prominent blogs dedicated to the intersection of design and social responsibility.

Change Observer: Founded in 2009 by The Observer Group, the same company that hosts Design Observer blog.

Another Limited Rebellion

: The same guy that did the Skull a Day project proves that a little bit of rebellion can be a good thing.

Social Design Notes:

Hitting the scenes in 2002, Backspace Studio’s blog was the first blog to delve into design ethics. An online history lesson, the blog has the most comprehensive coverage of the issue.

Design with Intent

: A blog examining design’s ability to change behavior, backed by impressive metrics.

Smart art: Bitch Media’s blog dedicated to feminist art and design. Treehugger: The highest trafficked blog dedicated to all environmental issues, including sustainable design.

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Summary of the Current State The overwhelming amount of community-based design currently happening is on the web. The few instances of offline activism often are incited by online sources. When a web site exists to encourage offline activism, it is reaping the benefits of both mediums: online, a greater population can be reached; offline, actions can be made for maximum impact. Although donations are about equal online and offline, it would not be presumptuous to say that in the future, online and text donations will increase, hopefully providing much needed funding for existing non-profits.

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e n i l f f o s v e n i l n o 7 er

t p hc a

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Offline Vs. Online Activism Currently, more community-based design is occurring on-line than in public space, but both spaces are valid venues for community-based design. Online and offline activism each have their pro’s and con’s. Communication design presented in public space creates a greater human connection. In addition, design in public space tends to be more innovative, more memorable, perhaps even more impactful. The drawback to public space is that a much smaller audience is reached compared to online. In fact, the major benefit of online communication is the vast amount of people the message can reach. In addition, users are familiar with the interactive nature of online, which helps in encouraging participation; this familiarity also can be a con since community-based design online is less ground-breaking. There is a way to maximize on both by creating something in public space and then distributing it online, such as the Yes Men do with their disruptive performances, or as Jing Li did with his speech bubbles. By doing so, activist maximize both the benefits of in-person activism (greater human connection) and benefits of on-line activism (broader reach). Although most community-based activism is happening online, traditional sociopolitical involvement is more common in-person. Regardless of income, there is about a 10% difference between online and offline activism, meaning that class does not affect which mediums are more effective. Income does not influence how one is involved; rather, it influences how much. The greater one’s income is, the greater their political activity, both online and offline. For instance, 45% of people with an annual income of $100,000 or more have “participated in 2 or more political activities in the last 12 months,” compared to 20% of people making $20,000-$39,999 per year. As shown in the chart on the next page, activism offline and online increase at about the same rate. As stated by Pew, “Political activity is highly correlated with income, whether that activity takes place online or offline.” 41

Counter to what most people would assume, young people are not more active online than their elders. In fact, the main indicator of online participation in activism is offline behavior. Regardless of age, the likelihood that someone engages in sociopolitical activity offline is highly correlated with their activity online. This information is particularly useful for any campaign aimed at an older demographic who might shy away from the web. Online may not account for the majority of older people’s civic engagement, but it does consist of a substantial portion of their sociopolitical action.

Donations While action is occurring offline more so than online, donations are taking a reverse trend. Donations over $1,000 made to charitable organizations 41  xxxxxx

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In these disparities result fromAlthough differences inpercentage internet access—those arepart, 2% higher online than offline. the is small, thewho are lower

effect large donations surely not.likely Donations between $100-$500 are on the of socio-economic ladder areisless to go online or to have broadband access at made online more frequently online for both politics (by 8%) and charitable

home, making (by it impossible for them to engage in online political activity. Yet even organizations 2%). within the online population there is a strong relationship between socioSocial media is becoming a significant sourcepositive of donations. The Facebook

Causes application raised over $5 million. The causes application is free economic status andhas most of the measures of internet-based political engagement we 42

for users and raises money Pew Internet & American Life Project

through corporate sponsors. Twitter The is another Internet and Civic Engagement | 4 reviewed. source for fund raising. By combining Twitter, Facebook, and blog posts, Beat Cancer raised over $70,000 from its financial sponsors. #BeatCancer campaign set a Guinness World Record for the most social mentions in 24 At the on same time, because younger Americans more than their elders to be hours Oct 19, 2009. The campaign not onlyare won thelikely record with 209,771 mentions of the phrase, “ #BeatCancer” on Twitter, Facebook and blog internet users, the participation gap between relatively unengaged young and much posts; it also raised over $70,000 from its financial sponsors. 43

more engaged middle-aged adults that ordinarily typifies offline political activity is less

