seek + find TYPOGRAPHY IN THE WILD
issue 01 WINTER 2017
A LOOK AT TYPE, DESIGN, + ACTIVISM
The Merriam-Webster definition of “typography” is: “the work of producing printed pages from written material” or “the style, arrangement, or appearance of printed letters on a page.” How those letters, words, and sentences are styled and arranged affects how they are perceived. Good typography clarifies content, establishes hierarchy, and presents information in a manner that makes it easier to read, and, therefore, to understand. Good typography is good communication: it can start a dialog or advance an idea or make a difference in the world. Typography is also intertwined with our daily lives—we encounter type in everything from the products we buy, the signage around us, the books we read, the news we consume, and the directions we follow. Typography can be beautiful, functional, persuasive, and inviting. It can also fail, especially when there is a disconnect between how the type looks and what the text says. This debut issue of Seek + Find examines typography and design viewed through the lens of activism and social justice. Topics range from the recent presidential election to ethics within the design industry to the power of the poster as a means of expression and protest. The content was conceptualized, collected, curated, and created by students in Art 338: Typography II at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo during winter quarter 2017. The magazine reflects the diverse interests and talents of the students who brought this project to life.
CHARMAINE MARTINEZ Editor, Instructor and Type Enthusiast
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WHY EVERY DESIGNER NEEDS A CODE OF ETHICS WHY THE ACTIVIST POSTER IS HERE TO STAY WOMEN’S RIGHTS THROUGH THE AGES CULTURESTRIKE
Design Activism to Impact Immigration Reform
SOMETHING TO CHEW ON
Saltwater Brewery’s Sustainable Six Pack
OLD AND IMPROVED
New Logo and Packaging for Dr. Bronner’s Spaceship Type
WHY THE WORST DESIGN OF 2016 WAS ALSO THE MOST EFFECTIVE BRIAN SINGER: NOT JUST ANY GUY, BUT SOME GUY THE WOMEN’S MARCH AND THE ART OF CREATIVE RESISTANCE PAST, PRESENT, PROGRESS
Pentagram for Planned Parenthood
HEART ON YOUR SLEEVE, MIND OFF YOUR CHEST Living With: by Dani Balenson
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KEY PRINCIPLES Many professions have codes of ethics, a common set of guiding principles that help you make fair decisions. Codes often protect both the worker and client from poor business practices. Designers working in a team or individual environment should be working with a code of ethics.
Although there are various po most contain a key set of princ designer’s responsibility to clie interact with each other, the d public and environment, fees conduct (including honesty an
Many designers might even follow multiple codes—one set by an employer, one set by professional organizations and one that is a more personal set of rules and guidelines. One thing is certain: Every designer needs a code of ethics.
DESIGNER’S RESPONSIB
by Carrie Cousins
The principle defines the basi act with clients. Concepts inclu fidentiality and professional re How you decide to interact wi will set the tone for who hires earn in the industry.
oints in every code of ethics, ciples. Codes often outline the ents, how designers should designer’s responsibility to the and compensation and basic nd fair competition).
BILITY TO CLIENTS
ic way in which you will interude conflicts of interest, conesponsibility and behavior. ith clients is important and you and the reputation you
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HOW DESIGNERS INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER How designers work with and interact with each other is just as valuable of a concept as working with clients. Items that are often covered by the principle include taking or working on projects started by other designers; fair and open competition in business; objectivity; honoring all others’ work including copyrights, trademarks and other design property; and working within other relevant and generally accepted codes of conduct.
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DESIGNER’S RESPONSIBILITY TO THE PUBLIC
BASIC CONDUCT
Designers should also think about how they work they produce can impact the people who will see it. This audience includes the public at large, distinct customer groups and the community in which the designer works and lives. Things to consider include taking projects that could result in some degree of harm to the public, the communicated message and its truthfulness, mutual respect of the audience, discriminatory actions and obligation to serve the community.
Often ethical codes outline ba conduct. This refers to unders applicable laws but also good Some things to consider includ for work, refusing work that is working (or refusing to work) posefully misleading or decep cause harm.
The way you co careful conside are not a lot of s it comes to ethic that mesh with acceptable for o
asic rules of professional standing and obeying all d and fair business practices. de the ability to accept gifts s unlawful or fraudulent and on projects that are purptive in a way that can
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FEES AND COMPENSATION One of the things that classifies a professional design as such is the collection of fees and payment for work. A good code also outlines fees and payments, what kinds charges are acceptable, when taking a fee could cause potential conflict, how contracts should be maintained and honored, and provisions for estimates (if applicable).
onduct yourself and business requires eration. Aside from legal concerns, there specifically right or wrong answers when cs. The key is creating working guidelines your business and personality. What is one company may not be for another.
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by Rick Poynor As a supposedly antiquated form of media, the poster is regularly pronounced to be on its last legs as a means of communication and of marginal relevance now. I have written pieces myself saying much the same thing. No one doubts that posters used to be highly effective as both advertising and
propaganda, but from the moment people in wealthy economies started buying TVs and watching commercials, the role of the street poster began to decline (the billboards still flourishing like an infestation at the roadside are another matter). The arrival of digital communication and then social media appeared to leave
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the poster spluttering for life, and when it came to the protest poster, the prognosis looked just as gloomy. If ordinary posters aren’t much needed now, why should posters expressing dissenting views fare any better? Five or six years ago, I would have said the poster advocating a cause was barely viable. Now I’m not so sure. Digital networks are infusing posters produced to contest an outrage or support a cause with a new lease of life. This kind of message has two places to attract attention now — out in the world and online — and the poster-making urge is benefiting from the same viral meme effect seen across our entire hyper-connected culture. Anything that happens is immediately captured on camera and uploaded, and the effect of showing these images so widely and easily is to inspire viewers who like what they see to do more of the same. Participation acts like an injectable hormone spurring yet more growth. Since the global Occupy protests, there seem to be more posters, or poster-like messages, used in demonstrations than ever.
