A few months ago I discovered the website of the Mexican design collective Colectivo Aliados. Stunning activist design work but hard to understand what the collective is about because all was writen in Spanish. Now the launched their new site Colectivo.Aliados 2.0, available in various languages.
Colectivo Aliados is set up by Manolo G, Eréndida M, Alberto M, Carlos R, (Mexico) and Futuro M, (Colombia). They launched the collective in april 2003 with their first project “Aliados vs Aliados” to protest about the invasion in Iraq. They received about 60 posters and did the web distribution.
After that they started more social projects in the same way: everybody who wants to participate can submit artwork and the collective distributed it in several ways.
Branding is a thing typically left to corporations with the money to invest in coordinated marketing plans, but Jerry Stifelman and Sami Grover don’t believe it has to be that way. The Change is the name of their firm, and they bring brand-building services to nonprofits and “good-for-the-world” businesses.
Visitors to the company website are immediately confronted with the motto: “The truth is your best tool.” Making use of an organization’s conviction, personality, and sense of mission are key to brand-building in their view, which they conceive of as apolitical.
James David from The Groundswell Collective asked me to collaborate doing a interview with Jerry and Sami from The Change. That gives Osocio the opportunity to start a new serie: Round table. We will do interviews on a irregular basis with all kind of do gooders. Straight from the war zone of the design industry.
Do you want to read more? See Groundswell Talks, the interview serie at the Groundswell blog.
THE APPROACH
Osocio:What brought you to designing for good-for-the-world organizations?
Jerry Stifelman: I was doing a lot of work for youth-oriented brands like Puma, labels that derived their appeal from a sense of authenticity. I’m good at authenticity, because that’s what turns me on. To create something I find some core truth that works for me. Yet when that truth is overlaid onto a brand that’s essential mission is to sell stuff at the highest profit --it becomes uh, what do you call it, oh that’s right, a fucking lie. I started to think about this around the same time I started becoming hyper-aware of all the problems we’re facing in the world. And SUV’s had a lot to do with this. Being surrounded by SUV’s really set me off. I did a lot of SUV flyering at first.
Sami Grover: I’m no designer, at least not by background. My educational background is in language and linguistics, and my professional background is in publishing, but on the marketing side. I’ve always had an interest in sustainability, both on a personal and professional basis. I found The Change as I was moving to The States (for love). I’d just started writing for TreeHugger, and was looking for ways to align my professional life with good-for-the-world causes on a more full-time basis. Luckily Jerry seemed to see the need for a full-time sustain-a-geek and brought me onboard.
From Adbusters:
“Design is at war with itself. We are taught that design is about finding solutions. But the success of these solutions is judged so narrowly – Did it ooze desire? Did it shift units? – that we find ourselves implicated in problems far greater than the ones we solve. The time has come for a radical shift in priorities. We are now faced with some of the most daunting global challenges in human history. These are real targets, worthy of our problem-solving skills, ripe for our intervention. Yet those who have the vision to rise above national and political boundaries still have no symbol to rally under. We invite you to create a flag – free from language and well-worn clichés – that embodies the idea of global citizenship. A symbol that triggers pride and cohesion, whether worn on a backpack, displayed on a door, or flown on a flagpole. A symbol for anyone to declare membership in a growing and vital human cooperative. We invite you to prove that design has a real role to play in the fate of our world.”
This anti China graffiti can be seen on the streets of Bangkok.
“How long will they kill our prophets? While we stand aside and look.”
(via Tibet Will Be Free and Wooster Collective)
This new video from Greenpeace, which is launched today, is a parody of the awardwinning Dove Onslaught campaign. Unilever, the makers of Dove beauty products, are buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia’s rainforests. By their own admission, Unilever is the biggest single user of palm oil in the world.
Greenpeace is not calling for a boycott. They are asking Unilever to act responsibly and to ensure that their products have not been produced at the expense of Indonesian rainforests and the climate. That means that their suppliers are not involved in the continued destruction of these rainforests.
More background on the campaign here.
Here’s a great poster from MFA Graphic Designer at SVA in New York and Central Saint Martins graduate, Steve Haslip.
“This poster was made during my first semester class with the exceedingly wise Milton Glaser. The issue at hand was dealing with design ethics, and in an attempt to tackle the subject and further pitch my point I drew the entire image using a single line.”
I just came back from Warsaw, where I was in the jury of the Polish advertising festival Kreatura. The jury’s favourite was the viral campaign ‘Daj Glos / Paint Your Voting Card’ by Koledzy Strategia & Kreacja. This campaign supported a grassroots initiative to encourage young people to vote on the 2007 parliamentary elections in Poland. The idea was quite simple – give more colour to your vote. Viewers could paint their ballots (voting cards), share their creations on YouTube and DajGlos.com, and cast their painted ballots (which were valid according to the Polish law). The ‘Daj Glos’ campaign and its spokesman Viktor z Bielska received the Special Kreatura Award.
