M A RCH 2017
MARCH 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS 06
12
PUNK YET PEACEFUL POSITIVITY— THE SECRET TO ETHICAL DESIGN?
HOW DESIGN CAN HELP END CULTURAL APPROPRIATION
by Madeleine Morley
by Candice Zamora
26 JR: AN ARTIST ON A CRUSADE by Ana Bambic Kostov
32 ALBUM COVER TIMELINE (1960–2015) by Ashley Clark
44 ‘HOPE’ ARTIST SHEPARD FAIREY REVEALS NEW POSTERS TO PROTEST TRUMP by Stephy Chung
48 HISTORY’S MOST POWERFUL PROTEST ART by Belinda Lanks
14 WHAT WOMEN ARE WORTH by Cheryl Heller
22 THE AFRO COMB AND AFRICAN CONSCIOUSNESS by Katie de Klee
34 WHY TATTOOING IS UNIVERSAL by Olga Khazan
38 TRUMP VS. HILLARY: CAMPAIGN DESIGN by various sources
50 THE DRAW OF WAR: WALT DISNEY AND WWII by BBC and David Lesjak
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lettering by Albrecht Dürer, 1525
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR What is typography? Why does it matter? How does it impact our lives? 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 Justified 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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PUNK YET PEACEFUL POSITIVITY–THE SECRET TO ETHICAL DESIGN? by Madeleine Morley from AIGA artwork by Marius Jopen November 18, 2016 This young Berlin designer walks the line, steering clear of twee Art director and graphic designer Marius Jopen’s work first came to me in the form of a quote from H. G. Wells, written in an off-kilter, cursive style with thick black Sharpie. It was hung on the door of my co-working studio, where he was set up for a brief stint. “More than machinery, we need humanity, more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness,” it read. This hand-written style is a signature of his, appearing across the board on identities and posters that he penned throughout his time working for Mirko Borsche and Stefan Sagmeister. It continues to be a staple, featuring throughout the continual scroll of the young designer’s website and on his work for cultural clients in Berlin and Amsterdam. Having worked for two of Germany’s most in-demand designers and having recently garnered attention
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as a finalist for the Dutch Design Awards’ young designer category, starting his own studio is the logical next step for the 2014 Rietveld Academy graduate. I’m not one for inspirational design quotes by any means, but this wasn’t what his Welles poster was; the scruffiness of Jopen’s style makes it seem punk, not twee. It has the same effect on client work. For a recent campaign and identity system for the Rotterdam museum Het Nieuwe Institute’s The Body exhibition, Jopen, in collaboration with Berlin-based designer Max Kuwertz, created a system in which clean grids collide with scrawled felt-tip pen. While studying in Amsterdam, Jopen began a project akin to the Daily Drop Cap or poster-a-day craze that has become an almost compulsory exercise for students. For almost two years he created a poster reflecting on the news headlines, printing out a grid he’d put together on InDesign and scrawling across it in felt-tip pen, collaging and illustrating to articulate complex issues with striking simplicity. Eventually he found the routine frustrating, feeling as if he was participating in a merry-goround of negative news. Perhaps as an antidote to submerging himself in daily disasters, around the same time Jopen co-founded The Love Foundation. The open network of students and artists raises money by putting on music nights, using the profits to provide clean drinking water for people in the Busia region of Kenya. Instead of invoking guilt through
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distressing imagery, Jopen—in line with the sweeping positive news movement— believes design with an optimistic message creates a conducive atmosphere for social causes. In order to connect all members of the foundation together (which now has branches in Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Perth, and Santa Cruz, California), he designed a “Love Logo” of two interlocking rings that have become the only recurring motif for the posters promoting events This is what Jopen’s work does—it elevates—but its aesthetic is wild, quick, and cut-and-paste enough, so that there’s nothing too sentimental about it. It’s vital to consider the role of ethics for contemporary graphic designers, an area often over looked, and to highlight who is using their skills for ideological or political purposes. Jopen’s approach—as symbolized in that small act of tacking a Charlie Chaplin quote to a door—is one that communicates heart and heft.
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image by Kevin Winter, 2013
HOW DESIGN CAN HELP END CULTURAL APPROPRIATION by Candice Zamora from Medium September 2015
If you thought our politically correct
The Professional Association for Design
society has eliminated issues of race and
(AIGA), which is the oldest and largest
stereotypes from advertisements, brand
professional membership organization for
logos, and the fields of web and graphic
design, reports that 86% of graphic design-
design, you thought wrong. A more com-
ers in the field are Caucasian American.
plex and extremely controversial topic is
The remaining demographic breakdown is
creeping up in American culture: cultural
as follows: 2% are Black, 4% are Hispanic/
appropriation.
