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.
If you ever visit a music festival in the Netherlands you know it can be muddy. That is what Dutch marcom agency Usual Suspects was thinking about when Greenpeace ask them to develop a campaign to reach a younger audience in a positive and appealing way.
They came with Fishmates, five different rain boots designed by five illustrators. The Fishmates are meant to support this summers ocean campaign from Greenpeace.
Finally this weekend the high mass of the advertising industry has begun. Everybody who takes themselves seriously when speaking about communication is in France right now at the Cannes Lions 2008.
In this post the first winners, Gold, Silver and Bronze in the category Young Lions Print. The Young Lions competition (formerly known as the Young Creatives competition) is open to advertising professionals up to 28 years old. The participating teams, comprising an art director and copywriter, are selected through a pre-selection process in their own country, with the winners attending Cannes.
An art director and a copywriter have only 24 hours to create a print ad. The brief, provided by Amnesty International this year, is disclosed to all competitors. The Print teams then consider the brief overnight and work between 08:00 – 20:00 the following day to create their ad.
The Gold winning team come from the Netherlands: Karian Weijers and Thijs Biersteker from the Willem de Kooning Academy (see above).
Kate Andrews posted in february about the great social communication contest Good 50x70 2008. Last month the winners are announced. 210 posters have been selected by the Jury as the best of all this year’s entrants.
The winning posters are now exhibited at La Triennale gallery, Milan, from the 10th of June until the 22th of June. The posters will also be collected and published in a catalogue, along with comments from the jurors, that will be available to buy at the exhibition and online.
I choose two of my favourites from every category to post here on Osocio. You can see all 210 at the Good 50x70 2008 website.
It has been some time coming but it is here, a comprehensive exploration into what is ‘Social Design’. This great video comes from the team at the SocialDesignSite.com.
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.”
Great campaign from London where streetart and a interactive map are used to encourage Londoners to make more time for reading, and to celebrate London as an international centre for books. Stencil art is used on the streets of London to confrontate public with various book quotes and to people them aware of the dedicated website of the Booktrust: getlondonreading.co.uk.
The website contains a interactive map showing books set in the different neighborhoods.
The campaign was seen on the streets from Tuesday 25 March and ran throughout April. The campain also featured more than 20 library-based author events.
More pictures of the stencil art below and on Flickr.
Ad lovers knows the famous ”White on Red” campaign from The Economist, the identity campaign which is used fro several years.
Tonči Klarić, copywriter living in Croatia, made a spoof ad with the same “White on Red” theme, showing Red becomes Blood Oil.
Tonči Klarić: “The certain amount of arogance in their ads and the fact they are the leading magazine on subjects like economics and international politics made them a great theme for me to make a spoof reflecting economic politics in our world today.”
On the 26. of February 1992 18.305 legal inhabitants of Slovenia were erased from the Permanent Population Register of the Republic of Slovenia without being notified, without procedure, without any written order or legal ground.
In order to make a strong statement about this sad problem, the Slovenian design Studio Poper in collaboration with Amnesty International, The Peace Institute and The Municipality of Ljubljana started a public intervention in the streets of Ljubljana.
The Stories of the Erased are the message which can be seen all over the city on billboards, bus stops, shop windows, traffic lights and other various printed material.
It’s one of the saddest stories I ever heard of, but also a brilliant public intervention.
Posted by Marc | 15-05-2008 14:50 | Category:
Design
Yesterday a new Dutch project was launched from the non-profit agency NoBEL. The launch was done officialy by painting a cab with the project url www.nobelematch.nl. The project is called Nobelematch (Noble match), it’s aim is match causes, young creatives and bussinesses. They can find each other on the dedicated website.
Production agency Comrad made the hilrious video with Bob Ross (see above) and advertising agency Pool made the campaign ‘Kleur de wereld’ (Color the world). Young creatives are ask with this campaign to sign in for the project.
This visual is submitted by Bashar Alaeddin, a freelancer photographer and visual-fx artist from Jordan. Bashar got the idea after reading an article about how people are fighting in the name of Lebanon.
Copy: “Stop. Enough shooting fire in the name of Lebanon” (’Lebanon’ is the one that has the splatter on it).
More work from Bashar Alaeddin at his website and on his blog.
Posted by Marc | 9-05-2008 22:22 | Category:
Design
After two years of work the project called 60 Unite For Children was launched last October and was organised by APAG for Unicef. The goal is to create a cultural and artistic project and to make audience aware of child fate. It’s a book, a website and several exibitions with work from sixty artists and digital designers from all over the world. The totality of the profit concerning the book’s sell will be given to UNICEF.