Texting campaigns are also entering the sphere of social media. The Ameri-

pronounced when it comes to political participation online. Nevertheless, within any age 42  Hopkins, Mark ‘Rizzn’. “$5 Million for Facebook Causes,” Mashable. April 1, 2008. Mashable. 20 Marc group, there is still a strong correlation between socio-economic status and online h 2010 <http://mashable.com/2008/04/01/causes-funding/#> 43  Everywhere. “#BeatCancer Sets a Guinness World Record For Most Widespread Social Network Mespolitical and, civic engagement. sage in 24 Hours “ Everywhere.com. 10.20.2009 Everywhere. 15 March 2010 <http://www.pitchengine. com/free-release.php?id=30001>

There are hints that forms of civic engagement anchored in blogs and social networking sites could alter long-standing patterns that are based on socio-

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can Red Cross raised more than $20 million through it’s texting campaign, where users texted the word “HAITI” to 90999 44

Overall, a great amount of money is being donated using new media, and internet specialist project that as users become more comfortable with making financial transactions online (and as online security improves), the amount online donations will increase. A specialofnote about this survey The findings reported here come from a survey that was conducted in the midst of one

SUMMARY

of the most energizing political contests in modern American history, in which an

We are living in an era of “the wild west of the web.” The internet can’t be tamed, stopped, or ignored. It’s influence over American culture and lives particular effort strategies to incorporate the internet into his campaign. In addition, directly effects for communication design. Before evaluating thethe U.S. statistics, I held many common misconceptions about the internet as a tool economy was under enormous stress. Thus, there is the possibility that the patterns for activism. Clearly, the web is integral to every social-justice campaign, Pew Internet & American Life Project The Internet and Civic Engagement | 11 described might hold in of thethe future. regardlesshere of the age not or income intended audience. Based on the current state, it appears that social activism may soon occur more online than in-person. African-American headed a major-party ticket for the first time. His campaign made a

In addition, this was the final survey conducted by the Pew Internet Project not to include a random sample of respondents contacted on their cell phones. Young adults and minorities are more likely not to have landlines and exclusively use cell phones. A sampling on cell phones would likely have produced more young respondents and more minority respondents. The data here were weighted to reflect the composition of the entire U.S. population and there is evidence in other Pew Research Center surveys that the absence of a cell sample would not substantially change the final results.

Comprehensive work on this has been done by our colleagues at the Pew Research Center People Press and 15 is March available here: 44  Red for CrossThe Twitter Profile.&18The Jan. 2010. Twitter. 2010 <http://twitter.com/RedCross/status/7911678667>

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1266/polling-challenges-election-08-success-in-dealingwith.

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8 r e t p hc a

. a n o i t u l o s n g Desi

Design Problem no. 1: Social Epidemic of Poor Body Image fueled by Media

Ringl + Pit, Petrole Hahn ad, a spoof of airbrushing, 1931

I became interested in media’s effect on body image from my personal experience. Like most teenage girls, I had horrible body-image issues, and at age 18 I took two suggestions: first, to stop looking at women’s magazines; and second, to get rid of my scale. Over the years, I’ve noticed what a dramatic impact these actions had on my feelings about my body. Still today, I can feel my self-regard plummeting if I look at fashion magazines too long. If bombarded with enough beauty advertising, I start believe exactly what ads want me to believe: that I look terrible; and that I would be better looking and happier only if I buy instert-product-name-here. I hear my female friends worry aloud about their body-image woes. They say ridiculous things like, “I don’t have the body to wear skinny jeans.” One female friend, who incidentally writes for women’s magazines, told me about her multiple-outfit changes and battle with the mirror; when I told her I don’t share the same struggle, she reasoned that my mainstream magazine boycott must be responsible. My personal experience and those of my friends are not isolated examples. It turns out the majority of teenage girls and women are affected negatively by media depictions of beauty. Psychological studies have found a direct impact that media has on body image. Some the of the findings include:

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Before + After of Faith Hill on the cover of Redbook magazine, July 2007

- 75% of women express dissatisfaction with their bodies - 53% of women at a healthy weight still want to lose weight - Only 5% of the population naturally can achieve the body ideal represented in contemporary pint and moving images. - Almost 70% of young women said pictures in magazines influence their conception of the “perfect” body shape - Over 45% adolescent girls indicate that magazine images motivated them to lose weight. - Reading teen- or women-focused magazines correlates with body dissatisfaction for adolescent girls. - Compared to girls who were shown pictures of models who were average or overweight, girls who were shown thin models felt worse about their 45

