Happy birthday Angela Davis. The quote is from this talk of hers on how change happens. If inclined you can download the image as a PDF.

A few things have been written on the supporting role of design in the revolution and the urban landscape as both site and medium of protest:

• The role of protest signage
  
  
• Graffiti and murals
  
  
• Planning, public squares and cities as tools of rebellion
  
  
• Flyers, manifestos and ephemera
  
  
• Cellphone cameras and social media
  
  
• Even product labeling.

But I think my favorite detail is in this annotated overview of Tahrir square by BBC News.

The authors of direct action (particularly in West Asia and North Africa) are often depicted as a rowdy mob of thugs. But instead of the usual sea of angry Arab men so often shown by the mainstream media, the photo shows a kindergarten set up in the square. Schools in Cairo had been closed during the protests, but many mothers wanted to attend the demonstration as well. So demonstrators organized an impromptu kindergarten.

The image captures the spirit of mutual support that sprang up around the occupation. And my favorite detail: the newsprint under the paintings to keep the square, the city and country they love, free from spills. No random acts of violence here, but using the city to create something new, a different future, with hope and love.

“We believe that the world already has enough chairs. Designing new ones only takes time away from renovating the ones we already have. Consider this the ultimate challenge for you to rethink how sustainable design should be manifested.”

I thought this Tweet was poignant, so put together this sketch.

Download a printable PDF or a high resolution JPG.

Ordering Posters and Flyers

• You can purchase color posters from ShortRunPosters. 18" x 24" posters start at $3 (plus shipping.) Just upload this high resolution JPG when placing your order.
  
  
• For color flyers, visit VistaPrint and upload this high resolution CMYK jpg when placing your order there.

Poster design by Chaz Maviyane-Davies for World AIDS Day.

“You cannot solve the problem of global poverty without going after the accumulation of global wealth. Until you leave your anti-poverty campaigns and join the anti-wealth campaign, nothing is going to happen.”

“Power can be the ability to act visibly in ways that affect others, but it is also the power to act behind closed doors through more hidden and invisible means. Power can be about what is on the agenda, but also what is kept off; about who speaks, but also who does not; about whose voices count, as well as whose voices go unheard. As such, power is about what we see easily and experience directly, as well as what we do not see. For this reason, we need deliberate and creative ways to understand it and to make how power affects our everyday lives more legible and visible to ourselves and to others.”

And from Making Change Happen: Power (PDF):

“In reality, power is dynamic, relational and multidimensional, changing according to context, circumstance and interest. Its expressions and forms can range from domination and resistance to collaboration and transformation. This is good news for social justice promoters whose strategies depend upon new opportunities and openings in the practice and structures of power.”

Information design can be a useful tool to visualize and understand sources of power — and as a result facilitate the mobilization of power.

This summer Artists Nicole Schulman and Tanya Albrigtsen-Frable worked with 15 young women, ages 14-18 in the in the Groundswell Community Mural Project Voices Her’d program to design a series of 8 posters for the organization Day One to educate young people about intimate partner violence in teen relationships, and how to get help if you are in an abusive relationship. You can see the posters online here and they will be available in print from Day One.

Nicole notes: “I am particularly proud of this project, the young women really took the lead, bottom lining all the designs, and completing them using traditional drawing, as well as Photoshop and Illustrator (which most had to learn).”

A blog set up by the teens shows the final designs, as well as their feedback, reflections and photos of the process.

Kind of a nerdy in-joke, I know, but I still think it works. Click through for a downloadable PDF.

More Occupy Wall Street posters here.