WE WANT MORE.

The arts have an unique ability to serve as a rallying cry for change, with the profound power to disseminate complex messages across large audiences, in a common manner that inspires people. The role of designers is evolving, as more and more harness their creative influence to bring about positive change. Throughout history, artists have opposed unjust political actions as adamant reactionaries. Design activism provides a compelling prism; by understanding the past and being aware of its historical significance, we can make informed choices in the present.

Designers and artists use their platform to speak out on behalf of human rights and against oppression. This participation of artists in the dialogue generates an inclusive, collective language to help deliver the world from exploitation and inequality. Artists and their actions have influenced or contributed to many movements throughout history, from LGBTQIA rights to feminism, pacifism, immigration and civil rights.

In North America during the 1920s, the Mexican Muralists were in revolution against tyrannical industrialization. Their intention was to protect workers’ rights. Artists such as Diego Rivera, were positively using art to depict the revolution, painting large scale public frescos illustrating the strife of the proletariat. They replicated traditional painting strategies most notably painting large scale frescoes. Like Renaissance artists, they communicated to masses of people through their didactic and powerful scenes. Mexican muralist and painter, Diego Rivera perhaps one of his greatest legacies was his impact on America’s conception of public art.

With the birth of the women’s suffrage movement, American artists made social commentary by working with activists who were fighting for women’s rights at the ground level. Without a doubt, the women’s suffrage movement would not have had the success it did had the arts not brought the valiant efforts of the perception of what it meant to be a woman and to be a suffragist. Without these compelling words and images, the work of the suffragists might have gone largely unnoticed. the suffragists into the spotlight. In the first decade of the 20th century, the suffrage movement in the U.S. began to work more actively with the visual arts to spread its message, creating striking cartoons, paintings, posters, postcards, films, and even sculpture. These images permeated American culture, changing

The civil rights movement which began in the late 1950s and continued on into the following decade is one of the most well-known social movements in the history of the United States. The struggle for black equality had a significant impact on the success of subsequent social movements and the general culture of America, driving artists to not only document civil rights, racial inequality, and poverty, but most importantly demand change. The late 1960s and the onset of the 70s saw the rise of the Black Power movement, a somewhat more radical offshoot of the Civil Rights movement that sought to encourage pride in Black American’s African heritage and reject the norms of conformity to white cultural standards. In this graphic print, two of the more well-known symbols of the movement are evident: their raised fists in the Black Power salute and their hair styled in afros. The bold message to “unite” is printed in bright contrasting colors in the background, in an attempt to encourage the unified efforts necessary to bring about change. Jones-Hogu was a founding member of a collective of artists who sought to visually represent and bring attention to the ideals of the Black Power movement. This artist collective was known as AfriCOBRA (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists).

However, just as visual communication works to project ideas of change and progressivism, it can work in the opposite direction. The use of the discourse of social protest by large corporations to promote their own interests is just one example of this. Looking superficially, one would believe that it is companies that are tackling structural problems like racism, given the inclusion of race discourse in their marketing campaigns. While we celebrate it as a positive sign of widespread social approvalz of change when brands take a stance on these issues, it is important to turn a critical eye to the for-profit appropriation of social movements.

Dove and Nike are just two cases one can point to as examples of this phenomenon. Dove's Real Beauty campaign is an example of how corporations integrate the discourse of diversity and inclusion to broaden their market target. Real Beauty is a campaign that includes queer identities and women who do not fit conventional beauty standards. While we see a display of body shapes and colors in this campaign, we must not forget that this policy of inclusion comes from the same corporation that not so many years ago launched an advertisement showing a black woman removing her top to reveal a smiling white woman underneath.

The Nike For Once Don't Do It campaign is one more example of how such as "Don't turn your back on racism", and "Don't accept innocent lives being taken from us." This message of empathy and social responsibility comes from the same corporation that has fielded credible accusations of utilizing sweatshop labor for years. Nike workers have been said to be poorly-compensated, and labor for hours in temperatures well over the legal limit of 90 degrees, to the point that they collapse at their sewing machines. corporate marketing uses its brand to build a discourse in line with the fight against racism that arose after George Floyd's death. Nike's advertising is quite simple but emotionally loaded, that appeals to its audience with messages

While large corporations are producing whole campaigns in black to support the BLM movement, or including green in their products as a way of addressing the climate change crisis to increase their profit; there is another social activism that is less visible because it does not try to sell us anything. It is activism that uses art to spread a discourse of equality, access and inclusion in which art recovers its original social function: to help us imagine fairer and more inclusive societies.