A series of posters promoting three exhibitions at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
The subject for this series was titled Stand Up: 3 Social Movements- Mothers of DePlazo, Chikbok's Bring Back our Girls, and Black Lives Matter.
Research
I began the design process by researching each movement, to learn about each and find similarities and differences between the three.
Mothers of Deplazo
From 1976 - 1983 Argentina was ruled by a military junta. During this time many people who spoke out against the government went missing, usually taken to prison or killed. The Mothers of Deplazo began with a group of 14 mothers protesting outside of the presidential palace. They focused on their roles as mothers, putting family at the front of their issues. Through acts of protest and civil disobedience, the movement grew stronger and stayed a visible part of the resistance and encouraged people to speak out about human rights violations.
Chikbok's Bring Back Our Girls
On April 14, 2014, 276 school girls were taken from their dorms by terrorist group Boko Haram. The incident was brought to international attention by the #bringbackourgirls, the tag grew largely in popularity when Michelle Obama tweeted about it. Within weeks over 2 million people on twitter had used the tag and spoke on the issue. The popularity of the issue on social media brought awareness to events in a mostly unknown city as well as many issues of Nigeria as a country.
Black Lives Matter
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was started by three women in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed 17 year old Trayvon Martin. Since 2013 BLM has grown into one of the largest movements in United States history, bringing awareness to issues facing African American people and supporting protests across the country.
Experimental Typography Exercise
Modular Typography Exercise
Theme One: Grieving Communities
Each movement began in response to the loss of life or people being abruptly taken, there was great personal loss experienced by the friends, family, and communities of the victims. Each important social movement was lead by communities dealing with confusion, sorrow, and heartbreak.
The idea behind the initial sketch was to show how by having their children unjustly taken from them, the Mothers of Deplazo were loosing their title and role of mother. In my first digital iteration of this, I quickly realized how it was lacking a structured composition. I tried out different composition ideas with similar blurry text, and then applied the most successful system to the other groups.
Final 'Grieving Communities' Posters
Theme Two: Disrupting Oppression
These social movements all took bold stances against violent and oppressive forms of power, they had large and difficult goals to attain. Their disruptive actions brought attention to their causes, forcing people to notice them, to listen to them, and meet their demands.
Exploration on Using Line and Type to Show Disruption
Applying similar line pattern and Color to each Movement
Addition of quotes and similar color palette
To further show the theme of disruption, I incorporated relevant image to each poster
Pirámide de Mayo. 2012. Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pir%C3%A1mide_de_Mayo_-_Plaza_de_Mayo.jpg. Accessed 21 April 2021.
Close-up of women's hands holding smartphone. istockphoto, https://www.istockphoto.com/tr/foto%C4%9Fraf/smartphone-tutan-kad%C4%B1nlar%C4%B1n-elleri-yak%C4%B1n-%C3%A7ekim-onu-izlerken-sms-mesaj-e-posta-cep-gm973136978-264824623. Accessed 21 April 2021.
Gush, Matt. Aerial view looking straight down on to Los Angeles' city streets. Shutterstock, https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-looking-straight-down-on-1495413731. Accessed 21 April 2021.
Final 'Disrupting Oppression' Posters