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45  Kater, Kathy J. (2005) “A holistic approach to promoting healthy body image, eating, nutrition, fitness, and weight in children today: Helping without harming, in schools and at home,” Absolute Advantage, Wellness Council of America. 46  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Three Out Of Four American Women Have Disordered Eating, Survey Suggests.” ScienceDaily 23 April 2008. 17 April 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­/ releases/2008/04/080422202514.htm>. 47  Murray, Janet Derosier (2005). Testing an intervention to address the sociocultural influences of mass media on body image: Can we reverse the curse?, Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 66(8-B), 4493. 48  Field et al. (1999) 49  Field et al. (1999) 50  Hofschire, L. J., and Greenberg, B. S. (2002). Media’s impact on adolescents’ body dissatisfaction. In J. D. Brown, J. R. Steele, and K. Walsh-Childers (Eds.) Sexual Teens, Sexual Media. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 51  Field et al. (1999)

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bodies. - After watching music videos and TV shows that emphasize an ideal body type, girls reported a higher sense of body dissatisfaction - 10 year old girls and boys told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show “Friends” 52

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In spite of overwhelming statistics stating the negative psychological impact media’s portrayal has had on both men and women, I have had numerous encounters where industry professionals become defensive as I challenge the status quo. Several myths are held dearly: people know that photographs are retouched and do not depict reality; people know fashion imagery is for fun and therefor are not negatively impacted; women will always be insecure about their looks; body-image and self-esteem are not effected by media’s beauty ideals. These misconceptions cater to fears of industry professional; to avoid responsibility, they disregard the facts. The reality is that the majority of young women in the US have poor body-image, and media is partly to blame (other influences on body image are attitudes of family and friends, which are influenced by media, as well). Kate Winslet, massively retouched on the cover of British GQ, 2003

Poor body image is a social epidemic, one which can not ethically be ignored by media-makers. In this day and age of massive retouching, more than ever, intervention is necessary.

Retouching Critiques Photo retouching for the beauty industry has been going on decades before Adobe Photoshop hit the scenes. In the 1920’s, movie stars and models were often retouched using dark room technique. Criticism first came in 1920’s by first-wave feminists, Ringl + Pit. 52  Groesz, Lisa M., Levine, Michael P., & Murnen, Sarah K. The Effect of Experimental Presentation of Thin Media Images on Body Satisfaction: A Meta-Analytic Review Department of Psychology, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio: March 2001 53  Hofschire, L. J., and Greenberg, B. S. (2002). Media’s impact on adolescents’ body dissatisfaction. In J. D. Brown, J. R. Steele, and K. Walsh-Childers (Eds.) Sexual Teens, Sexual Media. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 54  (Mundell, 2002)

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Before + After of Britney Spears in a Candie’s ad campaign, 2010

In an ad, they exaggerated the retouching techniques of the day to subversively expose and question retouching’s place in advertising. They also purposely put the attractive woman in an unfashionable nightgown, again, making fun of the advertising industry’s obsession with up-to-date fashion as a status identifier. Since the 1920’s, unrealistic beauty ideals have been popular contentions of feminists and social scientist; however, the past decade has brought the debate to an entire new level. As digital photography began to replace traditional film in the early 2000’s, digital retouching replaced the darkroom. Photo retouchers color corrected images and removed dust on the computer, whereas before these changes were made chemically in labs. Retouchers were also only a few clicks away from making other modifications, changes that pre-digital were incredibly laborious and uncommon. Retouchers became click happy, removing zits, bags under eyes, and hips; and adding bigger boobs, longer legs, and glowing skin. Soon every image was retouched beyond darkroom measures, and with retouching’s omnipresence in media, beauty ideals began distorting beyond physical reality. In 2003, the first major beauty retouching protest came from actress Kate Winslet, who objected to British GQ’s massive alteration of her photograph. The actress disdainfully proclaimed, “I actually have a Polaroid that the photographer gave me on the day of the shoot… I can tell you they’ve reduced the size of my legs by about a third.” Preferring the original to the retouched version, she added,” it looks pretty good the way it was taken.”55 Similar outcries followed when feminist blog, Jezebel, revealed the before and after images of Faith Hill on the cover of Redbook’s July 2007 issues.56 Bloggers noted, “The more you look at the touched up cover picture, the more you’ll wonder why we as a society like our celebs to look like straightup aliens. If the difference in her arm’s shape and size isn’t enough to freak you out, check out her eyes, her back, her posture and, oh, her disappearing hand. Faith was way better looking before she went under the digital knife, crow’s feet and all.”57

