Ted McGrath : On social issues like Women’s Rights, Gay Marriage and Immigration, the right wing of American politics continues to move further away from the right side of history, going even so far as to enshrine backward-looking and discriminatory ideas, language and policy goals as part of their official party platform. I’m rejecting the politics of “no” and supporting President Obama to keep our country on the right side of history and true to the principals of equality and justice upon which it was founded.
ALSO : ‘Shaping the Future’ We wanted to focus on Obama’s proactive vision for the country, one that promotes long term solutions to the problems we face. This quote sums up this philosophy, and also inspires us to make the future we want. (ALSO is Matt Lamothe, Julia Rothman and Jenny Volvovski)
Devin Washburn : One issue that really resonates with me is Obama’s support for gay marriage. Just the act of taking a stance like that is a major achievement. I wanted to create something simple and straight forward that expressed how something like this can bring the country together.
See more posters here.
Elizabeth Amorose : Women comprise 51% of the American population and are clearly not a special interest group, even though Republican leaders often treat us that way. Through the Fair Pay Act, Obamacare, and his public statements, Barack Obama has demonstrated his commitment to women. What better reason to vote for him? For this poster, I used embroidery, a medium that evokes a sense of Americana. And it is an often marginalized or dismissed art form, much like the sex that practices it almost exclusively.
Woody Pirtle : Clearly, Romney is a good businessman but he can’t be trusted to look out for the average American. He’s already dismissed 47% of us and 52 of the remaining 53% should be skeptical that he’s going to watch their backs. His Romney/Ryan plan is focused on the remaining 1% and will strip away the progress we’ve made in the last 4 years. Let’s stick with Obama and keep moving forward. We can’t afford to go back to the failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place.
Tomi Um : High quality education makes fertile ground for students to aim higher and achieve their dreams. President Obama knows that educated students make for a better country and a brighter world.
Bonnie Siegler : Obama’s position on women’s rights, foreign policy, education, health care, the environment, marriage equality and immigration are all compelling reasons to re-elect him. However, for me, the most important reason (and one that affects all the others) remains the simple and beautiful fact that he CARES. I think that unique yet often overlooked fact deserves special attention. (Photograph by Pete Souza).
See more posters here.
New York, USA
When I began full-time practice back in 1976, the profession of graphic design was going through some dynamic changes. Looking back, if I were to identify the 10 designers who I was most influenced by, Herb Lubalin (1918-1981) would certainly be on that list—his bold and innovative graphic approach, engaging ligatures, and eclectic typography are unforgettable.
A new monograph on Herb Lubalin has just been published, and a nice set of Lubalin images can be found online here.
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Friends of mine in the USA have jumped back into the fray… 30 designers will each create a poster that represents a reason to re-elect President Obama.
Back in ’08 we featured posters by some of the best designers and artists in America. We reached hundreds of thousands of registered voters, and are upping the ante for 2012. This year we’re providing powerful visual messages and the facts to back them up. Let’s stop the misinformation and give voters 30 reasons to vote for Barack Obama in November.
Starting on October 8th, we’ll reveal a new poster on 30reasons.org every day until the election. Join our mailing list, and we’ll email you each poster so you can share them with fellow supporters or undecided friends.
Moscow, Russia
The “Space Age” began on 4 October 1957 with the Soviet Union’s launch into orbit of Sputnik—the first man-made satellite.
Na zdorovye!
From the 1930s… many more here.
(Thanks to my friend JuanMa Sepulvida in Madrid for the link).
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnian graphic designer Zoran Lucić has put together a lovely series of vintage-style poster-portraits featuring football icons from the 1950s and on… more here.
Karlsruhe/Munich, Germany
Stuhlhockerbank is a series of seating for public spaces that approach users and viewers in an extraordinary way… more here.
Durban, South Africa
It’s been a while since I’ve featured i-jusi and the work of my friend Garth Walker on this blog… from 2011, here are some spreads from the third issue in “a series of type-specific themes, encouraging artists and designers to create typefaces, hand lettering, and the like, based on their own personal South African experience.”
London, UK
On the occasion of the London 2012 Olympics, Virusfonts has release Olympukes 2012—with the support of FontShop and TYPO London. Olympukes is a new set of pictograms for the London games designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, Jon Abbott, and Marwan Kaabour. In 2004, VirusFonts originally took on the Olympic pictograms— the ultimate designer’s commission—but with a witty subversion. Rather than expressing ‘inspirational’ human endeavour, the Virus pictograms acknowledged the complex contradictions of the modern olympics. “The occasion of the London 2012 games gives us an opportunity to revisit this concept, not only because VirusFonts is based in London but also because much has changed globally in the last eight years,” says Virus founder Jonathan Barnbrook.
The 2012 games come at a time of great economic and political uncertainty. Since 2008 the global economic system has lurched from one crisis to the next. Greece—the host of the 2004 games—now sits at the epicentre of a crumbling Eurozone. Ironically, the last time London hosted the Olympics, they were nicknamed the Austerity Games. Sixty-four years later, we find ourselves back in an era of austere cuts which serves to highlight the absurd expense of the 2012 games.
Another aspect of the Olympics that is back for 2012 is the unfettered commercialism. If you think the games are about sport alone, think again. “In Beijing we took it for granted that a dictatorial one-party state would suppress human rights in order to deliver the perfect games. What was a little more unexpected is the excessive security measures due to be employed by a supposedly liberal democracy.” says Barnbrook in his press release. And: “In a country with an estimated 1.8 million cctv cameras, maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised.”
Where the 2004 Olympukes celebrated the general greed, manipulation and skulduggery in the Olympics, the 2012 version looks more specifically at complaints, controversies and accusations leveled at the London games and associated events. Countless hours went into researching accurate and thought-provoking stories, presented here in pictogram form. Olympukes 2012 is available in dark and light weights in the multi-platform OpenType format.
Download Olympukes 2012 at Virus. (Thanks to Toze Coelho for the link).
