Key notes from book:

CHAPTER 3 - SOCIAL ACTIVISM, CULTURAL LEGITIMACY

•  "While most graphic design continues to be commissioned work within the typical client-designer-market service model, designers as authors produce original content and give it appropriate form. Design authorship may be self-initiated, lacking a conventional client, but that does not mean it lacks an audience. Instead of being reactive, it is proactive". 
• "Designers know how to read and write, skills learned by most people in a literate society [...]. The typical designer is well-versed in the functional, representational and symbolic aspects of written and pictorial language - a powerful combination." --- designers should utilise their knowledge, understanding and eye for creative aspects such as typography, photography, layout and composition design, colour, etc. to promote their messages in a more effective way. How can you engage the target audience? In what way will a mundane topic become interesting through presentation? How can the design transcend the content to convince, communicate and educate those who might not want to get involved, without subtracting from the importance of the message? 
• "Many designers identifies with distinct sub-cultures and niche markets: punk rock, gender equality, gay rights, peace movements, and social and environmental justice, among many others... Being involved with, or at least interested in, these causes gave designers an additional reason to use their visual communications abilities - they were motivated by content that mattered to them personally" -- the importance of having an opinion and personal connection to the issue you are actively engaging in and designing for seems integral. With the climate emergency, it effects us all ! There is no reason why one would not feel interested in or empathise with the crisis on a personal level, especially after a small amount of research.

"What is the relationship between form and content, particularly in political poetry?" - Walter Benjamin, The Author as Producer. [1934]

The question above, by Walter Benjamin] can also be asked of graphic designers who create their own messages - verbally and visually - for the promotion of political change and social justice. Why do designers engage the public with their designs, and what outcomes do they desire from this?

• "It is understandable that progressive designers want to merge form and content into a more holistic message of their own authorship, thus becoming architects of their future" -- the most powerful part of this excerpt from the book is the image of designers being "architects of their future". Not only do we hold the potential to shape the way we view our own futures, but through communication and visualisation, designers can influence and engage with others to help shift the behaviours and lifestyles that may be holding them back. Together, we can be architects of a better future !
• - in reference to 'Empire (Nozone IX) [book] by Nicholas Blechman [2004] - "Prem Krishnamurthy's spread, with an essay, photo and line illustration of a floor plan, reveals that I was created entirely for free at an Apple store - a clever parasitic act or subtle product endorsement?" -- isn't it interesting how - especially with my groups decision to focus on Capitalism and its impact of climate change - capitalism has created a structure upon which all actions inherently promote profit into the hands of another corporate company. While it seems like a big middle finger to the business for creating design work on their systems for free, the sheer act of declaring the rebellious act backhandedly promotes their products.
• "The other aspect to "Empire"'s questionable influence is its manifestation as a commercial product, a widely available paperback book that's probably most attractive to fellow designers." -- this idea of reinforcing the nature of consumerism not only lends to our fight against the capitalist society that we live in, but also the consumerist values and behaviours that contradict the progressive movements towards protecting our planet and preventing further climate change. !!!

 Lorraine Schneider's 1967 print "Primer" (popularly referred to by its text "war is not healthy for children and other living things").

Comparing the two posters - 'Primer' by Schneider and 'Hope' by Fairey - as case studies for understanding how designs can effectively evoke politically activists results...

• from different periods of political upheaval but both visually synonymous with the times in which they were created.
• "They [...] employ different strategies for rhetoric, media, process and dissemination. Both are iconic works of design authorship - for different, perhaps even opposite, reasons"
• "One can see how the posters acquired their own cultural identities separate from that of their creators, while also allowing for intellectual attribution beyond the designer-authors" -- people can take the direct messages from each of the two posters, or they can take more from the images personally, relating the intention to their own experiences, making for a bigger impact and longer lasting impression.
• "They consumption of a text by a reader signifies the demise of the author [...] the writer merely channels language that is interpreted by readers. Substitute designer or artist for author and graphic image for text, and the same principles still apply" - THE CONSUMPTION OF GRAPHIC IMAGES BY A VIEWER SIGNIFIES THE DEMISE OF THE DESIGNER. A DESIGNER MERELY CHANNELS VISUAL LANGUAGE THAT IS INTERPRETED BY VIEWERS.
• Lorraine Schneider's 'Primer
  • etching 
  • crudely designed
  • hand drawn text, "familiar and non-threatening. More lettering than typography"...
  • childlike and simple in both form and content
  • takes the narrative of the piece from personal to public - Schneider's small voice during creating of her 10cm x 10cm etching, to the loud shouts for justice when her work become the forefront of campaigns in the name of the Vietnam war, on banners, posters, etc.
• Shephard Fairey's 'Hope'
  • stylised illustration, realistic of Barack Obama
  • all capital letters, sans serif, bold and blunt
  • colour palette acts as a manipulation of the colours typically associated with the American flag
  •  "builds on an iconographic vocabulary in art and graphic design of the heroic figure gazing towards a promising future. The origins of this propagandistic look can be raced to various roots"... 
  • Fairey was sued by the photographer who took the image from which his 'Hope' poster is edited from, under the Fair Use clause of the US Copyright act - since this is meant to protect works from commentary, criticism and parody, to what extent does the 'Hope' poster comment on, criticism or parody the original photograph? "Criticism and parody connote a negative approach, a conceptual degradation of the original, commentary seems the obvious choice: Fairey's motive was to support the election of Barack Obama [...] and an enhanced, more heroic rendering of the image would help achieve this goal"

Shephard Fairey's 2008 Obama Hope poster.

"The 'Primer' and 'Hope' poster s demonstrate [...] that designers as authors have brought about change through what Lix McQuinston calls "a personal concern for world problems, and an active interest in issues that have an impact on the individual, society, and the planet as a whole."

! ACTIVIST DESIGN AUTHORSHIP IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS - GRAPHIC DESIGN, WRITING, IMAGE MAKING, AND SELF PUBLISHING - WHEN IT IS ENGAGE IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGE !

CHAPTER 4 - DESIGN ADVOCACY ACROSS MEDIA

Design authorship meaning(s)

1. Designers can advocate for specific causes they wish to support
2. Designers can be advocates for certain people such as a disenfranchised population or targeted user group
3. Designers can be advocates for the concept of design authorship, itself.

• Short films such as "The Story of Stuff" written by Annie Leonard and animated by Ruben DeLuna (about the harmful effect of over-consumption) and "Logorama" by Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain (also commenting on global consumption) art designed to make people change the way they look at their lives forever. This is the work of design activism that is most impressive, as it is simple enough that children would understand, but impactful enough to evoke action in adults.

"I'm the producer of the film, so I have to thank the three thousand non-official sponsors that appeared in the film. And I have to assure them that no logos were harmed during the making of this project"

- Nicolas Schmerkin, Producer, while accepting Academy Award for best animated short film [2010]. 

• Interactive design authorship - Jonathan Harris' "Word Count" --- "users type in a word and Word Count shows that work in numerical order adjacent to the words before and after it (ranked by prevalence in the English language). The site also communicates the ranking graphically, with size diminishing with less frequent occurrence. According to wordcount.org, "the goal is for the user to feel embedded in the language, sifting through words like an archaeologist through sand, awaiting the unexpected find"". -- relates to our group ideology of activism being a tool to make people feel less powerless and more involved, perhaps we can consider the interactive nature of our design to embody this approach

THE STORY OF STUFF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

LOGORAMA

https://youtu.be/zAKopCwGlcc

Key pages from book digitally highlighted