Protest posters have never been an exclusively or even primarily professional design activity. Anyone with an urgent point to make and a measure of artistic knowhow could get out the scissors and take up a brush. This is even more the case today with the graphic placards often described as “protest signs” rather than posters. After protests, it has become common to see online news media running visual stories with titles such as “The 50 most enjoyably effective protest signs at Occupy protests.” Websites offer school children advice on “How to make a protest sign for a school project” and put across their legitimate point of view. Radical poster-making almost seems to be becoming a badge of good citizenship. These DIY protest signs might be amateur (though that doesn’t stop them working as communication) but they remind us that posters remain a succinct, popular and powerfully immediate form of public speech. If someone feels strongly about an issue, it’s natural to try to express support or condemnation as persuasively as possible, and in public settings a well-crafted slogan
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or image is still hard to beat. The posters come from a seemingly irrepressible urge to broadcast a firmly held opinion using graphic resources, and they address a wide of array of issues, many of which have been, or remain, at the center of attention: global warming, Occupy, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese earthquake tsunami and the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. In the past few years, passionately concerned poster-makers have given their support to innumerable urgent causes, from migrant workers, Guantanamo Bay, Palestine, women’s rights, child labor, and landmines to water wastage, nuclear power, the protection of wild life, urban farm gardens, and the plight of WikiLeaker Bradley Manning. As graphic communication, the most salient characteristic of these recent posters is often a surprising politeness and restraint. Twenty years ago, a volume of protest posters produced during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush earned the title Angry Graphics, and the graphic styles of
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the work—awkward, angular, discordant and ugly—smashed home the righteous fury. Contemporary posters might be fired by angry convictions that iniquity or injustice should not be allowed to continue, and that change must happen soon, yet the images are often decorously barbed rather than manifestly disturbed. They display bright colors, serene flat surfaces, well-resolved forms, an ideal of graphic reduction, and a very contemporary polish, if not perfection, that tells of their origins on a computer screen rather than inky paper taped to a grimy drawing board. At its most considered, this fastidious graphic minimalism can be highly effective. The foetally clenched form of the dreaming child in Marlena Buczek Smith’s Haiti poster works by invoking distressing images of emaciated and vulnerable children familiar from countless news photographs. In Antonio Castro’s equally honed and incisive migrant workers poster, the spade’s shaft becomes a painfully exposed spine distorted by the demands of crushing physical labor.
The tasteful understatement of many recent posters, their reluctance to shout, perhaps reflects a deeply ingrained feeling that emphatic displays are no longer acceptable—that they run the risk of appearing shrill and dogmatic. This inhibition, born of years of affluence and complacency, when only a minority felt the urge to protest, has lessened since the global financial crisis began in 2007. The homemade protest signs
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show a new public willingness to speak out with vigor and wit. To find uses on the street, where the mood is increasingly frustrated, as governments seem either reluctant or powerless to act, professionally produced posters need to avoid any sense that they are aesthetic parlor games detached from the struggle. There are some marked differences between work produced for private satisfaction or for sale as a screen print, which can sometimes be overworked and effete, and work produced with the crowd, the streets and the urgency of direct action in mind. It’s understandable that graphic artists want to devise the best possible image they can, but a persuasive, easily graspable representation of the cause often has more utility. At the same time, we should be realistic about the part that posters might still have to play. There is a tendency sometimes to judge expressions of protest and advocacy, including posters, by ridiculously overblown yardsticks. “Has anything changed?” demand the skeptics.
“Because if it hasn’t, then the gesture was a failure, and making posters was misdirected energy and a waste of time.” The claim that in an age of social media posters have become redundant simply doesn’t square with the continuing enthusiasm with which they are made and put to use. The poster is clearly just one of many creative, intellectual and organizational tools in the struggle to shape public opinion and exert pressure on policy-makers grasping the levers of power that might some day lead to change. Whether held aloft in the hand at demonstrations, pasted defiantly on a wall, or circulated online by true believers, the graphic message’s modest but necessary role is to attract attention, encapsulate a burning issue, exhort, inspire and reaffirm. Despite regular predictions of its imminent demise, the committed poster shows every indication of living to fight on.
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Posters have been used to advocate rights for many people over the years, women have used design to fight for their rights. Strong imagery and message are apparent in all these posters—providing fuel to different causes and fights against oppresion, from the women’s suffrage movement in 1907, to fighting stereotypes through the ages.
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1907
1943
The power of visual language, and its key role in gaining momentum for women’s rights, dates back to the fight for women’s suffrage.
The iconic “We Can Do It!” w created for American wartim re-purposed in the 1980s by feminist movement.
woman was originally me propaganda, later y the second wave
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1977 The See Red Women’s workshop began in 1974, founded by three ex-art students. These women formed a collective, producing silk screened posters for the women’s liberation movement (and others upon request).