Latino, 6% are Asian/Pacific Islander, and
Wikipedia defines cultural appropriation as a sociological concept which views the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon. Generally, an assumption that the culture being borrowed from is also being oppressed by the culture doing the borrowing is prerequisite to the concept. 12
2% are “other.” This lack of diversity makes the entire career field less credible—after all, how can graphic design be taken seriously if only a certain demographic is creating everything? The real problem is designers are being denied the chance to advocate for certain viewpoints from the actual source of the information. This increases the chances of appropria-
tion appearing in real life and stereotypes
of another ethnicity’s culture. The more
appearing in graphic design work.
designers of different backgrounds know
IS DIVERSITY REALLY THAT IMPORTANT IN DESIGN?
about each other the better they can create intelligent and sensitive expressions and avoid appropriation. America can’t afford
In a word, yes. Technology and globalism
to lose the amazing contributions that can
make diversity and inclusion more neces-
be made by misrepresented segments of
sary than ever in today’s world. From a
its population, and reaching out to these
design standpoint, diversity and inclusion
populations is the first step toward ending
within the field leads to more innovation-
racist designs and cultural appropriation.
we can’t advance without different ideas from different viewpoints. As Americans, image by Doug Inglish, 2014
we absorb brands, logos, and visual representations into our identities, so they need to be accurate and respectful. It’s important that our culture welcomes expression and participation from all ethnic, gender and socioeconomic populations because their insights and experiences can inform and enrich the lives of our whole society.
SO HOW CAN WE FIX IT? In order to successfully lead improvement and change, design companies must openly embrace more diverse practitioners and retain them through inclusion. The industry as a whole has a responsibility to foster new talent and create communities of contributors who represent more realistic gender and ethnic ratios in order to give everyone an equal chance succeed. Additionally, designers can take measures to avoid placing stereotypes on other cultures. The chances of this happening decrease when diversity is welcomed; designers then get the chance to understand the history behind certain elements
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WHAT WOMEN ARE WORTH by Cheryl Heller from AIGA March 10, 2015 Cheryl Heller on why women “have a tremendous advantage…from not being the ruling class.“
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illustration by Steven Craig, 2016
“What Women are Worth: Money and Power Will Not Come Through Legislation but by Busting Negative Stereotypes,” by Cheryl Heller, originally ran in AIGA’s The Journal in 1992 (vol. 9, no. 4). It’s part of a series in which we invite a new generation of design critics to page through our archives and respond to an article of their choice. I was asked to speak at the conference in Chicago about the fact that women make less money than men. It’s an endless emotional subject colored by centuries of opinions. Following, nevertheless, is one more point of view. I believe that money and power will not come through legislation, although that may give women the confidence to act. It will come through an understanding of how our behavior has been conditioned by stereotypes and how our expectation levels are set and the responsibility we share in setting those expectations. The time has come for this issue of men versus women to end. Too much has been said and written and too much money has been made by those to stand to profit from analyzing the gender gap. The most honest and useful belief we can hold is that the battle we have to fight is an individual battle having nothing to do with gender. It’s undeniably true that women make less money than men, and money is the sign of equality. Women earn less money than men at every level of education. The gap is as large for college graduates as 16
illustration by Steven Craig, 2016
for workers who have not finished high school. Both men and women employers pay their female subordinates roughly $12,000 less than their male subordinates with similar positions. It’s a fascinating statistic. Women pay women less than they pay men. One-third of all new businesses today are started by women, and surprisingly, among the self-employed, the gap in hourly earnings is slightly larger. That means that even when women have their own companies, they pay themselves less than men pay themselves.
“One-third of all new businesses today are started by women, and surprisingly, among the selfemployed, the gap in hourly earnings is slightly larger.” The facts about the wage gap are relatively uncontroversial, but there’s a lot of disagreement as to why. The first inclination is to blame employers, but if employers had the power to control wages, why wouldn’t they drive down the wages of men? They have to face the issues of supply and demand and they pay, to men and women, as little as they can while remaining competitive in the marketplace, and they respond to whoever applies the most pressure. A second definition of discrimination is job segregation, the assumption that women are suited to some jobs more than others or the menial tasks rather than managerial. It’s called sex-role differentiation and there JUSTIFIED MAGAZINE // MARCH 2017
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are a million reasons as to why it exists. The assumption that we’re not the same has existed forever. Within the original myths of almost every culture, there seems to be a preference for dichotomous thinking, which, as Simone Dabougraur wrote in 1945, “Casts men as the norm and women as the other possessing traits opposing to men.”