Dove’s True Beauty web site, 2003

One of the more horrifying applications of retouching is anglicizing ethnic minorities. Feministing brought the issue to public awareness by juxtaposing a picture of Beyonce in a 2008 L’Oreal ad with a paparazzi red-carpet photo. In the retouched image, her skin tone is drastically lighter, and with different undertones. It took decades for ethnic minorities to get representation in mass media, and now retouchers are bastardizing equality efforts with color changes that should be reserved for inanimate objects only. The debate regarding retouching reached a high-point in 2009 when France’s public official, Valérie Boyer, filed a bill that called for a legal warning of retouched images. If the bill passes, retouched images would be accompanied by text which states, “This photo has been retouched to alter the physical appearance of a person. Failure to comply with this provision could result in a fine of €37,500, ($50,000) or as high as 50 percent of the space buying budget of the advertising campaign.”58 55  Schewe, Jeff. “Kate doesn’t like Photoshop – Digital Ethics” Adobe Photoshop News. 3 April 2005. PhotoshopNews.com. 18 April 2010 <http://photoshopnews.com/2005/04/03/kate-doesnt-like-photoshop/> 56  “Here’s Our Winner! ‘Redbook’ Shatters Our ‘Faith’ In Well, Not Publishing, But Maybe God” Jezebel. com. 16 July 2007. Gawker Media. 18 April 2010 < http://jezebel.com/278919/heres-our-winner-redbookshatters-our-faith-in-well-not-publishing-but-maybe-god> 57  “Faith Hill and the Magic of Touch Ups,” VH1.com 7 July 2007. MTV Networks. 18 April 2010 <http:// blog.vh1.com/2007-07-17/faith-hill-and-the-magic-of-touch-ups/> 58  Renaut, Frédérique. “Retouching… Much Ado About Nothing,” Benjamin Kanarek Blog. 4 April 2010. Benjamin Kanarek Blog. 14 April 2010 <http://www.benjaminkanarekblog.com/2010/04/04/retouchingmuch-ado-about-nothing/>

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Beyonce in a red-carpet photo, and in a L’oreal ad,

French magazines embraced the criticism by issuing entire issues without retouching, and often without make-up as well. French Elle was the first to release no retouching, no makeup issue in May of 2009. American magazines followed suite. Harper’s Bazzar published its September 2009 with unretouched images of super models, including Cindy Crawford. In 2010, publications continued to issue untouched images. French Marie Claire’s April 2010 issue contained no retouching (other than the adds), and the American Marie Claire’s May 2010 cover featured Jessica Simpson without makeup or photo-retouching. Up until May of 2010, magazines were the main proponents of no-retouching imagery; as Jessica’s Simpson’s cover hit the news, so too did Britney Spears’s unretouched campaign for Candies. The campaign, following Miss Spear’s plea to use the untouched photos, was the first major advertising effort to take a stance on the retouching debate (even Dove’s True Beauty of 2004 was retouched). While the publications and ad companies were changing their policies of their own volition, for the first time in history consumers placed enough

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Ralph Lauren’s ad, 2009

Ralph Lauren’s ad, 2009

pressure to remove a retouched ad from public view. In October of 2009, Ralph Lauren’s ad of model, Filippa Hamilton, was pulled in response to horrified consumers comparing the model’s body to that of a Holocaust victim. “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis,”59 one blogger mocked. Following a sea of complaints, Ralph Lauren pulled the ad and issued the following apology: “After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body.”60 The hallmark case set a precedent, showing that consumer pressure can affect a corporation’s policy on retouching.

59  Doctorow, Cory. “The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn’t want you to see!” Boing Boing. 6 Oct. 2009. Happy Mutants LLC. 16 April 2010 < http://boingboing.net/2009/10/06/the-criticism-that-r.html> 60  Justice, Star. “Blog and Ralph Lauren Fight over Thin Model Ad” 8 Oct. 2009. Extra. 15 April 2010 <http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2009/10/blog_and_ralph_lauren_fight_over_skinny_model_ad.php >

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Elle cover, an entry on Photo Shop Disasters web site.

Awareness-raising & action Prior to this past year’s efforts to produce retouch-free imagery, the bulk of action addressing media’s detrimental effect on body image and self-esteem have been educational. In 2004, Dove launched their True Beauty Campaign. The campaign was two-fold: first, advertisements for Dove products featured full-figured women who represented the average size of American women; second, Dove launched their Self Esteem Fund, a non-profit which educates girls about media’s effects on self-esteem. Three separate ad campaigns depicting natural beauty ran from 2004 to 2007, and the True Beauty web site continues to thrive. The site includes powerful educational videos, as well as quizzes, facts, and testimonials. The Playing With Beauty game allows girls to stretch and distort three different women to Barbie doll proportions, showing how drastically different women’s real bodies are from the elongated ones not only of dolls but also of models in print ads. 61