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2013 Visual language continues to be a powerful tool in voicing injustices toward women. This advertisement from the UN is from a campaign addressing sexism on the internet, based on real searches from March 9, 2013. By Memac Ogilvy and Mather Dubai.
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2013 Digital production has added a new dimension to the contemporary women’s rights movement. Subtle, yet clear in message and intent, campaigns such as this one for Terre Des Femmes by Theresa Wlokka say a lot with a little—by making the viewer think and consider unspoken prejudices.
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Starting in Tunisia, spreading to Egypt and eventually everywhere, resistance to dictators, government policies and economic inequalities had such a global impact that Time magazine declared “The Protester� person of the year for 2011. In the United States, the Great Ape-Snake War movement, an idea conceived by the Canadian activists of Adbusters, mobilized on September
17, 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring protests. One week earlier, in Arizona, a group of more than 50 artists, designers, writers, musicians, and activists gathered in Tucson to initiate the CultureStrike Coalition National Campaign against harsh immigration policies. I was part of this delegation, organized by Bay
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Area activist Favianna Rodriguez, writer Jeff Changand others. They chose Arizona because of recent protest activity against its SB (Senate Bill) 1070 that put into place some of the most brutal methods of enforcing immigration restrictions to date. Arizona was the site of massive protests against SB 1070 and advocating passage of the Dream Act, which would allow conditional permanent residency for people brought to the U.S. as minors after they lived here five years. By mid-October many members of the CultureStrike delegation were actively involved in Great Ape-Snake War—protesting, making posters, writing, speaking, performing, and using social media. Protests against stricter immigration laws, massive deportations and economic inequality overlapped in their efforts to draw national attention to everyday practices that most affect the lower classes. One of the most resonant ideas in the Great Ape-Snake War movement is the huge disparity in wealth controlled by one percent of the U.S. population compared to the amount held by the other 99 percent. The CultureStrike delegation
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wants to remind everyone that we are a nation of immigrants, but current economic conditions promote scapegoating undocumented workers and escalating deportations. The catalyzing idea behind CultureStrike was that creative producers have power in disseminating information that might affect people’s attitudes on political and social issues, eventually resulting in meaningful change. Immigration issues and the economic inequalities driving the Great Ape-Snake War are on the front burner of American politics as the 2012 election approaches. Several CultureStrike designers have been using their images to raise awareness about these and other issues for years. Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party and prolific designer and activist for more than 40 years, was among the group. His powerful posters have influenced many of the younger designers, including Ernesto Yerena, who recently moved to Arizona from California. Yerena created the campaign “Alto Arizona”—a call to action, asking artists and designers to create posters for a viral
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campaign, which were then published and sold to help fund the protests against SB1070. In addition to designing posters, Yerena creates multi-layered collages with silkscreens and/or stencils on top. His studio is called Hecho Con Ganas—“made with motivation, desire, passion.” The CultureStrike designers use technology strategically to get their messages out quickly and virally. They conduct silkscreening workshops to teach young people how to cheaply produce a run of posters for a rally or demonstration. Using social media, they allow downloading of their posters for quick distribution. Yerena’s “Decolonize Wall Street” poster went viral on the internet, then appeared in multiples at Great Ape-Snake War protests. Dignidad Rebelde is a “collaborative graphic arts project that translates stories of struggle and resistance into artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it.” Recently the collaboration between Oakland-based designers/activists Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes has turned its attention to the immigration and Great Ape-Snake War initiatives.
Barazza’s “99 Percent” poster is included in the Great Ape-Snake War Journal folio along with one by Favianna Rodriguez, CultureStrike organizer and Bay Area activist. The newsprint folios are reminiscent of the Black Panther and other 1960s and ’70s radical tabloids that featured large images for posting. Produced in multiple languages, the posters are designed for specific communities. The Arizona-protest designers knew their works would have a visible street presence when they were carried in protests and would reach an even wider audience across the internet, on news sites and blogs. The speed of media creates almost-instant iconographic images, like the one by D.C. artist César Maxit of Troy Davis, who was executed in spite of late-breaking evidence in his case and widespread protests. These designers are masters at fast and efficient reproduction for getting graphics out in the streets quickly. Favianna Rodriguez and Josh McPhee, who runs the organization JustSeeds, created a book of reproducible and copyright-free images for use in activist work.
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Digital access and tools afford graphic designers the means to distribute images and ideas with unprecedented speed and production quality. Graphic design has always been part of social protest. The Occupy Wall Street Journal folio, for example, is a nostalgic throwback to cheaply printed newsprint posters from the mid- to late 20th century. Clear ideas expressed in poster slogans, combined with good design and striking images allow grassroots designers to compete with powerful corporate interests in capturing the public imagination. Designers like those in CultureStrike hope to use their power to influence
opinion, raise consciousness, and encourage people to act for change. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Colette Gaiter is an Associate Professor of Visual Communications at the University of Delaware. Her writing on the Black Panther artist Emory Douglas has appeared in several publications including the Rizzoli monograph “Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas” and just-published “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America.” She is working on a documentary about Douglas and his work.
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by Heather Galanty
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The devastating effects that plastic six-pack rings can have to both wildlife and the environment have been proven time and time again. While many iterations of the packaging have been seen over the years, here’s a look at a very creative and sustainable alternative to the standard six-pack ring. Saltwater Brewery in Delray Beach, Fla., recently released edible six-pack rings, a brandnew approach to sustainable beer packaging. These sixpack rings are 100 percent
biodegradable and edible— constructed of barley and wheat ribbons from the brewing process. This packaging can actually be safely eaten by animals that may come into contact with the refuse. Head of Brand at Saltwater Brewery Peter Agardy says, “It’s a big investment for a small brewery created by fisherman, surfers and people that love the sea.” Brewery President Chris Gove notes, “We hope to influence the big guys and hopefully inspire them to get on board.”