“…gender differentiation is best explained as a social construction rooted in hierarchy, not biology” Not surprisingly, the fact that men have been in power has had an effect on the study of sexual differences. First of all, women had not been considered important enough to study, and the study that has been done has been directed towards discovering proof of women’s biological inferiority. Men have simply been protecting their turf. We have been considered less intelligent because of our smaller brain size and are unable to perform several tasks simultaneously because of less brain lateralization. We’re believed to be more controlled by our hormones than are men. Edgar Burman, who was medical advisor to the late Hubert Humphrey, warned against women’s participation in public affairs because of their “raging hormones” and U.N. Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick reported that some White House critics resisted her appointment because of her female “temperament.” We’re believed to be generally fixed as 18
poster by Maddie Harbert, 2016
homemakers and breeders of children through the evolution of hunter-gatherer societies. We’re also believed to be more “social” and more suggestible, to have lower self-esteem, to excel over men at repetitive tasks, to be less analytical, less motivated towards achievement, and more auditorially oriented rather than visually. None of these things is true. What is true; however, is that we’re conditioned to behave in certain ways regarded as appropriate to our gender by our parents, our teachers, and by society. The overwhelming evidence that’s come to light in the last decade indicates that gender differentiation is best explained as a social construction rooted in hierarchy, not in biology. It’s been proven that jobs affect behavior tremendously. Recent research found a direct link between the pace complexity, or routinization of a job and the person’s commitment, intellectual flexibility, moral perspective, and competence. In other words a person’s interest and competence turns out to be linked to exposure to new situations and opportunities to learn in advance. We actually condition ourselves as we are being conditioned to fit this hierarchy. It’s been discovered that people do “emotion work” on themselves to create feelings that appropriate to their role in society; also, that through anticipatory socialization, men condition themselves to have masculine feelings and women to have feminine feelings. Nora Ephron wrote about this self-fulfilling prophecy: “I adapted willy-nilly. If I was assumed to be JUSTIFIED MAGAZINE // MARCH 2017
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incompetent at reversing cars or opening bottles, oddly incompetent I found myself becoming. If a case was thought too heavy for me, inexplicably I found it so myself. I discovered that even now men prefer women to be less informed, less able, less talkative, and certainly less self-centered than they are themselves, so I generally oblige them. I didn’t particularly want to be good at reversing cars and didn’t in the least mind being patronized by illiterate garage men. But all stereotypes disintegrate when we look at individuals. The fact of the matter is that more men than women do certain things and behave in certain ways and vice versa, but in reality, the world just doesn’t split neatly down that line. What differences there are between men and women turn out to be much smaller than the differences between rich and poor or between managers of small and large companies or old and new companies. They may even be smaller than the differences between old and young people, or those with professional parents and those with working class parents. The concepts of male and female cause the sorting and skewing of perceptions by focusing on differences rather than similarities. Often these distinctions are based on very slim evidence. It was Coleridge’s idea that a truly great mind is androgynous, one that rises above the traps of gender. We create our own opportunities. We must accept responsibility for doing that, and we must accept that we are just as responsible for not 20
poster by Morgan Smith, 2016
creating opportunities. For everyone it’s an individual battle. No organization and no legislation will change enough people. What will help is for each of us to work individually to prove the stereotypes wrong to ourselves and to everyone else. People who are successful have many qualities in common. They have a passion to be great that carries them through rough times and keeps them focused. They’re clear about what they want. They don’t focus on limitations. They take risks and they have courage. These are qualities shared by both genders. We have a tremendous advantage. We have learned a lot from not being the ruling class.
“…a truly great mind is androgynous, one that rises above the traps of gender.” I read once that children always know their parents better than parents know their children. That’s because those with power are studied carefully by those they control. We still have the element of surprise. If you’re not expected to be strong or brilliant, it can work to your advantage. t seems to me that the conflict is to be treated roughly, so you must choose. At a conclusion of A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Wolf wrote, “If we face the fact, for it is a fact, that there is not an arm to cling to, but that we go alone and that our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women, then the opportunity will come.”