61  18 April 2010 <http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/girlsonly/playing_with_beauty.aspx>

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Nolita billboard, 2007

The “Image Manipulation” quiz consists of 10 images. Each photo appears on the screen, and the user answers True or False to the question, “Is this image real?” If the image has been retouched, the original and retouched versions are placed side by side. 62

The quiz was one of the first major efforts at revealing before and after retouching images, and can be credited for inspiring offshoots of the concept. Following the quiz, users are directed to one of Dove’s most powerful educational videos, “Fabricating Beauty...” which shows the entire process of a photo shoot, including styling and make-up, as well as post-production image manipulation. The other revolutionary video from the True Beauty campaign, “Evolution,” also reveals the entire image-creation process, from a model with no make-up or hair-styling to the final billboard image. The hyper-fast video shows retouchers elongating the model’s neck, shaving off a portion of her cheeks, and drastically altering the appearance of her hair and make-up. Because the True Beauty campaign addressed long-overdue issues of homogenous media representations of beauty, critics were rare. However, a few journalists, such as Rebecca Traister, questioned if the campaign was “real beauty-or really smart marketing.”63 Flaws with the True Beauty 62  http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/girlsonly/image_manipulation.aspx 63  Traister, Rebecca. (Saturday, Nov 17, 2007). “Real beauty” -- or really smart marketing? In Salon. November 17, 2007, from http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2005/07/22/dove/index1.html.

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Campaign included Dove’s Body Firming Lotion, Body Wash, and Cream. Ads for the firming potions read, ““Let’s face it, firming the thighs of a size 2 super model is no challenge,” implying that all women larger than a size 2 needed Dove’s firming products. Dove was a pioneer, raising awareness of media’s impact, and therefor creating a strong foundation towards action. Non-profit, About Face, created a more proactive web site which features both a “gallery of offenders” (a collection of negative representations of women in media) and a “gallery of winners” (empowering female representations). The site allows users to submit their own finds. Although in 1997, About Face was Yahoo’s Site of the Week, it has fallen away from general public awareness. The site is difficult to navigate, and does not allow a direct user interaction, impeding the ease which site-goers can contribute to the online discussion. In spite of its few drawbacks, About Face is one of the most encouraging efforts at critiquing media representation of women. A more popular site that uses a community-base design model is Photoshop Disasters. The blog is mainly aimed at people within the industry that understand Photoshop technicalities (one post jokes, “Great cutout. Ever heard of masks?”), but everyone can enjoy a man in a crowd who mysteriously appears seven times in the same outfit. Users submit photos that are “commercial and awful.” To deter any fears, the site assures, “Anonymity can be arranged for the easily embarrassed/canned.” Posts appear in a general feed, but can also be browsed according to labels, such as “lame,” “inadvertent amputation,” and “catastrophic layering.” The category, “baroque anatomy,” specifically focuses on horrifying images of retouched bodies. Although the site does not take a particular stance on beauty manipulation in general, it does abhor beyond-reality retouching, like thighs that are thinner than calves, abnormal body proportions, and erased butt-cracks. The baroque anatomy blog section is the most comprehensive collection on the web of beauty retouching nightmares. Truly democratic, anyone can submit photos to this portion of the site, as well as comment on Frankenstein body-comps. In addition to awareness-raising efforts online, public space has been utilized expose retouching. In 2006, BaveuxProduction, a small street collective in Berlin, created and adhered stickers on billboards forcing the public to become aware of Photoshop’s role in an ad’s production. The collective also inserted smaller versions into magazines in newsstands. Shock-tactics have been attempted once in the public sphere, and with failed results. During Milan’s Fashion week in September of 2006, fashion label Nolita posted billboards featuring the shocking image of fully-nude, anorexic actress, Isabelle Caro. The advertisement sparked debate. The fashion industry applauded the campaign, saying it was in line with their efforts to combat anorexia (Milan and Madrid, for example, refuse to use models with a body mass index of below 18 and require medical checkups to ensure models are healthy). However, health professions worried the image glamorized anorexia. The head of Italy’s medical association dealing with eating disorders, Riccardo Dalle Grave, expressed his disdain. “You can die from this disease. If they really want to prevent it, it would be better to help young women to accept a variety of body measurements and understand that beauty comes in all sizes.”64

A SOLUTION USING COMMUNITY-BASED DESIGN 64  Owen, Richard. “Anorexic actress provokes row with naked posters.” The Times. 26 Sept. 2007 . Times Newspapers Ltd. 14 April 2010 < http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Europe/article2530325.ece>