In this post seven examples of work from the project.
The work above is from Nuno Baltazar (Vectorbrigade)
In October last year designer Nadia Plesner started a campaign called Simple Living to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to raise money for the helping organization Divest for Darfur. The thought was: Since doing nothing but wearing designerbags and small ugly dogs appearantly is enough to get you on a magazine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention.
That is why Nadia choose to mix the cruel reality with showbiz elements. The result was the poster above, also available on a t-shirt.
In February this year, Nadia received a letter from Louis Vuitton’s (French fashion designer) main office in Paris, asking firmly to end the campaign immediately, as they believe one of their products is being portrayed in the art piece:
“Although we applaud your efforts to raise awareness and funds to help Darfur, a most worthy cause, we cannot help noticing that the design of the Simple Living Products includes the reproduction of a bag infringing on Louis Vuitton’s Intellectual Property Rights, in particular the Louis Vuitton Monogram Multicolore Trademark to which it is confusingly similar. We are surprised of such a promotion of a counterfeit bag.”
“As an artist yourself, we hope that you regognize the need to respect other artists’ rights and Louis Vuitton’s Intellectual Property Rights which include the Louis Vuitton Monogram Multicolore trademark.”
This is part of the answer from Nadia Plesner:
“However, I must inform You, that the bag in my drawing is inspired by - and refers to - designers bags in general – not a Louis Vuitton bag.
If you take a closer look, you will also notice, that the pattern in my drawing is not the pattern which is used in the design of a Loius Vuitton bag.
The name Louis Vuitton is in no way mentioned or referred to, neither in my drawing, nor in the campaign as such.”
Talks between the laywers of Louis Vuitton and Nadia Plesner will take place at the end of May.
Update: Although I think Nadia is sincere, the design of the handbag looks very similar to a Louis Vuitton design. See this image.
I think the design of the poster is great. It shows the ridiculous gap between rich and poor, first world and third world. Is it smart from from Louis Vuitton to make such a hassle? Is there intellectual property harmed by this campaign? I don’t think so.
Or what one of the commenters asked at Nadia’s website forum: was Andy Warhol sued for his portrayal of the Campbell’s soup cans?
What is your opinion? Please let us know in the comments.
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.”
UK design critic Rick Poynor makes a socially conscious critique of Design Conferences (for Creative Review) this month. This is a very topical critique and a highly recommended read.
One of my best online friends, Socially Conscious Graphic Designer at ALR Design and Osocio blogger Noah Scalin is nominated for a Webby Award! Last year he started the project called Skull-A-Day. He is making a skull image every day for a year. He is at number 312 now.
Although it is one of his least political projects, he is very proud. And we are too.
Being nominated for a Webby is basically the web equivalent of getting an Oscar nomination! Skull-A-Day is one of only 5 sites in the Personal Web Site section and is not only eligible for a The Webby Award, but also the People’s Voice Award! And that’s where you come in, voting started yesterday (and runs through May 1st) so we I’m asking you to please help him out by going to the People’s Voice Site and placing a vote for Skull-A-Day (registration needed).
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.
In my search for protest artwork about the Beijing Olympics 2008 I asked Hayan Maani to participate. He came up with this simple and very effective proposal for a logo (see above, left: official logo). Let ‘Beijing 2008’ be ‘Freedom 2008’.
Feel free to use it to spread the word.
New work from Hayan Maani. He is working at an advertising agency in Amman, in his spare time he is doing interior design, jewelry design and he is tackling some political issues that faces the Arab world.
There are a lot of books about the Enlightenment, but none of them actually provide light. Studiomeiboom has combined this idea into a lamp which is in the form of a book. Not a heavy book, a light book. Not a book of absolute truths. It is, however, a book which sets you thinking but which does not tell you what to do. A book which will not only help you in dark days but other people as well.
The Messenger/Receiver House is a project by design students Chris Knox, Colm Keller and Bastian Bischoff, studying on the Master Programme in Design at HDK (The School of Design and Crafts at Göteborg University in Sweden). Conceived to collect and analyse public opinion about homelessness, the graphic and product design students created this eye-catching public exhibit. As MocoLoco reported, the future of the M/R House project looks to involve “smaller versions to be decorated by homeless people and well known creatives to be auctioned off to raise funds for organizations that deal with homelessness.”