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by Katie de Klee from Design Indaba artwork by Fred Martins June 8, 2016 Nigerian artist Fred Martins shares his latest collection of politically charged art with Design Indaba. His previous series drew attention to the serious issue of climate change, which was aimed at triggering an emotional response in the viewer—which might then lead to better global stewardship. This new project celebrates African activists, who were jailed for trying to enforce the freedom and fairness for Africans. Using the symbol of the “afro comb,” Martins’ series includes portraits of Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba and Fela Kuti.
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image from Martin’s Facebook page
THE AFRO COMB AND AFRICAN CONSCIOUSNESS
Tell me more about the image of the comb? Lately, I started listening to some early 90’s West African highlife music, the nostalgic feeling from that retro world inspired me. Their passé style made me brood on our music and culture and later, on the African struggle for freedom, social justice and fairness. And on those that gave their all, breaking into pieces like a comb trying to liberate the scalp from lice. So I illustrated strong and symbolic images in honor of some celebrated African activists and past leaders that still inspire a lot of people.
What do you think is so strong about the comb as a symbol? Afro combs were worn in the 70’s by fluffy-afroed youths in America as a protest against repression and it goes beyond style and adornment, a comb has a strong historical play for Africans. Combs were connected to both cultural and religious beliefs, even though they were fashionable and also used for combating lice, ticks and fleas. The over 5,500 year old Afro combs discovered in Kemet (Egypt) disproves the present theories that denies Egypt its blackness. It connects Africans to their ancestors.
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Why the bold orange background? The orange color is associated to prison. I realized that most of these legendary activists—from Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Fela Kuti to Angela Davis—were at some point jailed for enforcing the African consciousness.
Your characters are not only Africans who lived on the continent, was it important for you to included the diaspora Africans? Africans for me are indivisible, not even by geography. They are treated as one people across the globe and it does not matter their birth place so they are not limited by global mapping. And for sharing the same goal and struggle they should be uniformly honored. This article has been edited. Read the original version here.
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JR: AN ARTIST ON A CRUSADE by Ana Bambic Kostov from Widewalls images from www.jr-art.net 26
He started on the houses of Paris by writing his name on rooftops. After realizing he could make use of photography to tell a wider story, he began pasting images he took on walls in numerous illegal sidewalk galleries. When Paris was caught by the riot fire in the mid 2000s, his social consciousness reached a new level of lucidity, and his activist crusade began. His moniker is JR and he is probably the most globally spread street artist.
JR—ROOFTOP BEGINNINGS The beginnings of JR’s activism stem from his firm convictions that people are often served with wrong ideas about anything ‘other’, while he seeks his subjects in areas where there were no museums, or other cultural institutions. In the Portrait of a Generation project, realized in Paris between 2004 and 2006, JR turned his focus towards the marginal groups of society. Initially, those were kids against
It’s obvious that JR’s art comes from activ-
whom the prejudice of Parisian bourgeoi-
ism, but the manner in which this TED prize
sie was overwhelming, so pasting posters
winner conducts his affairs is entirely dif-
with their faces across the posh arrondisse-
ferent. He does not focus only on several
ments of the City of Light had an immense
concrete issues as Keith Haring did, nor does
impact. So immense in fact, that the Paris
he engage in advocating revolution in style
City Hall allowed for JR’s photographs to be
of Carrie Reichardt. JR thinks wider, always
wrapped around its outer walls. The word
bearing a universal picture in mind, even if
prejudice played the crucial role here, as it
he focuses on concrete, local issues in any of
did in the next adventure of JR, located in
his continuous travels. Recognized by the art
the dangerous West Bank area.
world as a prodigy, JR is today known as an activist for women’s rights, peace and equality, always having one common quality in all his projects—an idealistic belief in humanity.
JUSTIFIED MAGAZINE // MARCH 2017 27 France, 2001–2004
FACE 2 FACE & WOMEN ARE HEROES Hearing a lot about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the artist embarked on a journey wanting to experience the situation and, perhaps, help overcome it on some level. Fighting against prejudicial ‘other’, he pasted photographed portraits of Palestine and Israeli people on the West Bank barrier, one next to the other, on both sides of the wall. He called the project Face 2 Face, and as he was looked disapprovingly by some for putting pictures of Israelis or Palestinians in the enemy zone, rarely could those people tell apart which one was which. By confronting two opposites, putting them in the same place and leveling them, JR did the unthinkable in a way, which aided in the understanding of absurdity of their discord. His actions stood for tolerance and acceptance, for peace, suggesting an alternative of friendship instead of clash. The development of JR’s evolving artistic and socially engaged practice took him in the direction of advocating women’s rights as well. He started this initiative in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and spread it across places with the highest rate of social distress. Women are Heroes project went from Brazil to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya, India, and Cambodia highlighting women as the most vulnerable and the strongest survivors of any given problem they encounter in the unsettling conditions they live in.
