Last night I attended the launch party of MODA's (Museum of Design Atlanta) new exhibition, The Graphic Imperative. It is an exhibit displaying 144 graphic designed posters that have been created by AMAZING designers that ultimately address social issues in the world and make it aware, even though it is a harsh reality. These are just your typical printed posters, but the message they carry gives them the meaning of what they symbolize. Some of these posters have created movements for humans, stopped wars, and basically create this lifestyle change in mankind. Issues such as children being abducted for military use, racial discrimination between whites and blacks, the killing of innocent civilians during military actions, and many other issues that most of the time, people are unaware of the occurrence. So yes, I know certain people who will read this and think, "Oh Eric is turning into another hippie type trying to push peace on Earth." And as that may be true, understanding the big picture of what I do makes it more meaningful.
As a designer I have this opportunity to take my opinion on any issue, and portray it for the world to see, in hopes that others will see eye to eye with me. It is the ultimate freedom of speech. As heart wrenching some of the visual images were on these posters, I feel that it is necessary that we as humans know what takes place in this world that we call home. For a long time I thought to myself, what would have happened if I became a doctor or someone that basically can help mankind in some way. Well, over the past couple quarters of being immersed in design, I am finding I have an opportunity to create movements and change the world. So as many of you may think all I do is play on my Mac and make pictures look pretty, I hope this will change your opinion a bit of why my heart is in design, and what makes my passion throb more and more for this industry everyday. Although it may not always be the most lucrative job in the world, I can guarantee you I will love it more than most people can even say they like their jobs. And that, my friends, you can't put a price tag on. Here is a poster I did last quarter for the issue of children being abducted in Northern Uganda for military use. Though I was only a second quarter, I enjoyed this project and putting my point of view out there, making awareness, and look forward to doing more of these in the future.
Now there is a project coming up for Winterhouse. It is a writing competition in which we have the opportunity to discuss any part of design and our thoughts on it. If chosen, we win $1000, but more importantly, we can have this awesome award to go on our resume and know that we made an impact through our writing. I'll be doing this through Microsoft Word, just so you know. Not Photoshop. I plan to write on the subject of Conservatively Designing in a Liberal World. I feel that many of the things I value are usually addressed from the opposite side of the room, and I plan to bring up a discussion on how the foundations of design has found its way to this side, and why I feel it is important for issues to be viewed from different angles. The main defining truth to creating a point of view. I am pretty excited about it.