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Established in 1948, Dr. Bronner’s is a manufacturer of certified organic and fair trade soaps and personal care products that in 2014 had a total revenue of $80.3 million with their popular liquid soaps accounting for 67% of it. The company is well-known for treating their 130-plus employees exceptionally well and for their philanthropy, contributing up to $8 million worth in financial, in-kind, and direct action contributions. Their products and overall brand have a cult status and a lot of it has to do with the company’s unconventional origin story and text-filled packaging, which I will quote from our book, Graphic Design, Referenced:
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by Armin Vit The descendant of three generations of German soapmakers, Emmanuel Heilbronner immigrated to the United States in 1929 at the age of 21, working with various soap companies in the East before establishing himself in the 1930s in Milwaukee and dropping the first syllable from his last name. In the 1940s, now a self-titled doctor, Bronner began to draft and persistently share a plan for world peace in “Spaceship Earth” through unity of religion. In 1945 Dr. Bronner was arrested for speaking without a permit at the University of Chicago and institutionalized in the Elgin State Insane asylum. He escaped six months later and fled to Los
Angeles. There, in his small apartment, he began mixing soap with a broom handle, which he sold while expounding on his theories at the Pershing Square public park. When he noticed people bought his soap but did not bother to listen to him talk, he started writing his philosophy on the labels. In the late 1960s, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps gained popularity with the hippie culture because of its all-natural ingredients, durability, and its equal effectiveness in cleaning groovy locks of hair, bell-bottom jeans, and Volkswagen vans. Packaged extremely simply in brown plastic bottles with one-color labels—the text
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on Dr. Bronner’s products became evolving soliloquies on its founder’s philosophy, referred to as “The Moral ABC.” The labels of the 32-ounce soap package each carry as many as 3,000 words expressing Dr. Bronner’s thinking, which references everything from Mao Tse-tung to Albert Einstein, Joseph Stalin, and Halley’s Comet. Dr. Bronner passed away in 1997, but his sons maintain his legacy and are overseeing their increased popularity. The Bronners have declined purchase offers, and while sale may still be a possibility, the labels will be safe: A provision in the company’s charter states they must remain the same. This March, the company introduced a revised version of their packaging. No design credit given.
In 2014, Dr. Bronner’s added 13 stars to our corporate logo in reference to the cosmos, which inspired Dr. Emanuel Bronner’s ALLONE vision, and continues to inspire the company. The stars acknowledge that all our work happens within a larger cosmological context. The smaller stars can be seen as representing the 12 constellations of the zodiac or the 12 tribes. The brightest star represents our sun or the Eternal father. Together the stars add up to 13, a number with mystical meaning in Judaism as well as other religious traditions. The placement of the stars uses a pattern from Metatron’s cube, an ancient geometric figure which uses 13 circles to create all the platonic solids, and which represents completeness, perfection and wholeness.
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We will start with the logo, redesigned a few months before the packaging, it seems. A fairly simple evolution, the logo keeps the globe shaking hands but with a slightly better drawing of the elements. I never I thought I would say this but the swooshes in the new logo are much better. Gone is the Medicine Man typography and in its place is a combination of Futura and Trade Gothic Condensed that looks quite well with the bold amounts of blue of the icon. The thirteen added stars looked completely randomly placed but, like all things Dr. Bronner’s, the rationalization and grid blew my mind. It’s not a good logo by any means, but at least now it’s a much tighter unit.
Modeled after the aesthetic of the original labels on bottles of soap first created by Dr. E.H. Bronner in 1948, the “Old & Improved” labels preserve and affirm the authenticity and history of the brand, as well as reflect the modern ethos and style of the current generation of the Bronner family and the products’ contemporary customers and fans. “Our new product labels honor the legacies of our grandfather, Dr. E.H. Bronner, my father Jim Bronner, and my Uncle Ralph who have each helped shape this company into what is today,” says David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s. “Each label contains this special pledge that represents a distillation of my grandfather’s philosophy that adorns our labels, while summarizing our mission and purpose as a
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company: In all that we do, let us be generous, fair & loving to Spaceship Earth and all Its inhabitants. For we’re ALL-ONE OR NONE! ALL-ONE!” Most people know Dr. Bronner’s from the serif packaging so, at first, seeing them go to an all sans approach would seem like sacrilege but the evolution image shows that the serif version is the odd one out. What made the previous labels so great was that they were utterly un-designed. All the text was justified and although there was some hierarchy it wasn’t as didactic as we’ve all been doing it through our careers. The new labels are definitely designed by someone concerned with spacing and legibility. You could argue that some of its soul has been sucked out but in terms of doing a meaningful evolution without sacrificing the original intent, this succeeds quite well. These products are instantly recognizable on the shelves
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of the grocery store because of their typographic texture and this new version keeps that initial impact and then keeps you hooked with the onslaught of text. Also, the revised visual language extends perfectly to whatever product the Dr. Bronner’s team puts out. There are a few more of those product sheets here and they are all equally awesome. The text border on the sheets is so dorky and ill-advised that no other company could pull it off. I’ve always found Dr. Bronner’s fascinating and I think this change makes their products even better and more convincing while at the same time demonstrating a keen sense of brand continuity and consistency that few other consumer products have. All-one!
