Output details

SBook 5: Graphic Activism: Interviews with Visual Communicators

Research Context and Description: The research for this publication was carried out in collaboration with level 6 BA Graphic Design students using primary source interviews, data collection and analysis, and editorial methods.

‘S’ Book 5 contains eighteen primary source interviews with world renowned designers and art directors who have been involved in acts of dissent, anti propaganda and single issue politics.

The designers interviewed were: Milton Glaser, Ken Garland, David Gentleman, Jason Grant-Inkahoots, Favianna Rodriguez, Nicholas Blechman, Guerrilla Girls, David King, Chaz Maviyane-Davies, Tristan Manco, Scott King, Atelier Populaire, UHC Collective, Tony Credland, Ben Frost, Noel Douglas, Ghost Boy, Nick Hillel.

Significance

Those who cannot view the discipline of graphic design beyond its commercial contexts are unlikely to understand that, “If design is a weapon that can be used to sell jeans and perfume, then it can also be used to fight for more just democracies and political wisdom”, as Maviyane-Davies would have it. The history of graphic design is signposted by the work of visual communicators who have challenged the prevailing orthodoxy. This book celebrates those designers who are prepared to question the cultural and political hegemony and provide a voice for those who might not otherwise have a platform to speak.

Opinion shapers are always to be feared, as responses to their work are at best unpredictable and in many cases out of all proportion to the original input. Subverting the messages of mass media as a catalyst for challenging prevailing conventions can clearly be evidenced by many of those interviewed for this book. These eighteen interviews explain the thought and working processes of those graphic designers who are still using visual communication to stimulate personal interpretation and autonomous thinking.