“Diesel takes on global warming as only they can… making their latest campaign poignant yet subtle, stylish yet absurd.” NOTCOT explained last year. Focusing on people and places… and claiming that “GLOBAL WARMING CANT STOP OUR LIVES” ~ Diesel produced this series of ad images, about how you can still look good and embrace the heat!!?
In this cross media campaign the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) advertise its new Executive Masters of Design in Advertising (EMDes) program. Startup agency Huxley Quayle von Bismark from Toronto Canada shows four industry heavyweights being dissected to see what makes them tick.
Above it is Geoff Craig, vice-president and general manager, brand building at Unilever Canada lying on table.
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.
GOOD 50x70 is back for 2008! Good 50×70, the initiative that ‘promotes awareness amongst the creative community of the power they have to be a force for good,’ is back for its second year.
Entrants are asked to design posters (on as many briefs as they wish) and the best submissions will be selected by a jury of graphic design luminaries [listed below] and given to the supporting seven charities to use for global campaigns. For 2008, seven briefs fall under the themes of: Child Mortality, Global Warming, Human Rights Violation, Hunting, STDs, War Victims and Water Scarcity.
Posted by Marc | 17-02-2008 22:39 | Category:
Design
Advocacy organizations tend to collect a lot of information. They often package this information into detailed written reports. While these reports support policy recommendations and are valuable reference tools, they may not be the most effective way to make an impact within a campaign.
We live in an information-rich environment and in our daily lives constantly receive messages conveyed through design. Many of these messages seek to influence as well as inform, serving a variety of commercial and non-commercial interests. How do you make your message heard? Your campaign has vital information on an urgent issue.
How do you tell your story effectively?
How can NGOs make their messages as attractive and compelling as other, competing, information?
By using information design.
John Emerson, Principal at Apperceptive LLC, just released a great pamphlet about it which is free to download.
Norman Foster’s Masdar City is poised to become world’s most sustainable, zero-waste, car-free, carbon neutral city. This promotional video reminds me of a sci-fi blockbuster trailer.. and quite frankly, if this is the future of sustainable living, I am absolutely terrified!
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.
Is there a relationship between the conceptual thinking behind Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 urinal and contemporary design practice? Design writer and Design Observer contributer Nick Currie believe’s there is. In an AIGA feature of 1995, Currie presented some interesting thoughts on the evolution of Conceptual Art and its impact on designing for social impact. Currie’s feature, Conceptual Design: Building a Social Conscience begins by exploring if there has ever been “Conceptual Design?”’ and moves on to discuss how the conceptual arts of the early 1900s has led young designers to think more about social issues than consumer goods.
“There’s a generation of young designers who, almost a century after Duchamp, seem to share something of his spirit… Rather than products, these people are designing situations, intervening in existing arrangements, framing everyday activities in ways that make us think of them, unexpectedly, as “design.” And although they’re often satirical in tone, these designers share a concern with ethics and responsibility; one of the reasons the design they make is so often immaterial is their sense that the last thing the world needs is more objects, more consumer goods. The widening ripples of Duchamp’s gesture blend, in their work, with the repercussions of a gathering concern around issues like sustainability, community and responsibility: to be conceptual is, after all, to be thoughtful. ”
Magnificent posters from Studio8 Design, produced to raise awareness of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest for the US-based charity Rainforest Action Network (RAN).
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.
During November 2007, WWF and PokeLondon joined forces to create interest and noise around the climate change bill. Ultimately driving people to lobby their MP to push for a stronger bill. The result was an impressive paper and bamboo boat and plane, plastered in signatures, that grabbed the attention of the media, members of parliament and the public when they were installed on London’s South Bank.
Communication designers and its graduates, certainly have the creative ability to make significant change to social and public service, and yet I question why this is not sold to designers as a credible route to take post Graduation. Pitching the fact that only 23.2% of design graduates will find jobs in the creative industry itself, London based [public sector] design agency ThinkPublic, introduce The Real Work Experience.
The Real Work Experience aims to open design graduates’ eyes to the opportunities of using their skills beyond the usual design roles and the possibility of working in the public sector. Concurrently, the programme aims to educate public sector bodies on the skills and value designers can bring to their organisations. This is one of the most inspiring and much awaited initiatives I have seen for a long time. The situation so many design graduates find themselves in is frightening, and yet there are so many possible avenues to vehicle our talents toward. To see more photos of the first launch event held in London late 2007, see Flickr.
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.
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Finally this weekend the high mass of the advertising industry has begun. Everybody who takes themselves seriously when speaking about communication is in France right now at the 
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