Wom
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men Are Heros, Brazil, 2008
Women Are Heros, Brazil, 2008
Face 2 Face, Separation Wall, Palestinian Side In Bethlehem, 2007
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ART TO THE PEOPLE It’s hardly surprising that JR chose public art for his primary expression. The illicit nature of his works is there to emphasize the direct communication with the people, his partners in crime. The response and the reaction if what JR is trying to provoke, while the opinions of the stale elite are of little interest to him. He wants to move the masses, propagating equality and human values with every step of the way. Even his more sentimental projects, Unframed and The Wrinkles of the City, posses a clear critical or empowering tone, fighting for everyman, or the too-frequently overlooked social groups. Still, his latest concept, the one that made him a global phenomenon, is what embodies JR’s activism the best.
INSIDE OUT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD Already a king of street art, JR decided to involve people in his ideas. When giving his inaugural TED talk in 2011, JR asked a crucial question—Can art change the world? He did not offer a yes or no answer at the time, stating that art definitely can change how people perceive the world, altering the viewing angle, while proclaiming his wish—to use art to turn the world inside out. Then and there, the biggest participatory art project in the world was born—Inside Out Project. As the winner of a million dollar prize, JR started engaging people across the world to make a photographic statement, to stand for their beliefs, to make their mark, The response 30
The Wrinkles of the City, Venice, CA, 2011
The Wrinkles of the City, China, 2010
was (and still is) vast, as the photo-booths aiding in photographing people and the exhibitions spread from the USA to China. Using photography as activism, JR achieved in reaching out to millions, who dared in making themselves to be, visible and thus, known and heard. Accomplishments of JR’s artistic engagements have surpassed all expectations. The success and the acceptance they get from local communities testify to the purposeInside Out, Pakistan, 2011
fulness of his actions, as he succeeded in changing the dynamics of various, tightly knit, groups of people. Acting locally, they made an impact on the global scene, reintroducing the most universal human values into a over-stratified global society. People have become their own brand, while the artist insists on not having any logos, sponsors or credits on his art, giving it back to the
Inside Out, Guyana, 2011
people. Therefore, JR’s anonymity is logical and deliberate, as he is only the vessel of the community. His photographic activism takes him to where he is needed the most, where he endeavors to put an ordinary man on the global map, so that when he is looked at, he can always look back. JUSTIFIED MAGAZINE // MARCH 2017
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ALBUM COVER TIMELINE (1960–2015)
by Ashley Cla March 11, 2015
WE INSIST!: MAX ROACH’S FREEDOM NOW SUITE
BILLIE HOLIDAY: THE ORIGINAL RECORDINGS
The cover of this impatiently-ti-
Billie Holiday recorded and pop-
tled, classic jazz record references
ularized
“Strange
the sit-in movements of the civil
haunting
ballad
rights movement which started
ing, in 1939. It has been covered
in Greensboro, North Carolina in
countless times, and provided the
1960. As with To Pimp a Butterfly,
basis sample for Kanye West’s
the confrontational nature of the
Blood on the Leaves. Yet this col-
image is accentuated by the fact
orful artwork, designed by the
that everyone in the frame is star-
great African American collag-
ing straight down the camera.
ist Romare Bearden, is radical
Fruit,” about
the
lynch-
in a different way, celebrating Holiday’s spiritual freedom, individuality and blackness.
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ark from The Guardian 5
NWA: STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
KENDRICK LAMAR: TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY
The forthcoming biopic of LA
On Wednesday morning, Compton
gangster rappers NWA, named
rapper Kendrick Lamar posted the
after their debut LP, illustrates that
cover art for his forthcoming LP,
their influence is far from waning.