Probable one of the cheapest campaigns I ever saw. A danish group called Vandaler Mod Vold (Vandals Against Violence) place post-it notes throughout the city of Copenhagen, Danmark. The group started this action in response to recent violent incidents in Copenhagen. The notes showing handwritten statements and reminders such as “only the weak resort to violence”.
More here (in Danish).
Thanks James David (Groundswell Collective) for the tip.
One of my favourites, The Groundswell Blog, pointed me to another surprising blog, Thriving too, which is a real eye opener. There I found the stunning photography of JR Art, a new dimension in social photography. Stumble through his website, you won’t be disappointed.
One of the projects which JR Art has done is Face2Face.
In March 2007 he did the biggest illegal photo exhibition ever: eight Palestinian and Israeli cities, and the Security fence / Separation wall on both sides. He posted the huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face. Through this project, he showed that he can break the limits of possible.
With a 28 millimetres lens, the photos are taken very close to the person. He uses black and white to differentiate from the advertising colour aggression.
Each pixel - in the 500.000 pixel image depicting the issue - represents one individual’s power to end the lawlessness and the human rights violations in Guantanamo. By signing up, your commitment is visualized by one pixel being removed from the image.
I strongly believe that communicating a message in a visual way have much more impact then text based messages. That’s why I started Houtlust a few years ago. I was the ideal combination of my interest in social issues and communication. But I must admit that seeing provocative graphic imagery almost everyday is hard to swallow.
Choosing the right approach to your target audience is a everlasting discussion. Do I choose a possitive or a provocative approach is the most important question for all social organisations. Will my campaign be effective after all? No, you don’t get a answer from me. Stumble through the post here on Osocio and decide for yourself.
PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is one of the organisations who is using provocative graphic imagery often. Images of animal slaughter or celebrity endorsement to get the message across, PETA does it all.
The Big Think website just released 26 (!) video interviews with Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA. She shares her thoughts about her inspriration, the use graphic imagery, animal rights vs environmentalism and many more.
Some of the interviews are now here on Osocio. See all 26 interviews here.
In the video above Ingrid Newkirk explains the use of graphic imagery.
Thousands of people in more than 160 cities around the world marched yesterday in protest of the actions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The protests were convoked via Facebook under the name ”One million voices against the FARC” (Spanish: Un millón de voces contra las FARC).
Agency Sancho BBDO Colombia took the bus stop posters and chained three iconic characters of the Colombian conflict posing as hostages. A woman who reminisced Ingrid Betancourt (hostage for nine years now), a policeman and a farmer, all tied to the posters that held a message as follows: “Since you can do it, go out and march against FARC.” (Tú que puedes sal a caminar en contra de las FARC)
In 1997, sustainability design agency Thomas Matthews launched this temporary “No Shop” installation, devised to draw media attention to the launch of International No Shop day in the UK. Despite the launch being over 10 years ago [and only open for three days!] it is still shown around the world as an illustration of the movement against over consumption. The contemporary design treatment and concept will, I believe, allow these images to forever be revisited.
Born in 1945, Barbara Kruger is one of my top inspirational socially conscious artists/designers. After attending Syracuse University and Parson’s School of Design in New York, Kruger obtained a design job at Condé Nast Publications. Working for Mademoiselle Magazine, she was quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications.
Harry Pearce’s Burma poster has been adopted as a placard by activists in the recent international street protests against the current situation in the country. The poster, designed in 2006 for an event organised by the New York-based charity Witness to raise awareness about human rights violations in Burma, has been appearing in news footage of the protests held in cities from Bangkok to New York. Pearce’s Burma Poster is available to buy from Witness’ online shop. Previous design work for Witness includes their annual reviews, print, packaging and website, as well as undertaking an evolution of their identity. Harry Pearce’s work for Witness is created with designer Richard Wilson. Read the full Burma + Pearce story from Pentagram.
The Point goes alpha. The idea behind the site is to create campaigns on social action—cash donation or in kind, product/service boycott or a call for action—but nobody is required to actually do anything until the cause reaches a pre-determined objective, or a good number, of supporters. It is designed to focus activism or community involvement in campaigns that actually have a chance of succeeding.
This is what you may call reverse graffiti. Brazilian streetartist Alexandre Orion removes soot to draw skulls and create ‘Art less pollution’.
At dawn on July 13, 2006, Brazilian streetartist Alexandre Orion started working on a intervention in the Max Feffer tunnel Sao Paulo and created ‘Art less pollution’. The intervention was through a process of substraction, scraping off layers of soot from vehicle exhaust built up on tunnel walls to produce images of human skulls.