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Baveux Production, 2006

Design solution no. 1: public space + online Of the prior efforts, About Face’s concept resonates with me the most. Unfortunately, the site’s design needs a massive overhaul. I do not believe, as the French parliament member believes, that the solution is labeling retouching. I also do not believe that educating women about the effects of media is enough. I applaud the celebrities who have requested to be untouched with the airbrush; I applaud magazines and photographers who avoid beauty retouching; however, there is still a huge gap between what has been done thus far and what I believe could be done. The fact that consumers were able to battle Ralph Lauren’s retouched ad proves that there is a desire for positive imagery. Although the Ralph Lauren retouching was an extreme example, I believe that consumers can continue to place pressure on advertisers and other media creators to evaluate and shift their retouching practices. Consumers are helping to create a new representation of beauty by supporting media which minimizes their retouching and by protesting media that does not. I believe that when presented with a retouched and unretouched image, consumers will prefer the unretouched version. I could be complete wrong, but at least I believe in giving the pubic a voice, rather than delivering photoshopped Frankenstein beauty-comps and offering no other choice. I also believe that consumers may be unaware how negative unrealistic beauty ideals are for young adults, and that statistics may influence their preference for unretouched imagery.

End Result

I began my design solution process by wheatpasting posters in Brooklyn of a before and after image of Britney Spears with a space for comments. I also attached pens to the scaffolding so that passers-by were more likely to interact with the posters. Not only did the posters get interesting comments like, “it’s a real shame we look up to fakes,” but people started responding to existing comments, evoking a conversation about the issue. I then conducted a study about retouching, with three goals: first, to find if there was a difference between how media professionals viewed retouching compared to the general public; second to see if people preferred original or retouched images; and third, to access how aware the public is of photo retouching. The results were astounding. First, people preferred original photos in the cases of extreme retouching. Second, there was a drastic difference between awareness of the general public and media professions. Over a third of the media professionals were surprised by at least half of the retouched photos—a number much higher than I had expected. But mind-blowingly, almost two-thirds of non-media professionals were surprised by at least half of the

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photos. This proves that unlike the claims of so many media makers I have encountered, that the public is not aware of the extent of photo retouching. The study captured public opinion online much how the posters did, but with better results in not only quantity but also quality. The majority of the comments stated that light retouching is okay, but that modifying bodies crosses the lines. I created a comprehensive web site with the information from the study, as well as photos of the street posters. All the comments from the study are on a dedicated page, where viewers can add their own comment about retouching. Viewers can also comment on, like, or share existing comments. Additional sections of the site includes a game so people can train their eyes to detect retouching; the user guesses where each image has been retouched, and then can see a detailed explanation of each retouched area. The site also includes a facts page with findings from psychological studies (such as one in which 53% of women reported wanting to loose weight in spite of being within a healthy range);.and a blog documenting all things related to retouching, including before and after’s, educational videos, and positive examples of untouched photos. The blog also includes a link where users can anonymously submit before and after images. The site includes an about page which clearly state the two main goals of the site: to educate the public, and to educate and influence the actions of media-makers. The web site incorporates an existing tumblr template. The about page is an example of a page I designed, but the blog, street poster, and comments pages all use the Tumblr template. The Tumblr blog has social networking and commenting features already embedded. This solution is exciting because of its ease of use and low cost. The information is automatically part of the Tumblr network-an additional benefit. For example, one of my posts about Peta has thus far received 96 notes on Tumblr, without any marketing effort on my part.

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9 r e t p a ch

. B n o i t u l o s n g i s De

Design problem no. II: equal marriage rights for same-sex couples

Partner Equality guest post for Gay is Okay blog, 2010.

In 1989, Denmark became the first nation to grant legal marriage equality to gay and lesbian couples in the form of “registered partnerships.” Over twenty years later, most of Western Europe and the Western part of the globe has granted same-sex couples some form of legal marriage rights, with one major exception: the US. The states are an embarrassing, gaping hole in the modern movement for equality. Currently only five out of fifty states grant civil unions or gay marriage: New Hampshire, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut (Washington D.C. does as well). However, a major impediment in marriage equality is the federal government. In 1996, federal government enacted the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a union between a man and woman, barring same-sex couples national rights. The bill, which is still in effect, also allows states to disregard legal standing of same-sex marriages performed out-of-state. Federal government, in effect, is impeding fundamental civil rights. Marriage equality not only attacks institutional homophobia, refusing to perpetuate social injustice; it also addresses major financial benefits legally restricted to heterosexual partners. The New York Times dedicated a investigative journalistic article, entitled, “The High Price of Being a Gay Couple,” on the financial repercussions of partnership without legal recognition. In the worst case scenario, the “lifetime cost of being gay” was $467,562. Even under ideal circumstances, gay couples still had an 65

65  Bernard, Tar Siegel & Ron Liber. “The High Price of Being a Gay Couple,” The New York Times. Oct. 3, 2009. New York Times Company. 18 April 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/yourmoney/03money.html>

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Fight Back NY web site, 2010.