To Pimp a Butterfly, on Instagram,
Straight Outta Compton has one of
prompting much excitement. To call
the all-time great covers—a shot
its vivid imagery confrontational
taken from the point of view of
would be an understatement. Shot
a man (very possibly a cop, if the
in striking monochrome with the
song “Fuck Tha Police” is anything
quality of a vintage Polaroid, it
to go by) about to be dispatched
features a large group of mostly
by a gun-toting Eazy-E. The rest of
shirtless
the group glower with a memora-
dren—plus one baby, cradled by
ble ferocity intended to strike fear
Lamar himself and, possibly, one
into the hearts of white America.
woman—arranged in a victory
black
men
and
chil-
tableau on the lawn in front of the White House. JUSTIFIED MAGAZINE // MARCH 2017
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WHY TATTOOING IS UNIVERSAL by Olga Khazan from The Atlantic photography by Chris Rainer July 1, 2014 A National Geographic photographer explains why many cultures view the body as a blank canvas. Tattooing, when you think about it, is like smiling: Nearly every culture does it, but not always for the same reason. In a given society, the motivation for covering oneself in paint, ink, or even scars speaks to what the civilization as a whole holds dear. Chris Rainier, a photographer for National Geographic and other publications, has traveled the world in search of cultures he describes as having “one foot in the Garden of Eden.” (He was also Ansel Adams’ last assistant). Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is organized jointly by The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute, he explained how “many cultures around the world believe that the body is a canvas waiting for a story to be told.” From New Zealand’s Maori people to Angeleno gangsters, most cultures incorporate some form of tattooing. But “where the skin is too dark to tattoo, there is scarification,” Rainier said. When he would
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visit African societies that practice scarification, and he would ask locals who they thought was the most beautiful woman or the most handsome man, they would inevitably point to the most scarred. Often, body modifications go beyond vanity, reflecting a necessary part of the transition to adulthood. He photographed one group of Papua New Guineans who believe all of mankind originated from crocodiles, and therefore have their young initiates scar their skin to resemble the scales of a reptile. To varying degrees, the same is true even of cultures that practice less extreme versions of tattooing. As Smithsonian wrote regarding Rainier’s work, “In New Guinea, a swirl of tattoos on a Tofi woman’s face indicates her family lineage. The dark scrawls on a Cambodian monk’s chest reflect his religious beliefs. A Los Angeles gang member’s sprawling tattoos describe his street affiliation, and may even reveal if he’s committed murder.” “They say, ‘This is who I am, and what I have done,’” Rainier told the magazine. Which just goes to show, the ways in which we mark our skin may vary widely, but deep down we’re all the same.
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TRUMP VS. HILLARY: CAMPAIGN DESIGN by various sources illustrations by Matt Hansen Let’s face it, the 2016 presidential election
pretentious college students sat in silence
was pandemonium—an all-out fist fight
as thousands of farmers and greedy mil-
between the left and the right. In the
lionaires rose to their feet in celebration.
left corner, weighing in at 33,000 deleted
Just like that, the historic 2016 election
emails, the undisputed wall street heavy-
was over. Both politicians left the ring
weight, Hillary Rodham Clinton. On the
unscathed, but the fate of the U.S. was rid-
right, weighing in at 6 bankruptcies and
dled with uncertainty.
34 thousand tweets, the reality tv show host and political newbie, Donald J. Trump. Instead of boxing trunks, the candidates sported expensive suits; and instead of hooks and jabs, they threw negative commercials and obvious subtweets. America watched as the two fighters sparred in the ring, ducking questions and dodging the real issues. After battling it out for the full 12 rounds, one fighter finally tapped out. Thousands of Hollywood elites and 38
Behind these politicians were their spirited crew, their clamorous supporters, and of course, their sleep-deprived team of graphic designers. It’s time to take an inside look at the design language behind the two campaigns—which one packed a punch and which one was on the ropes?
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Designer: unknown Date: July 2016 Slogan: “Make America Great Again!” “With a better interpretation of the ‘TP’ monogram, the concept of taking the American flag to construct a logo where the initials take the place of the stars (while not new) is fitting in this case and, if you were (or happen to be) someone to vote for Trump, this is a fairly rallying logo.”
Brand New
Designer: Michael Bierut Date: April 2016 Slogan: “Stronger Together” “Obama’s ‘O’ was handled with a certain amount of nuance and elegance and Hillary’s ‘H’ has none of that nuance or elegance, her name is Hillary. We don’t know her as Ms. H” Steven Heller, New York Times
“Different, and thoughtfully distancing from his somewhat toxic last name, but it feels amateurish and simplistic—not simple.”
Mike Tyson, Senior Designer, New York
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“While a pretty terrible logo, it’s interesting that Jill Stein uses different colors than red, white and blue.”
