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Year
Artist/Designer
Title
Working Class cause continued; the recognition of the need for better pay and working conditions, the membership of the party grew with it. I think it’s important in terms of this research, in which I’m exploring the visual narrative of the Labour Party to note that even in its formative days of the Independent Labour Party even with a minimal membership, it was its media output that grew its presence and recognition, Socialist Newspapers like the ‘Labour Leader’ and the ‘Clarion’ alongside others were read by a large number of people.2 It’s this ‘media 2 G. A. Philips, The Rise of the Labour literate’ influence that was able to keep the Party, 1893-1931, Lancaster Pamphlets embers of a Working-Class Socialist based (London ; New York: Routledge, 1992), party alive in its early years. p. 6. Politics and Graphic Design are profoundly influential, it can be argued that they wield this influence subliminally, they surround and influence us daily, at times without us knowing. As design and political culture evolve in the 21st century, amid protests against oppressive institutions, crippling financial uncertainty and a re-building of the very way we live in a postCOVID environment, what can we take away from the visual culture of a similarly unprecedented time? In terms of what I aim to discover, this research is free from an agenda or set questioning, my aim is to be guided by the process, as I have set out I am a Labour member and I have my own inherent biases in terms of my politics and aesthetic opinions, so I will attempt to frame this work in the form of a discussion, nothing I say is doctrine, but an interpretation of what the designer or party was trying to achieve, probing these discussion points in parallel with contemporary ideas. In this process of discovery themes of interest
Democracy in Print
5