Read more about the intervention and see pictures at Alexandre Orion’s website.
One of the most recent ads about Climate Change comes from Greenpeace Israel. They’ve prepared a trailer for a fictitious movie called “The end of the World”, presenting it as another disaster movie.
As in most of the Greenpeace online campaigns, there’s a call for action towards the end of the video.
“Restriction on free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”
(William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1939-1975)
What’s illegal? Planting trees or stealing our forests? With that question in mind Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE) illegally planted trees in Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris.
The action demonstrates the contrast that trade in illegal timber on the EU market goes unpunished, while illegally planting trees is punishable. Half of Europe’s timber imports from high risk regions are illegal. The FoE groups demand environmental legislation to require all timber and timber products on the EU market to come only from legal sources and responsibly managed forests.
Above the illegal planting in Paris. More inside.
Undergraduate students in my socially conscious design class Design Rebels at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia are required to create a project that reaches the community beyond the school to talk about some of the issues covered in the course. The RISE-NOW campaign is one of two projects that came from the Fall 2007 semester.
The goal of RISE-NOW is to spread awareness of resources available to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. The students created four posters, a website filled with local and national resources, and a brochure (several of which were attached to each poster in a small paper holder). The posters, which were hung up in local bars, restaurants, and stores as well as on campus, are available as hi-res downloadable PDFs.
This adhesive is from the Greek activist group Streetpanthers. They are a group of friends who can’t stand the terrible situation for pedestrians in their country anymore.
The text on the adhesives: ίμαι γάιδαρος, παρκάρω όπου γουστάρω / I’m an ass (exact translation: donkey) and I park wherever I please.
More inside.
This querilla campaign was organised in the night before World Aids Day (Dec 1st) by agency Rouge for Act Up Paris. Thousands of bicycle saddles had been covered with the message:
Et vous, vous faites quoi pour vous protéger?
And you, what do you do to protect yourself?
Posted by Marc | 24-11-2007 22:45 | Category:
Activism
The launch of Osocio was too late for this years Buy Nothing Day (BND), held at november 24rd (23rd in the USA). Like other years the quality of the artwork was very differing between the countries where a BND was organized.
I made a selection showing the best from this year.
This campaign was made by Hendrik Haase from Germany. It is for an Amnesty International action that consisted of shaving the heads of students on the international students day at the university. In solidarity to the persecuted monks of Birma, the students were encouraged to let their hair go (Haare Lassen in German) and get bald headed .
After the wake up call to G8 leaders on the need for immediate leadership on climate change, Avaaz started another worldwide action. This time it’s about the clash of civilizations. The Stop the Clash campaign challenges the growing belief that fundamental divides between the “West” and “Islam” make conflict inevitable.
Posted by Marc | 12-05-2007 22:03 | Category:
Activism
Finally a campaign about me. I’m 46 and still blogging :-)
The Luxembourg Centre de Formation Sociale Jean-Baptiste Rock launches a global communication campaign celebrating 45-year olds and older. Vanksen agency has joined the project and has chosen the streets of Luxembourg for a street marketing action on Thursday, May 10.
Next year we want a Humanitarian lion in Cannes.
Join and sign at humanitarianlion.com
About Osocio
Osocio is dedicated to social advertising and non-profit campaigns. It’s the place where marketing and activism collide. Formerly known as the Houtlust Blog, Osocio is the central online hub for advertisers, ad agencies, grassroots, activists, social entrepreneurs, and good Samaritans from around the globe.
Social Edge:
Social Edge is the global online community where aspiring and practicing social entrepreneurs connect with others in the social benefit sector to network, learn, inspire, and share resources.
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Branding is a thing typically left to corporations with the money to invest in coordinated marketing plans, but Jerry Stifelman and Sami Grover don’t believe it has to be that way. 
Jerry Stifelman: I was doing a lot of work for youth-oriented brands like Puma, labels that derived their appeal from a sense of authenticity. I’m good at authenticity, because that’s what turns me on. To create something I find some core truth that works for me. Yet when that truth is overlaid onto a brand that’s essential mission is to sell stuff at the highest profit --it becomes uh, what do you call it, oh that’s right, a fucking lie. I started to think about this around the same time I started becoming hyper-aware of all the problems we’re facing in the world. And SUV’s had a lot to do with this. Being surrounded by SUV’s really set me off. I did a lot of SUV flyering at first.
Sami Grover: I’m no designer, at least not by background. My educational background is in language and linguistics, and my professional background is in publishing, but on the marketing side. I’ve always had an interest in sustainability, both on a personal and professional basis. I found The Change as I was moving to The States (for love). I’d just started writing for TreeHugger, and was looking for ways to align my professional life with good-for-the-world causes on a more full-time basis. Luckily Jerry seemed to see the need for a full-time sustain-a-geek and brought me onboard.
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