Personally, I’m not into politics. I have not been into politics for my entire life. I haven’t been keeping up with political news at all, and do not understand how our country’s system works. Because of this, the relationship that graphic design has with politics is less interesting to me. I am more interested in Modernism, Art Deco, Bauhaus, and other design movements that are focused on “art for art’s sake”.
My thoughts on political design are not negative however. My classes on the contemporary issues of design and graphic design history have taught me about the impact of design on important political decisions. Examples of this are the World War I and II posters, El Lissitzky’s Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, the Constructivism movement, and many more. I admire many of the works that came out of the war with much respect. I can only imagine how much of an emotional impact the war has brought on artist’s during that time. It is clear that their art and designs were influenced by this.
In addition, a lot of the great Dutch and Swiss designers were working hard during the war periods. This is amazing to me. Hendrik Werkmann and Willem Sandberg were heroes to the design community. Werkmann was able to have a secret print house that made anti-Nazi propaganda, as well as beautiful Jewish stories. Sandberg saved hundreds of art collections in a secret bunker and created fake documents for Jews to escape from the Nazis. These artists are only a couple of the many whom have incredible political designs. Their stories allow me to appreciate the relationship between politics and design in a new light. I also was intrigued by Sandberg’s creative take on typography. He incorporated Dutch Modernism with typography that was made out of torn paper and ink.
With the knowledge of the history between politics and design in mind, I have a greater appreciation. I have seen posters of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and take into account the overall messages that needs to be made. Political posters are a big deal. Their impact has no ceiling, especially in this era of social media. Any sort of media can be reposted and spread across numerous platforms. It is important that a design has a positive and correct political message. Overall, I believe that graphic designer’s ability to create designs that have so much political power is amazing… and those that do so deserved a great amount of respect.