Unknown, ABC Carpet ad, 2005.

extra $41,196 worth of expenses. The financial advantages gay couples are denied include: income tax breaks, estate tax relief, family health insurance plans, social security benefits, the ability to contributing to a spouse’s I.R.A., and receiving pensions for a deceased spouse. 66

Until recently, hospital visitations and medical decisions for a spouse were denied to gay couples. On April 16 of 2010, Obama began the process of restoring this right to couples. The legislative push came the story of Janice Langbehn who was denied, in 2007, visitation rights of her dying partner, Lisa Pond. Obama personally called Langbehn to apologize for how she and the couples four children were treated. Speaking to the rule changes, Obama stated, “Every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindness and caring of a loved one at their sides.” 67

The bill met with little opposition, even from opponents of gay marriage. Polls showed that 80% of Americans supported Obama’s actions, whereas only about 50% of the Americans support some sort of legal recognition of gay and lesbian partnership. Although gay rights activists celebrated the action, the community’s main hopes are that the ruling will pave the way for full marriage rights. In spite of long-overdue referendum, David Smith, a 68

66  Bernard, Tar Siegel & Ron Liber. “The High Price of Being a Gay Couple,” The New York Times. Oct. 3, 2009. New York Times Company. 18 April 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/yourmoney/03money.html> 67  Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. “Obama Widens Medical Rights for Gay Partners.” The New York Times. 15 April 2010. New York Times Company. 18 April 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/ politics/16webhosp.html> 68  Sack, Kevin. “In Hospital Decision, Obama Finds Safe Ground on Gay Rights,” The New York Times. 16 April 2010. The New York Times Company. 18 April 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/us/ politics/17hospitals.html?fta=y>

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member of the Human Rights Campaign, said,”you can’t deny that progress is being made.” 69

Over the years, the design community has approached the issue of gay marriage. Several advertising campaigns have advocated for gay marriage. Some overtly advocate for marriage, whereas others depict empowering representations of gay partnership. By honestly representing gay partnership, these ads dispel fear and replace it with realistic depictions of loving partnerships. The images show how partnerships, whether hetero- or homosexual, contribute to the moral fiber of society (as opposed to the false notion that gay marriage desecrates the sanctity of the family institution). The first depiction of a gay couple’s domestic life aired in 1994. Ikea showed two men joking about each other’s ridiculous taste while furnishing their home. The couple make mention of the bonds of their long-lasting relationship, making the ad seems more like a journalistic piece normalizing gay partnership rather than a push to sell furniture. After receiving bomb threats at retail stores, Ikea pulled the ad. Print media has produced surprisingly few ads advocating marriage equality. Media targeting gay audiences, such as ads for alcohol, sought the gay dollar more than gay equality. These gay-focused advertisements either avoided mainstream media or were “gay vague,” meaning that the signifiers of gay sympathy were coded to be understood only by gay readers and to be missed by the general population. Only a handful of ads in print media have broached the topic over the past decade. In 2001, Aetna showed a lesbian couple in one of their ads, a bold move considering that health coverage is one of the most widespread social benefit denied gay couples. In 2003, Cartier showed Melissa Ethridge and her partner Tammy, Lynn Michaels (an actress in The L Word) linked not by traditional wedding bands, but rather a $4,000 bracelet. The advertisement ran in Vanity Fair without Ikea-style bomb threats. Going one step further, in 2004, Kenneth Cole ran an ad in GQ as well as gay-targeted media that read, “52 percent of Americans think same-sex marriage doesn’t deserve a good reception. Are you putting us on?” The ad was the first to overtly address the issue of marriage rights, as well as the legal inequalities gay couples face due to institutional homophobia. In 2007, Absolute Vodka took a similar stance with an ad the prominently reading, “Mark, Will you marry me?-Steve” and below it, “In an Absolute World.” It was not surprising to see the company take such a bold stance on gay marriage. In 1981, Absolute was the first company to create a national ad that spoke to a gay audience, and several ad campaigns over the years have embrace gay pride. Normalizing partnership and representing gay marriage is another way for media to affect social and cultural attitudes. In 2005 ABC carpet avoided the stereotypical man and wife wedding celebration by including three couples in their ad: the traditional husband and wife, as well as one lesbian and one gay couple decked in tuxedos and gowns. In 2008, Bianco created a campaign featuring soul-piercing images of loving couples and transgendered women. The transcendental portraits of real-life couples are breath-taking images that combat fear-based miscon69  Sack, Kevin. “In Hospital Decision, Obama Finds Safe Ground on Gay Rights,” The New York Times. 16 April 2010. The New York Times Company. 18 April 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/us/ politics/17hospitals.html?fta=y>

