I went to see the show of that my former professor put together in the lobby of the School of Visual Arts (SVA), my alma mater. She used her current students and also reached out to previous students to ask them to design posters. The installation was based on advertising posters pasted in public space throughout the city, such as on a wall of a building under construction. Instead, the posters are anti-advertisements, advocating for social change. She is the professor for Graphic Design for Social Change at the SVA, a course she created.
Graphic Design for Social Change was one of my favorite classes at SVA. During my BFA, I was always admiring graphic design that was socially aware, such as the work of Tibor Kalman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibor_Kalman) in Colors magazine or Barbara Kruger (http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/feminism/kruger/kruger.htm). I always wished I could do work like them even though I knew that I do not have that kind of talent. I was really looking forward to seeing this show.
There were a few pieces of work in the show that exhibited talent in illustration and a few pieces of graphic design that were inspiring. There were logos redesigned to be anti-ads instead of advertising (above right). This idea is not innovative and I was surprised how big they stuck out and how much they were on display. In the entrance there were two canvases displayed that I liked. One with a B and one with an E and below the E, in small lettering, it say "be open". I liked the corner of the exhibit, shown below.
She made a facebook post to recruit people to make posters. Although I'm sure she doesn't remember me after these 10 years have passed, she somehow friended me on facebook a few months before posting this, so I emailed her and she welcomed me to participate. The assignment was to do a poster for an issue you are passionate about and she gave a list of suggestions. I have always enjoyed reading about social issues, so getting ideas was easy for me. I decided to look into women's issues. I came across mass amounts of research trying to investigate women's trafficking, which brought back memories of rumors, facts and images I saw from living and traveling in Asia. I sent her a poster and she said she would definitely use it (below left) and she wanted me to do at least one more. I worked on a few posters and sent them to her, but they didn't really fit what she wanted. She wanted me to revise them, including the original. I think they were too editorial. I got caught up in all the information I found and was more interested in communicating that information than making a poster to communicate a message to the viewer quickly, as poster design is meant to do.
I couldn't revise them again because the semester started and I also had minor stomach surgery during the semester that interrupted schoolwork that needed to be done at home. At least she gave me credit for participation.
I think that this was the first time she did a group show in the lobby. She said that she'll never know when she'd get the opportunity to do this again. I wonder if the opportunity arose because of the increased awareness of the need for change to address global issues. I think that more and more people are becoming aware of global issues that need be addressed, such as global warming, food production, and the not-so-new desire to end war.
No comments:
Post a Comment