Matthias Mencke, Group Creative Director, Los Angeles
“Bold (like Christie), yet forgettable (unlike Christie).”
Mike Tyson, Senior Designer, New York
“Marco Rubio’s new logo looks friendly and optimistic, so it’s a marked departure from the rest of the Republican pack. It’s disruptive in that way.”
Kevin Grady, Global Head of Design and Communication, New York
“Sander’s logo is well balanced, has good colors and almost appears happy on top of its little wave. I’m not a huge fan of the star over the ‘i’, but the way they’ve integrated the logo into his website and used it across a range of merchandise shows it’s versatility. Nice one.”
Benjamin Starr, Visual News
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As you may have noticed, the public can get fired up about almost anything, even graphic design. Forget what Trump said about immigrants, what about his sinful use of tracking and his dull color choices? Regardless of the result of the 2016 election, it’s nice to see the importance placed on good design, a domain that quite often goes unrecognized. With the rapid spread of technology and social media, campaign design will become more and more significant; it must accurately illustrate who a candidate is and what they are hoping to accomplish—all in one graphic. As we move into future elections, it will be up to the designers of the country to fight for their candidates and design logos that won’t start an uproar. Well, you have four years to come up with something, so you might as well get started.
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image from Los Angeles Times
‘HOPE’ ARTIST SHEPARD FAIREY REVEALS NEW POSTERS TO PROTEST TRUMP by Stephy Chung from CNN January 19, 2017
The artist behind the 2008 “Hope” poster
the non-profit Amplifier Foundation—a
depicting
candidate
self-described “art machine for social
Barack Obama—has produced a new set of
change”—to produce works for the orga-
images in time for President-elect Donald
nization’s We the People campaign.
then
presidential
Trump’s inauguration this Friday.
“It’s really about making sure that people
The three posters feature Muslim, Latino, remember that ‘we the people’ means and African American women. “We thought (they) were the three groups that had been maybe criticized by Trump and maybe were going to be most, if not necessarily vulnerable in a literal sense, most feeling that their needs would be neglected in a Trump administration,” Fairey told CNN. Fairey, along with artists Jessica Sabogal and Ernesto Yerena, teamed up with 44
everyone, it means all the people,” Fairey said. “I think the campaigns were very divisive, more from one side than the other. But (it’s) just reminding people to find their common humanity, and look beyond maybe one narrow definition of what it means to be American.” The campaign’s objective, as stated in its Kickstarter campaign, is to “flood” Washington with symbols of hope on January twentieth.
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“On January 20th, if this campaign succeeds, we’re going to take out full-page ads in the Washington Post with these images, so that people across the capitol and across the country will be able to carry them into the streets, hang them in windows, or paste them on walls,” organizers wrote. So
far,
more
than
$1.3
million
has
been pledged, exceeding the Amplifier Foundation’s $60,000 target. Fairey, who has previously depicted him in an image inspired by George Orwell’s “1984,” has long been vocal about Trump. “Trump is dangerous,” Fairey told CNN in the lead-up to the 2016 election. “He’s a demagogue who’s a bigot and is sexist. He really has no respect for a lot of different people, no experience in politics, and is pursuing the presidency out of his own ego rather than a desire to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people.” Fairey is not the only artist making a statement against Trump. Los Angeles-based artist Illma Gore recently revealed a mural painted with human blood to protest Trump, and actress Meryl Streep earned the President-elect’s scorn when she spoke out against him in a speech at the Golden Globes earlier this month.
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image from Los Angeles Times JUSTIFIED MAGAZINE // MARCH 2017
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HISTORY’S MOST POWERFUL PROTEST ART by Belinda Lanks from Magenta November 23, 2016 Top designers on the images that coalesced movements and compelled change. Get inspired. Homemade posters can pack a punch. But well-designed images can deliver powerful messages that resonate for decades, as these examples, chosen by prominent designers, make clear. From a gold-swallowing Hitler and babies killed in Vietnam to the “I AM A MAN” (top image) posters used by black sanitation workers in Memphis to protest poor working conditions, these images harken back to disturbing moments in history. But they’re also reminders of the progress that we’ve made, the challenges we still face, the dangers of sliding backward, and the vital importance of staying engaged in the good fight.