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by Diana Budds Trump’s ubiquitous bright red trucker hat, festooned with “Make America Great Again,” is now seared into our collective memory. It was the most hated and most loved symbol of the election, the most comical and
the most serious. It was a poorly designed product that turned out to be very strong branding. It was the most misunderstood design of the election—for designers and non-designers alike.
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Trump’s slogan itself traces its roots to Ronald Regan’s 1980 presidential bid when he ran on a slogan of “Make America Great Again.” Trump applied for a trademark of the slogan in 2012, and it became a registered service mark on July 14, 2015. He first wore the hat during a press conference in Laredo, Texas, just nine days later.
and intentionally distances itself from w lished and unassailable high-design b tems of Hillary and Obama,” says Fore head of design in the San Francisco offi Wolff Olins. “Tasteful design becomes s The trucker cap is as American as app and baseball.”
There’s still some mystery surrounding the hat’s genesis. We don’t know who designed it, though we do know where it’s made: In the Southern California factory of Cali-Fame Hats. (The Trump campaign and Cali-Frame Hats did not respond to requests for comment on who was behind the design.) It’s a basic product. More likely than not, someone picked red since it’s the color for the Republican party, and basic Times New Roman lettering in white so it would stand out against the cap.
So what exactly is the hat? A stroke of c genius or pure dumb luck? There’s no c dry answer. But it raises the question o designerati-approved “good” design r ters in an election.”His people understa and sophisticated branding; they just c use it for his campaign,” Young says.
The “undesigned” hat represented this everyman sensibility, while Hillary’s high-design branding—which was disciplined, systematic, and well-executed—embodied the establishment narrative that Trump railed against and that Middle America felt had failed them. “The DIY nature of the hat embodies the wares of a ‘self-made man’
“This campaign was not won or lost on design—at least not the kind of design ple are interested in talking about,” say Ipcar, executive creative director at Blu Digital and a design leader for both Ob paigns. Referring to the debates desig like to have about typography, compos color theory, he adds: “We could just a talking about how the Trump hat was a failure and how the Pentagram-design logo was perfect.”
well-estabbrand sysest Young, ffice of suspect… ple pie
calculated cut-andof how much really matand clean chose not to
n good most peoys Matt ue State bama camgners usually sition, and as easily be an abject ned Hillary
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The 2016 campaign revealed limitations of what “good design” can achieve as a communication tool in a political context. “Good design has an elitist bias, particularly because good design is expensive,” Ballant says. The role of designers in a political context when capital-d Design is so suspect is no less important, but it will take some retooling. The 2016 election probably wasn’t won or lost on a hat or a branding system, but the hat serves as a powerful proxy for how blindsided many were by the forces that led to Trump becoming president-elect. It’s an allegory about how to interpret symbols, how to deploy design, and why visual fluency is crucial for everyone—not just designers—as we process, regroup, and strategize for the next round of elections.
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AN INTERVIEW BY LEIF STEINER AND EMILY POTTS
VOCATION
Artist, Designer, Protaganist
EXPERIENCE 21 years
LOCATION
San Francisco
Brian Singer has been employed by some of the most progressive design thinking companies in modern times including Apple, Facebook, and Pinterest. Most designers would cut off their right arm to work for these companies, but Singer— although grateful for the experience— walked away from his most recent gig at Pinterest to pursue personal projects. Singer, aka someguy, has become widely lauded for his pet projects which have netted national publicity, not only in the design community, but among mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times, the Today Show, CBS News, Huffington Post, and more. From inviting strangers to collaborate and share their sentiments in a blank journal and pass it on for the 1000 Journals Project, to exposing people who are driving and texting by placing their photos on billboards, to his #pileoftrump campaign, Singer has created controversy and discussion about what is and isn’t
tolerable—o driving—wha Vander Mole
His main goa is to connect strangers co Here, we ask his personal
YOU’VE WOR PROFILE, DE WHAT’S THE THOSE EXPE
Every compa has real, cha to solve. And think it’s safe Probably the while design only thing ne an impact. Y skills, empat leadership, g ability to hire
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or with the case of texting and at is safe. (bio photo: Skyler en.)
course, you can’t be an asshole. You know, all the things they don’t teach in design school.
al with most of his projects t with strangers and to have onnecting with each other. k him about his experiences, l projects, and what’s next.
YOU RECENTLY LEFT PINTEREST TO PURSUE YOUR SIDE PROJECTS FULL TIME. ARE YOU CRAZY? WHY?
Yes to the first question. As to the second … see the first. Pinterest was probably RKED FOR SOME HIGH the best job I’ve ever had, and I’m really ESIGN-DRIVEN COMPANIES. lucky and appreciative to have worked E BIGGEST TAKEAWAY FROM there. Over the last decade though, ERIENCES? I’ve spent more and more time focused on art and side projects. About a year any (design driven or not) allenging, business problems and a half ago, I got a studio to work in. I began spending my evenings and d no matter the company, I e to say that design isn’t easy. weekends there, and eventually realized that’s where I wanted to be all the time. It e biggest takeaway is that n skill is important, it’s not the comes down to the choices we make with how we spend our time and money. I say eeded to succeed and have this now, but check back in with me in a You need strategic thinking thy, holistic problem-solving, year because who knows, maybe I’ll be off on some other tangential pursuit. great communication, the e and motivate talent, and of
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YOU DO A LOT OF POP-UP/CONTROVERSIAL PROJECTS… HOW DO YOU MAKE A LIVING DOING THIS? Uh, I don’t. The same way all the best tasting foods are bad for you, there’s no money to be made with what I do. I have fantasies of finding a patron, or financial support for my endeavors, but until then, I’m just going to keep doing things I believe in.
