It’s really the small, incremental, kind of classic form of understanding your audience and trying to solve a small problem for them that can actually amplify the work these organizations are trying to do. And I think the most effective kind of amplification is to focus on organizations that have been crafting specific policy proposals for a long time and are trying to get those passed, to use design to amplify those, in addition to designing protest posters.
Julia Lindpaintner
MFA 2017 Products of Design. Lindpaintner is a designer and strategist who has worked for Pentagram, the nonprofit Common Cents Lab and the U.S. Census Bureau. Her thesis project, Justice by All, explored means of strengthening civic engagement in the judicial system.
T
here are these two paths of design activism: the visible and the invisible. Even if nobody ever notices, the power of design is to just make things clearer, easier to do or more appealing. After the election we began to think, “What can we do as designers to be of use in the current debate?” And we realized it wasn’t always strictly design that we had to offer. When those of us in the MFA Products of Design Department went to the Women’s March, we didn’t design our own posters. Dozens of designers shared their posters, so we printed and used those. We realized the biggest thing we had to offer was our studio space, so we began hosting events to bring together design students across New York, and opened the space to the
public for lectures and networking. And I think it’s important to not always have the instinct of, “Oh, I have this idea. I have to make a new thing,” but rather, “I have this idea. Probably other people have it, too. How can I partner most effectively with somebody that may have the content aspect covered, and amplify their voices through design?” I think that’s hugely powerful.
Colleen Tighe
BFA 2014 Illustration. Tighe is a freelance illustrator and founding member of the media committee for the New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
I
f there are designers who want to get involved in any sort of activism, going to a group and saying, “Can I please just organize your email template?” is such a good thing to do, and I’m speaking about this as someone who is heavily involved in my volunteer group. I have never felt like my personal voice is stifled by the work I do for an organization, which is totally separate, ego-wise, for me. And I think it’s also important to emphasize: For all the work you do make for an organization that you could put in your portfolio, at the end of the day it’s in the service of this cause that you believe in. And you still should have to make your own work to fulfill whatever other purposes you need.
covers for Time and Der Spiegel have been widely recognized as some of the most indelible political artworks to come out of the 2016 election.
I
do my political work out of personal anger. It’s not about responsibility or anything. It’s really more about, “I think we’re this far away from complete chaos.” So I’m just yelling, “Hey, this thing could explode at any moment.” I think the danger of that is the idea that the designer becomes a propagandist. When you start working for a party, when you stop becoming an individual and you work for an organization, you’re no longer making art. You’re making propaganda in a way. It’s a choice. But I think what happens is, when you take a job, it’s a continual choice. Having grown up in Cuba, where propaganda was, you know, hammered down people’s throat to elicit responses, and there were artists that worked for the government—I’m just very cautious of that.
Edel Rodriguez
Faculty, BFA Illustration. Rodriguez is an artist and illustrator whose high-profile, Donald Trump-themed
ABOVE Branding consultant, writer and MPS
Branding Chair Debbie Millman (left) and illustrator and organizer Colleen Tighe.
LEFT Colleen Tighe’s poster for the DSA’s
participation in the February 2017 A Day Without Women strike.
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