The graphic language of resistance: designing for cultural impact

Design has a spectacular capacity for sparking social and environmental progress. Logos, digital posters, and hand-painted signs can instantly become a symbol of protest or a movement, whether social, environmental, or political. Over the years, we have had the pleasure of watching designers expand imaginations, encourage exploration, and create space for real change in the world.

Proactive mindsets and visual activism

Designers are a special breed. Their brains may be 75% water like the rest of us, but their default setting is proactive rather than reactive. Instead of asking what is, they ask what if, navigating ambiguity to find order within complex problems. When visual communication is deployed for activism, it has an immediate effect on public beliefs and culture as a whole.

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Good visual communication makes complex social and political issues digestible for the public.

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As Maria, our Senior Designer, notes: "I cannot think of a better way to make social or political issues more digestible for the public than with good visual communication and design. It is a great way to reach people who otherwise would not get onboard with movements, and that is often how lasting change happens."

Power from the pencil to the people

Life is rarely black and white. Packaging, websites, book covers, posters, magazines, billboards, and physical signs step in to help people figure out what they stand for or inspire them to participate in a movement. An image such as the iconic clenched fist or the peace symbol can cause a genuine rumble for change at just one look.

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Iconic symbols create immediate recognition and inspire people to figure out what they stand for.

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Today’s symbol for peace was designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958. Using the semaphore signal alphabet, he drew a vertical line down the centre to represent the letter D, while the diagonal lines on either side represent the letter N. Encircled together, N and D stand for nuclear disarmament.

Graphic designer and conceptual artist Barbara Kruger has a large appetite for fostering positive social change through her work. She engages viewers by placing poignant visuals under direct language for powerful communication, successfully inviting engagers to question social constructs with her.

Guerrilla Girls worked on a project to fight gender imbalance within museums and society, aptly christening it The Male Graze. These bold works of feminist art successfully began throwing institutional gender bias into stark relief.

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Visual communication challenges social constructs by pairing direct language with stark visual imagery.

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Art and design collective Gran Fury was born out of ACT UP. They used bold and clear type for ads that exposed the urgency of the AIDS crisis, which led to a movement that caused a necessary political response to the tragedy.

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Meanwhile, Shepard Fairey initially opened the conversation for taking back control over public spaces with his iconic stickers and street art. His Obama portrait, adorned in patriotic colours, successfully encouraged voter turnout.

"Designers, especially those who have a far-reaching personal platform or design for bigger brands, have a lot of power to communicate and share their values. We have to think about the present and future impact of everything we create and put out into the world, to try and help build a better one." Maria’s food for thought left us hungry to think more about this.

The evolution of digital protest design

It is no secret that we spend a heap of time on the internet. As well as increasing the global need for glasses, it expands the vehicle for change that design can ride on.

Digitally speaking, protest design or design activism is about using innovative design solutions to engage and inspire people to take action. Whether it is using the internet to increase the reach of design campaigns such as Posterwar’s downloadable archive of over 80 designs to support Ukraine, or Google’s plea for sustainability in the form of Your Plan, Your Planet, it is all about raising awareness in the most efficient way to date: online.

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In the digital world, a bold design alone is not enough; the power lies in engaging interaction.

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Google cleverly presents facts and tips with simple but smart animated illustrations, demonstrating how visual communication can make crucial information digestible for the masses. The Posterwar project uses art to empower by allowing worldwide submissions and downloads to spread awareness and support. Changing the narrative of the war with art is their aim, and the perks of the internet help their good intentions multiply.

In the digital world, a bold and beautiful design alone just will not cut it. Coming up with new, engaging, and innovative ways to promote interaction is where the power is, using this interaction to tell a compelling story with a unique voice that cannot be ignored.

Young shapers of the future

We have seen that if designers dare to use their powers for good, they will be met with a real opportunity to put design thinking at the heart of social transformation.

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Putting design thinking at the heart of social transformation opens real opportunities for young creatives.

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With digital generations already showing up and bringing activism to their online home, we expect, and hope, for young designers to follow suit, taking the power of protest design even further into the digital world.

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Illustration: Carmen Reina

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