Victory 1945, Shigeo Fukuda, 1975
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And Bab Ron L. H
bies, Art Workers’ Coalition (design) and Haeberle (photography), 1969
image by Ernest Withers, 1968
Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spits Tin, John Heartfield, 1932 JUSTIFIED MAGAZINE // MARCH 2017
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portrait by Yousuf Karsh, 1956
THE DRAW OF WAR: WALT DISNEY AND WWII by BBC and David Lesjak from America In WWII poster images from America In WWII
In December 1941, Time magazine was
a war plant. Its filmmaking capacity was
about to print its end of year issue, its
given over to the Allied effort and its well-
front cover carrying a big picture of
loved cartoon characters all enlisted to do
Dumbo—that lovable elephant with the
their bit for their country—from Donald
gigantic ears who had helped The Walt
Duck and Pluto to Mickey Mouse, Snow
Disney Studio achieve soaring box office
White and beyond.
figures that year. But on 7 December, Japanese aircraft
training films, features and propaganda
attacked Pearl Harbor, abruptly bringing
shorts, as well as insignia, books, posters,
America into World War Two—and ousting
and much more, Disney sought to boost
Walt’s latest creation from the front page.
troops’ morale on the frontline and promote
Yet, if the war led to a dip in Disney’s fortunes, it was only a temporary one. Within just six months, The Walt Disney Studio in Burbank, California, was declared 50
Through a mix of groundbreaking military
government policies on the home front.
While Americans struggled to cope with food shortages and rationing, the citizens of the isolated island nation of Britain suffered even more. In late 1941, Walt Disney had artist Hank Porter design a family of carrots for England’s food minister. The January 11, 1942, New York Times Magazine announced, “England has a goodly store of carrots. But carrots are not the staple items of the average English diet. The problem…is to sell carrots to (the) country.” The front of this flyer features an illustration of Carroty George, and the reverse, six different carrot recipes. The entire family of Disney-designed carrots included Dr. Carrot, Pop Carrot, and Clara Carrot. They were reproduced on a poster, in a recipe booklet, and in an extensive newspaper ad campaign.
Disney artists created a wealth of war-related material for many other federal, state, and local government departments and agencies besides Treasury. This illustration was designed for the War Manpower Commission in 1943, to try and convince employees to stay at the jobs they were trained to do and help ease the critical manpower shortage caused by men being drafted into the military. It appeared in several magazines and was issued as a poster.
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Over the course of the war, Disney artists designed more than 1,200 combat insignia for all branches of the US military and for its allies. Besides the famed Flying Tigers insignia, one of the most celebrated designs was made for England’s Royal Air Force. Prior to Pearl Harbor, many American pilots joined England’s Royal Air Force as members of Eagle Squadrons 71, 121, and 133. An entry in a Hearst newspaper insignia stamp album stated, “Walt Disney artists were quick to chronicle the significance of this combat union with an American Eagle ‘on guard.’ Fiercely he advances to contest the fouling tactics of a barbarous and un-sportsmanlike adversary, as he moves in to the attack with his English ‘comrade-at-arms.’”
Among the most successful civilian participation campaigns was the one for Victory Gardens, which encouraged Americans to grow and preserve their own fruits and vegetables. This softcover Green Thumb Contest Record Book was used for recording the types of crops grown and their quantity and weight. Contests were held at the local, state, and national levels, with the national winner taking home a $1,000 war bond. Three variations of this book exist. All were created for the Illinois War Council.
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Disney supplied art to dozens of organizations
promoting
various
home
front activities, from salvage and scrap campaigns to blood donor drives. This promotional booklet, published for the Los Angeles War Chest in 1943 and distributed to school children, tells the story of Chesty, his two helpers Polly and Paul, and their helicopter friend Coptie. The comic-strip-style story chronicles the group’s travels—dropping supplies gathered by the war chest to children and guerrilla fighters around the world, and delivering money to a boy’s home and a hospital. The story concludes with Polly and Paul returning to school, where they encourage other children to help the war chest with their charitable work.
This 26-page booklet was published by the Aeronca Aircraft Corporation in 1943. The booklet told the story of the Aeronca Grasshopper, a multi-purpose airplane. The Grasshopper was used for artillery spotting, scouting, and air ambulance duties. Disney artists drew all of the illustrations in the booklet, as well as the corporate logo on the front cover. The general public could receive a copy of the booklet by sending 10 cents in stamps to Aeronca’s publicity department. This article has been edited. Read the original version here.
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cover image by Omar Victor Diop, 2014
designed by
KELSEY DUNKELMAN March 2017 California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo Typefaces: Frutiger LT Std and Univers LT Std