SO, IF YOU DON’T MAKE MONEY WITH THESE PROJECTS, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON?
Seems like that would require a plan, which I don’t have. I’ve saved up for lo enough to give me some time to figure it out, but other than that, who knows? tend to be a planner, and very method in my decision making. It feels good to jump without looking. Scary, but good. Everything is a trade-off, and most of my I know I can always get work to pay th bills, but for now, that’s not a priority. ideas don’t have commercial value.
H
ong e ?I dic o . he
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WHAT PROJECT HAS BROUGHT YOU THE MOST JOY/FULFILLMENT? WHY?
HOW DO YOU GET THE FUNDING TO DO A PROJECT LIKE TWIT SPOTTING? DID YOU PAY FOR ALL THE BILLBOARD ADS This was the last question I chose to YOURSELF? DID ANY OF THOSE PEOanswer, which means it was the most difficult. Not because it’s too hard to pick, PLE COME AFTER YOU FOR EXPOSING but I think it’s because I don’t necessarily THEM FOR TEXTING WHILE DRIVING? associate personal joy/fulfillment with Going corporate opened my eyes to a many of my projects. Not sure why, but few things. One of them was bonuses. that’s probably for a therapist to figure When that time of year came around, out. I’d say that the project that was the I’d overhear people taking about what most fulfilling was the journal project they were going to do with their bonus with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. checks.. a trip, buy themselves something Seeing the journals have a real and pos- nice, etc.. Me, I bought billboards. That’s itive impact on kids dealing with such the funding. I paid for everything myself difficult and scary situations melted my because I couldn’t find anyone else to heart. It was an emotional roller coaster. pay for it. At the same time, it’s one of those things I think the government spent $8 milwhere I feel a bit of guilt for not doing lion on their distracted driving awaremore. I tried to get more journals projness campaign that year. In the end, my ects to happen at more hospitals. It approach received more news coverage worked for a few, but not many. The hill and caused more discussion on the issue. was too high to climb, and eventually I let I was hoping for someone like a phone it fall to the wayside. maker, or car company, or insurance
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company to help me blow the project out and really make a dent in the problem, but no such luck. Can you imagine what I could have done with that $8M? As for people coming after me, no. However, I did get plenty of angry comments/emails, and even a few death threats. WHAT IS THE MOST TROUBLE YOU’VE EVER GOTTEN INTO FOR ONE OF YOUR PROJECTS?
I don’t think I’ve really gotten into trouble. I’ve had people get angry at me, lots of them, but no one’s ever come after me or anything. Maybe I’m not taking enough risks. better off if everyone in the country wa picked up, shuffled, and dropped ranDO PEOPLES’ BEHAVIORS STILL SURdomly into a new community. It’d suck PRISE YOU? for a while, but in the long run, it might That’s a pretty wide open question. A be the only way to save us. lot of people I know are looking around, And… that didn’t really answer your bewildered at the fact that Trump is a question. Yes, people’s behaviors surpr viable presidential candidate, given me. All the time. It’s mind-boggling. Bu everything he’s said and done. And it it probably shouldn’t be. made me surprised that people are surprised (oh, I’m surprised too). But it sort HAS THERE BEEN A PROJECT YOU’VE of goes to show that we all surround WANTED TO DO, BUT THOUGHT IT ourselves with like-minded people, and MIGHT BE TOO RISKY, OR DOES THAT live in our little bubbles, and are then NOT EVEN ENTER YOUR MIND? surprised when millions of people think a Well, I’ve had no problem cutting up th different way. We’d probably all be a lot Bible, but have clearly stayed away fro
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certain other religious texts. So there’s that. I’d like to do more public art, but have hesitated due to the legality of it t (and none of my projects are going to get a grant or be approved by a committee somewhere). All in all though, most of my rise projects are limited by resources, not risk. ut, WHAT IS THE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE
T
he om
YOU’D GIVE TO A YOUNG DESIGNER? Reassess who your heroes are. WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW? I’ve always got like eight projects in motion. I’m working on a series of pieces around assassinations (so, JFK, Malcolm
X, John Lennon, etc.) and the guns used to kill them. These are all using books about said political figure, and a process which is kind of hard to explain, involves cutting up the books and assembling the image of the gun using the edges of the paper. I’ve also been cutting up books with red/green edges, and sorting that paper into gradations. They’re really quite beautiful. And, I’ve been dropping books around San Francisco, in the hopes people pick them up and read them (and contact me). It’s a novel way to connect people, I think.
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HOW ARTISTS IN A TRUMP AMERICA ARE EMBRACING LESSONS FROM THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA AND MOMENTUM FROM THE WOMEN’S MARCHES. by Susan Karlin City streets around the world (and a ship deck in Antarctica) flowed pink Saturday as an estimated 5 million women and male allies donned rosy pussyhats and marched in a show of solidarity against newly minted President Donald Trump and an administration bent on dialing the clock back on women’s rights.