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ceptions of gay and lesbian partnership as a threat to family values. Honest representations of gay and lesbian partnership, as well as depictions of transsexuals in a context other than comedy (To Wong Fu, Rupaul, and other humourous representations helped buffer discomfort) are very much in line with gay rights activism. By being visible, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people force the other 90% to realize they know someone that is part of the 10%. As seminal gay-rights politician Harvey Milk professed towards the gay community in 1978, “I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects ... I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.” 70

Whereas advertising has large cultural impacts, the most influential forces for gay rights are non-profits such as American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center (The Center), and Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). These gay rights advocacy organizations have concentrated efforts towards marriage equality. In addition, a few non-profits cater specifically to marriage equality, such as the national organization, Marriage Equality, and New York State’s Fight Back NY.

70  CauseCast. “Milk.” CauseCast. 2008. Causecast.org. 25 April 2010. <http://www.causecast.org/ member/harvey-milk>

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Denmark & Co Ad Agency ad campaign for Bianco, 2008.

Design solution no. II: Partner equality web site I created a web site to address equal marriage rights. To put a human face to the issue of gay marriage, I photographed people for the homepage and added their responses to the question “If gay marriage were legal...” I collaborated with an amazing developer to get the site live. Anyone can submit their own response, and they can do so anonomously. The responses can be viewed by newest or by most popular. Users can also comment on a reply, vote on a quote that they like, and share a quote seemlessly on their twitter or facebook account. Initially, I planned to allow users to upload images along with their quotes; howerver, this was technically difficult. So instead, users can volunteer to have their photo added to the homepage by using a contact form. I felt it important to include on the site an argument for equal marriage rights. The argument appears on the Facts page of the site. As a visual person, during my research, one profound discovery was the visual gap the US presents in a gay marriage map. Almost every other industrialized nation has some form of partner or marriage rights. I created an interactive map of the world so that users can see the progress of equal marriage rights over the past decade. I also created an interactie map of the US so that users could see marriage rights, as well as gay marriage bans, spanning over the past decade state by state. Also on the Facts page, I included a list of legal rights of marriage, with a link to the full list. I included the findings of an investigative report by the New York Times showing “the high price of being a gay couple.” I also felt it important to explain institutional homophobia, and how laws that create a separate system for the LGBT community reinforce social and personal homophobia. To address the fact that many memebers of the LGBT community have no desire to get married, I included that it is important to at least have the right to choose. The site includes a section for action, where users can add their name to one of largest online petitions, as well as visit and support other marrige rights non-profits. On the sidebar of the Action page, banners link to the Partner Equality facebook page, and the Partner Equality Twitter account. The twitter account is included in the guerrilla girl’s “feminists to follow” as well as the New School’s LGBT list. The twitter account is also being followed by prominant non-profits, such as Fight Back NY, GLAAD, and the NoH8 Campaign.

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Printed postcards to promote partnerequality.org .

Two images from the site’s homepage slideshow.

The quotes page of the site.

The facts page of the site.

The action page of the site.

n o i s u l c n o c 1r 0

e t p hc a

Conclusion In conclusion, I still stand by my belief that participatory design and design authorship are integral to the success of social justice campaigns. I found that the web is a more conducive medium for action, mostly because of its far reach. Users were also more likely to participate online, perhaps due to its familiar form. In additional, social networking is imperative to each effort. This approach has proved successful with both my design solutions in evoking conversation; hopefully it will also influence action. I have already had one designer tell me he feels differently about retouching after seeing the Beauty Myths site. The Partner Equality site has not changed legal standing of gay marriage; however, it strongly contributes to the argument. Hopefully in the future, the site will gain attention of gay marriage opponents to help them understand the issue. One insight through my design process was to approach multiple audiences. Through the process of creating the interactive retouching protest, I was able to see that to solve the issue of retouching I couldn’t just address the public, but that I also needed to address media-makers. The potential fall backs of this approach could be approaching the wrong audience, attacking an issue too taboo to encourage discussion (doubtful in this day and age), or not having the proper means to fully implement an interactive approach. However, if education is the base goal, with action and beneficial by-product, this approach is almost impenetrable. I look forward to seeing how the two design solutions I created will evolve in the future and what other social advocacy issues I can battle using this design approach.

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