Friday, February 24, 2006
Make Your Group a Natural Focal Point of Attention
Keep free speech alive, powerful, and peaceful. If people in your community, association, school club, or other group have strong feelings about an issue, help channel their emotions into attention-getting art. That's what the Savannah College of Art did.
As you read this story, consider how your organization could help funnel strong emotions away from violence and into highly visible art with a hard-to-ignore message.
Five graduate students and their professor used simple imagery
to create posters promoting nonviolence during a Group of 8 summit meeting last June in Sea Island, Georgia, according to Motoko Rich in a *New York Times* story at the time.
Wrote Rich: "The project materialized when Scott Boylston, a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, rang up the local police to ask if they had any ideas for a class project on social communication."
Scott, also author of *Creative Solutions for Unusual Projects*, thought they'd suggest something like street crime or theft.
Instead, the department's public affairs officer, Bucky Burnseed, "suggested that the students design posters addressing the issue of free speech" and that might help protect Savannah's historic buildings from harm. Local officials expected some 70,000 protestors to show up during the summit.
The professor and his students began by choosing a limited range of graphic elements. The colors were restricted to blue, orange, and off-white, "to keep their message direct."
They all chose to use the typeface called Futura because it "has been used by both government and their antagonists." Images were confined to just one of three symbols: a brick, a hand, or an egg.
One poster featured a photo of a cracked egg, held between a finger and a thumb and the slogan "Hold It Together." Its designer, Donna Smith, says the fragility of the egg and yet its function to protect the life inside represents the idea that "free speech protects us and is what makes us Americans."
Another poster, by Aaron Shurts, showed "a precariously balanced stack of bricks; one brick sticks out and is highlighted with
scribbled orange lines. Arrows pointing to and from the brick are captioned 'Push or Pull?'"
Aaron says he found inspiration from the game Jenga, in which players try to pull blocks from a stacked tower without causing it to topple.
Both the professor and his students said they tried to avoid conveying any personal opinions via the project.
1,000 copies of the six posters were displayed on campus, in shop windows, and in city buildings in Savannah.
The cost of printing and distribution was shared by the college and the city of Savannah.
What a clever and satisfying SmartPartnership!
As you read this story, consider how your organization could help funnel strong emotions away from violence and into highly visible art with a hard-to-ignore message.
Five graduate students and their professor used simple imagery
to create posters promoting nonviolence during a Group of 8 summit meeting last June in Sea Island, Georgia, according to Motoko Rich in a *New York Times* story at the time.
Wrote Rich: "The project materialized when Scott Boylston, a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design
Scott, also author of *Creative Solutions for Unusual Projects*, thought they'd suggest something like street crime or theft.
Instead, the department's public affairs officer, Bucky Burnseed, "suggested that the students design posters addressing the issue of free speech" and that might help protect Savannah's historic buildings from harm. Local officials expected some 70,000 protestors to show up during the summit
The professor and his students began by choosing a limited range of graphic elements. The colors were restricted to blue, orange, and off-white, "to keep their message direct."
They all chose to use the typeface called Futura because it "has been used by both government and their antagonists." Images were confined to just one of three symbols: a brick, a hand, or an egg.
One poster featured a photo of a cracked egg, held between a finger and a thumb and the slogan "Hold It Together." Its designer, Donna Smith, says the fragility of the egg and yet its function to protect the life inside represents the idea that "free speech protects us and is what makes us Americans."
Another poster, by Aaron Shurts, showed "a precariously balanced stack of bricks; one brick sticks out and is highlighted with
scribbled orange lines. Arrows pointing to and from the brick are captioned 'Push or Pull?'"
Aaron says he found inspiration from the game Jenga
Both the professor and his students said they tried to avoid conveying any personal opinions via the project.
1,000 copies of the six posters were displayed on campus, in shop windows, and in city buildings in Savannah.
The cost of printing and distribution was shared by the college and the city of Savannah.
What a clever and satisfying SmartPartnership!
