Recently design and politics have collided more than ever before. These designs can include and are not limited to creating political campaign graphics, posters, satire (cartoons), social media news, and propaganda. We are bombarded by design everywhere we turn, so many of these avenues are subliminal and go unnoticed. However, when you start to think about the relationship between politics and design you can see the power that design is playing in our everyday lives.
It is fascinating to me that graphic design in politics are used just like branding and advertising when you go to a store. Designed images can impact how you think, which can influence what product you choose in your day to day life. Let’s say you go to a store and can’t decide what beer you want from type A to type B. Besides price, one thing that might influence your final decision is the colors, graphics, or “vibes” that are used on the can. You might not notice this when making your decision, but deep down this is impacting you in a handful of ways. The same can go for design in the political scene. Graphic design can always be used to make things look good, but there is also a deeper layer to this. It is actually done to influence you one way or another.
With that in mind, political design can be another way to recruit voters to a specific stance on an issue. This can be done by creating a scorning cartoon focused on critiquing a political figure or creating posters that are meant to inspire activism on specific subjects. These objects wave a flag that might go unnoticed, but can also allow the viewer to dig more into the subject being highlighted. Impact and power like this can have great benefits to society, but can also be used for insidious reasons. It is our job as graphic designers to focus on uplifting and progressing society versus allowing it to deteriorate.
Reasons above is why when I think about the intersection between design and politics I am afraid of the power that it has over people. After viewing graphics It is easy to fall into a trap if you don’t understand the strength they have. This can be seen when looking back at the 2016 election of president Trump. I think this was one of the most influential periods to look at when thinking about political graphics and the impacts they have. Social media was targeted and hit hard, which swayed many voters by the graphics and messages that were produced. Specific messages or images can produce a sense of false trust by painting candidates in a certain light, when that might not be true to reality at all. I think we all need to pay strict attention to these things as we move forward, because politics has more of an impact over our daily lives than most of the systems that are in place. I think in some way it would be good to get a message out to the public about the power of graphics in our daily lives. This would be jarring to advertising and political marketing, but would be beneficial to society so that people don’t fall prey to tactics that have been used for generations. I am afraid to see where things go from here, but I am also hopeful that some of these tactics might be used for good and the benefit of the world.
