Design for change

 

Today Ireland became the first country in the world to make marriage equality legal by public vote. The #hometovote campaign went viral — with an estimated 32% of the people traveling to vote being creatives. As with many other worldwide social / political campaigns, designers and artists were compelled to use their respective skills as a medium to communicate their opinions.

 

Graphic design has always played a huge role in this form of innovative communication. Historically, the poster has been utilised as a language for social innovation and a tool for political persuasion. "As a medium for social change, posters record our struggles for peace, social justice, environmental defense, and liberation from oppression" (Elizabeth Resnick on her exhibition, Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age 2001-2012). However, in recent years we have seen these campaigns transcend traditional media touch-points into digital and social platforms. The "yes for equality" campaign was no different. 

 

Artworks produced spanned from social media emoji sets to street murals, performance art to poetry. Dublin-based graphic designers set up a website that encouraged designers and studios from all over the world to publish digital posters in support of the Irish referendum.
yes-for-love.com

 

These activities are events that happen on daily basis but they remind us that we have a skill, and that this skill can help to encourage progressive change.