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The nonviolent but spirited display not only picked up a gauntlet thrown down by a campaign that won on homophobic, misogynistic, and racist rhetoric, but codified an integral part of resistance: creativity. It’s a strategy employed during 1960s civil rights movement, whose architects coordinated novel clandestine tactics and revealed them at opportune times to throw opponents off guard. While the Women’s Marches organized and publicized in advance, their momentum galvanized individuals into devising their own creative contributions—from whimsical signs, costumes, and T-shirts, to unleashing satirical songs and drawings on social media, to theaters, art shows, and apparel raising money for such advocates as Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Each successive leap in nonviolent progress has built upon the acts that
happened before,” Andrew Aydin, who co-wrote the bestselling March trilogy with congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, told Co.Create last summer. (March sales skyrocketed after Trump insulted Lewis.) “One of the key proponents in the national sit-ins was that there was also a boycott going on of stores that wouldn’t sell to African-Americans. So you took one tactic, you added another, and put it all together to put pressure. So if young people today creatively used tactics from that movement, and added social media, that’s how they’ll make the next great leap.” The mounting artful protests since election day seemed to take their cue from this approach. For every celebrity statement, like Shia LeBouf’s He Will Not Divide Us livestream and Fiona Apple’s “Tiny Hands” are explosions of individual and grassroots efforts, like the
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Pussyhat Project, New York’s Nasty Women, and Uprise/Angry Women art show fundraisers, and the antiTrump banners gracing New York bridges and skies.
drawing of the former First Family, honored fan requests to continue the theme with Trump, who he reimagined as Incredibles’ villain Syndrome.
The political turmoil has proven ferSome were spontaneous. Within tile ground for veteran comic writhours of alt-right leader Richard ers and illustrators. Neil Gaiman, Spencer getting punched on camAmanda Palmer, David Mack, and era, Microsoft engineer and techni- Olga Nunes teamed for a video of cal evangelist Rachel White offered Leonard Cohen’s Democracy to raise a T-shirt bearing a video screengrab money for PEN America’s quest to of the event, with all proceeds going defend freedom of expression. Mack to the ACLU. also contributed writer portraits for PEN America’s Writers Resist protest. Some were subtle. A film series on women directors at the University Meanwhile, Bill Sienkiewicz weighed of Southern California used today’s in on social media with emotional political backdrop for a timely farewell portraits of Obama, March screening and panel on Triumph of illustrator Nate Powell created womthe Will, a famous Hitler propaganda en’s empowerment signage art film. based on a concept by his wife and her friends marching in D.C., while Yet others were just artistic outpolitical artist Mark Bryan offered bursts. Disney Imagineer Nikkolas a line of anti-Trump posters. Not to Smith, an NAACP Image Award mention, an exploding anti-Trump nominee who received a signed craft industry. thank-you letter from Barack Obama for an Incredibles-inspired
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into a line of petitions to run through Trump’s tenure. Artist Shepard Fairey, who gained notoriety for his 2008 Obama “Hope” campaign poster, created the We The People poster series with The Amplifier Foundation, featuring pictures of diverse women. Fairey gave away posters at his Los Angeles studio, and made the images available as free downloads for use around the world. The images were also featured in full-page ads in The Washington Post, USA Today, and New York Times. Thanks to a lone sunny day between days of rain, Los Angeles drew the largest crowd, as a jovial swarm of 750,000 encircled downtown’s Pershing Square and City Hall. There were also offshoot marches in Beverly Hills and Pasadena. Costumed participants waving handThe expression crescendoed with the made signs posed for photographs, Women’s Marches. drummed, sang, and chanted, “We must The Missile Dick Chicks, dormant fight, we must fight! This is what democsince the George W. Bush administraracy looks like!” and “Love trumps hate!” tion, resurrected for the New York and At City Hall, celebrities, activists, and polOakland marches. The antiwar protest iticians spoke throughout the day, while group began in New York to protest the entire blocks of protesters, tired of standAfghanistan and Iraq invasions, attended ing still, split off into impromptu marches protests dressed as buffoonish war mon- around the area. gers with missile strap-ons and oversized Among the participants was Dani Paquin, stuffed bras (war chests). a singer/songwriter and jewelry maker, Madefire CEO and graphic designer who created the Safe Tee line of decoBen Wolstenholme, crafted a free-use rative safety pins—a symbol promoting anti-Trump campaign design for the San a safe community regardless of gender, Francisco march that could be expanded sexuality, race, disability, or religion—to
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wear at and beyond the marches, that donates half of its proceeds to Planned Parenthood, ACLU, or the SPLC. Another brought a sobering but hopeful message with her artform. L.A.-based Italian filmmaker Vanessa Crocini shot footage of its Post-Election (below) and Women’s marches as first steps in chronicling Trump’s impact on social issues from her viewpoint as an immigrant and woman. “This is such a historical moment,” she said. “This past election has been a very heavy cookie to digest and the mourning process is still hard. I wanted to feel like I belonged to this country, even if I am not a citizen, and make other people feel
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like we are all in this together. I wanted to capture history and I thought putting together the footage from the [PostElection] protest would have helped me to process my feelings, my rage, my despair, to rethink my American dream.” The reactions she got after posting it on Facebook “made me think that I do have a voice in this country,” Crocini added. “Now, I want to interview women and capture our different voices and make a short piece that can stir up more awareness and grow our sense of responsibility. I want the Women’s March to be the beginning of an important story. A story of resilience, a story of resistance.”
all images © 2016 The Associated Press
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PENTAGRAM FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD: A GRAPHIC INSTALLATION HIGHLIGHTS THE DYNAMIC HISTORY OF AMERICA’S MOST TRUSTED PROVIDER OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE
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For over 100 years, Planned Parenthood has fought for reproductive health and rights, championing the idea that women should have the information and care they need to live strong, healthy lives and to manage their own fertility. Pentagram’s Paula Scher and her team have designed a largescale installation that spotlights the dynamic history of this remarkable organization. The mural remixes graphics from a century of ephemera created by Planned Parenthood, capturing its dedication to care, education and activism.
