Politics

Cheryl Heller|Essays

Social Design Helped Women Win Equality in Iceland. And So?

Forty-three years ago, Icelandic women used social design principles to implement "The Long Friday" strike for gender equity. As Cheryl Heller explains, the past has never felt more present.

Bonnie Siegler|Books

Signs of Resistance

This book is a collection of visual expressions of resistance throughout American history. They include broadsides, postcards, posters, greeting cards, sculptures, paintings, ads, book covers, magazine covers, handmade-signs, projections, and the back sides of scrap paper.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Speech, Speech

The State of the Union Address is tonight. Messages, big ideas, careful details, second-guessing, refinements and revisions, anonymity: graphic design has a lot in common with political speechwriting. What kind of client do you suppose the President is?

James Cartwright|Essays

Architecture for the People: Bryan C. Lee is Taking Trust Back into Public Spaces

“Architecture is the most democratic and the least democratically used tool.”

Lilly Smith|Essays

For She Should Run, Politics Today are all About the Brand

Lesley Stordahl, Creative Director at CBX, explains how the design agency worked with non-profit group She Should Run to develop their brand and set strategies to meet lofty goals (like getting 250,000 women to run for elected office by 2030). “For women, we need to continually …

Susan Yelavich|Interviews

A Sign of Resistance; A Symbol of Hope

In Poland, viral posters make “Konstytucja” a universal sign of protest.

James Cartwright|Essays

When Design Comes Second

Women’s History Month 2017 is coming to a close, and perhaps this year more ever, is ending with an ellipsis rather than a definitive period.

Michael Bierut|Essays

I’m With Her

The logo we designed for Hillary Clinton wasn’t clever or artful. I didn’t care about that. I wanted something that you didn’t need a software tutorial to create, something as simple as a peace sign or a smiley face. I wanted a logo that a five-year-old could make with …

Steven Heller|Essays

The Swastika: Symbol of Enduring Hate

There is no greater visual slur than the swastika.

Cheryl Heller|Essays

Conflict as a Tool For Social Change

To be passionate about change requires unconquerable optimism, fed by a vision of the better thing ahead.

Christopher Simmons|Essays

How Shepard Fairey’s HOPE Poster Helped Elect Donald Trump

On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, it’s useful to consider how the poster that helped propel Obama to the presidency laid the framework for Trump’s ascendancy as well

Cheryl Heller|Essays

The American Dream in Black and White—Designing a Just Economy

Social design is based on finding the right question to ask, rather than looking for the best person to blame.