Design + Social Justice: Workshop

The brief: Make someone else care about an issue that’s important to you.

The poster. Possibly the purest form of visual communication. In a flash you must arrest the attention of a passerby and alter his or her perception. Change it. Reinforce it. Make it see something differently. Surprise, delight, inspire, motivate. Part of my involvement in UNL’s Design + Social Justice Symposium is to lead a poster making workshop for Advanced Graphic Design students. Working with Stacy Asher, Assistant Professor of Art, we’ll invite the students to use graphic design as a tool for social change. The workshop will take place next week with final designs displayed in Richards Hall during the week of the symposium. 

Prep: The Design of Dissent + How Posters Work

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Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

We’re getting ready for our 2nd session this afternoon with the community leaders of Schuyler. In our first session, Katie and I got the lay of the land. Through a SWOT analysis we established a solid foundation and got everything out on the table as we begin to work together toward a Schuyler Media Network. We met some great people who hold a variety of positions with the city, the school system, the community college, the bank, and the cable television distributor. Overall, we learned a lot about what makes this small, rural community great and what challenges it faces. Of all the post-its, the strengths were by far the most numerous, with population diversity seen as a great asset to be embraced.

From SWOT, we’re now moving into visioning. Katie and I will be facilitating this next session in hopes of establishing a clear vision statement as well as the long-term goals for the project. We’re in the thick of the strategic plan development now, where the real work begins, and I’m excited to see what the group comes up with. I’m also extremely excited about burritos with her folks afterward. Because seriously, best burritos in the state. 

Do Not Like This

At BarCamp 2015 on August 29th at The KANEKO I gave a 20-minute talk about the importance of knowing what you don’t like. A practical (and somewhat cathartic) guide to productivity (and maybe joy). When you have good reasons and know precisely why you don’t like something, it not only helps you focus priorities and manage your time better, but it helps you to know what you really love. Love being more profound and powerful than what you like. Very much a talk about not being neutral and not just passively liking everything you come into contact with. For the people out there who find beauty everywhere and something special in everything. When done well, it is okay to be vocal about what you don’t like, even if you’re only being vocal with yourself. 

Special comment: This was not a talk for moody hipsters who think everything sucks, nothing is ever good enough, and shit on anything anyone creates because it’s what they do. I have no patience for that view of the world anymore. 

So, BarCamp was hella fun

This was my first BarCamp. Not exactly sure why, but it just hasn’t been on my radar in years past. For #BCO15, Jake Welchert and myself had a special role to play. We were asked by AIGA Nebraska to be this year’s new design partner. It’s a role Grain & Mortar has typically filled, making some truly amazing brands over the last few years. But as with any good idea that evolves over time, new partners are eventually needed.

We executed the work as Round and Round with Jake taking lead on the project. From the initial brand to the BarCamp 2015 website, all the way through to posters, stickers, buttons, and Ts, I’m really stoked on how everything turned out. For my part, I committed to doing a talk. It ended up being about the importance of knowing what you don’t like. In the spirit of the event, I tried to make it insightful, fun, and a little weird, all at the same time. 

Taking place at The KANEKO, starting promptly at 8AM and moving at a brisk pace, remaining on schedule from morning to afternoon, by 4PM, feeling quite spent but oh so inspired, I thought to myself, what an impressive showing of community. It’s a wonderful thing seeing such a committed group of volunteers, supported by some amazing sponsors, and a large room full of energized unconference-goers. All the friendly faces are a nice bonus as well. Nicely, nicely done Omaha.

Friendships

Lost in the turbulent sea that is this crazy life, I'm counting myself insanely lucky to be surrounded by the bonds of such strong friendships. Cosmic level friendships. Some decades old, others just beginning. From just down the street to the edges of beautiful America. Bonds formed by the roots of place and the desire to make something new and exciting. By comedy, tragedy, and a forever swirling contemplation to try to make sense of all of this everything. How do we live, who do we love, what do we make, and why do we do any of it. Whatever it is, I think we've settled into a rhythm of quiet little voices followed by loud thunderous shouts from rooftops. Trial and error, trial and create. Then we get together for the raising of a glass. To our lives, to our hopes, to the what next, to who we live for. Cheers!

Off to Schuyler

How do we inform the public about our community happenings and promote Schulyer as a great place to live, work, and raise families?

This afternoon I’m heading up to Schuyler, Nebraska with my wife Katie for a situation assessment to begin to answer that question. We’re kicking off a multi-session visioning facilitation for a group of community leaders brought together by a very rambunctious economic development coordinator who also happens to be my wife’s father. I’m really excited because A) I’m teaming up with Katie and B) as a former smalltown lad, I really want to find the answer.

The goal is to create a strategic plan for a media network for the community. I’m not sure how we’ll get there, but I’m looking forward to listening, learning, and seeing what we can all come up with together. I’ll post updates here over the next few weeks. Successes, failures, and the funniest post-its.

Design + Social Justice: Exhibition

The graphic design program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Department of Art and Art History is hosting a Design + Social Justice Symposium to be held September 15–16, 2015. It will examine the role of graphic design as a tool for organizing and communicating for social change. The featured guest speaker and visiting artist will be Emory Douglas, former Minster of Culture and graphic artist of the Black Panther Party. His powerful work will be exhibited at the Sheldon Museum of Art from September through early January. 

Exhibitions will also take place in Love Library from August 16th through October 30th. Black Panther Party historian and archivist Billy X Jennings will present an exhibition of radical underground newspapers from the 1960s and 70s. Suzun Lucia Lamaina will exhibit a collection of contemporary portraits and stories of former members of the Black Panther Party. My work will also be on display. Entitled Cause Poster, it’s a collection of graphic design activism for a variety of exhibitions, organizations, and causes. It’s the first time all of this work from 2005 to now has been together in one place. I’m very honored to be part of such an important event at the University. More information can be found on UNL’s site and Facebook page. Further details will also be posted here.

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