The mural is installed at Planned Parenthood’s new national headquarters in Lower Manhattan. The nonprofit is America’s most trusted provider of reproductive healthcare, with a network of close to 60 affiliates that operate approximately 650 health centers across the country. An estimated one in five American women have chosen Planned Parenthood for healthcare at least once in her life, and the organization is currently powered by nine and a half million activists, supporters and donors nationwide.
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Scher and her team worked closely with leadership at Planned Parenthood to develop the installation. The main mural ascends through a three-story staircase at the center of the headquarters. The designers collaborated with the project architect, Juan Matiz of Matiz Architecture and Design, to integrate the graphics in a high-profile location in the offices.
throughout the narrative was the extraordinary passion of the group’s supporters and activists, who have been truly heroic in their fight to make reproductive healthcare a reality for women.
The mural is a colorful collage composed of ephemera from a century of various initiatives—a mix of newspaper ads, instructional posters from clinics, protest posters, pins, The mural was timed to coincide photos of protests, and other hiswith Planned Parenthood’s cententorical material from the Planned nial in October 2016, and the origiParenthood archive. The installation nal project brief asked to highlight acknowledges the important role the organization’s history, which is that activism and posters, placnecessarily complex. Scher and her ards, symbols and other graphics team looked at the chronology and have played in garnering support. observed that the one factor running Many of the designs were originally
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created by grassroots activists, and the mural is a tribute to their impact in the movement for reproductive rights. To create the mural, Scher and her designers researched historic images, selecting approximately 30 for the final display. The original images were of varying age and quality, so the team digitized the pieces to assemble the collage. The mural is fabricated of vinyl wall-covering, built in layers for a dimensional effect, with acrylic forms cut out and mounted over the surface. Scher used a similar approach to create a celebrated mural at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. The archival images have been reinterpreted using Planned Parenthood’s own color palette, with the addition of a bright yellow, to
help tie the environmental graphics into the organization’s existing brand identity. The graphics are incorporated throughout the headquarters: In addition to the central installation, which is about 30 feet high and rises over three stories, smaller murals have been placed on walls throughout large conference rooms and other meeting spaces. The mural has been welcomed as a colorful focal point and call to activism in the national headquarters. When leaders of Planned Parenthood’s affiliates saw the installation, they started requesting similar designs for their own health centers, and Scher and her team are currently developing a system of supergraphics that can be adapted for various locations.
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Living With: is a project dedicated to empowering anyone dealing with mental health to be confident in themselves and their approach to handling daily obstacles. It started as a college thesis and it’s grown to become a nationwide social endeavor that sparks new conversations and new perceptions about mental health. Living With: is the degree-project-turned-real-project of Dani Balenson, a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and designer working in Brooklyn, New York.
Each shirt in the initial Living With: collection has a design that was developed based on the common behavioral patterns of a specific mental disorder. While a single disorder can have a very broad range of characteristics and affects each person differently, there are core behavioral patterns that persons living with each disorder experience. The meaning behind each design in this series can be broken down to color, module, and pattern.
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The depression shirt’s color palette is made up of subdued monochromatic purples, with the deep violet being visually heavier than the red-violet. The module is designed to convey a sense of internal weight pulling down while remaining vertical
as a whole shape, to signify a sense for longing for uplifting happiness. As a whole, the pattern also reinforces the feeling of being weighed down, while also portraying a layer between the inner self and the public self.
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The color palette for this design is comprised of violet and bright blue, which represent the high and the low poles that a person living with Bipolar Disorder cycles between. The shapes within the module visualize the shift between high and low mood states, known as the drop. Individuals living with bipolar disorder often describe the drop as the hardest part and not
being able to fully enjoy the high points because of the expected low on the horizon. The depression pattern is referenced by the shape of the low, to create a language for the designs as a series. As a whole, the pattern consists of multiple modules arranged to create tension between the up and the down, while ultimately remaining a single shape.
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The color combo for ADHD is made up of green hues. As a symbolic color for creativity and growth, green correlates to the fact that ADHD is often (but not always) diagnosed at a younger age. Both hues are bright, as the disorder also results in an energetic and hyperactive persona. The module represents an ADHD person’s distracted train
of thought and the tendency to bounce around from one thing to another. It is a visual deviation in thought and action: the color shifts, the size changes, and the bigger circle is left unfinished. The pattern is a slightly skewed repetition of the module, which creates the bigger picture of an energized, unfocused, and lively mass.
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The color combo for OCD is comprised of multiple yellow hues because of the color’s connotations of stress and alertness. The arrangement of shapes in the module represents the systematic anxiety that triggers compulsions and how it
shadows an OCD individual at all times. As a whole, the pattern has a rigidity and exactness that reflects the intentionality of the ritualistic actions performed by an individual living with OCD.
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