Design Cares

"Over the years I have tried to use images and ideas to cut through complacency and apathy while trying to raise consciousness about an array of social issues from discrimination and rights, to health and the environment.

Using design as a weapon through an alternative vision and intent has never been easy but therein lies the challenge that I call Creative Defiance." - Chaz Maviyane-Davies

Chaz Maviyane-Davies is a Zimbabwe national and Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the Massachusetts College of Art. I was fortunate to have met him during my days as a student. His work is largely concerned with affecting positive social change. Recently, Chaz was one of the curators (with Elizabeth Resnick and Frank Baseman) of the ongoing exhibition, The Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice & the Environment, 1965-2005, at MassArt.

The poster above, included in the exhibition, by the Art Worker's Coalition (Frazer Dougherty, Jon Hendriks and Irving Petlin) titled "Q. And Babies? A. And Babies" (USA, 1969-1970, 64x98 cm) was a reaction to the outrage felt around the world at the disclosure of the March 16, 1968 incident known as the "My Lai Massacre" when many Vietnamese civilians, mainly women and children, were killed by U.S. soldiers.

The Boston Globe writes in its review:

Most celebrated art of the relatively peaceful generation between the end of the Vietnam War and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been apolitical. And despite our current wars and calamities, there remains a deep aversion to political work in much of the art world -- as if mixing it with the gritty matters of life debases their creations. Of late, visual artists tend to politely segregate their politics to demonstrations rather instilling them in their art.

The art in ''The Graphic Imperative" doesn't share this aversion. The posters rally for literacy, the environment. They rage against atomic bombs, racism, child soldiers, gun trafficking, Nazism, war in Iraq, homelessness, land mines, hunger, substance abuse, rape, and AIDS. They are heartening works, making you feel less alone, less powerless -- assuming, of course, that you fall on the same side of these issues.

Design, or "Design for the Real World" as Victor Papanek would have it, transcends decisions about color or typeface selection, glossy or matte. Design is about life. Design must not hide from urgent issues affecting the world. Perhaps Coca-Cola is a natural target, so iconic that in itself encapsulates the essence the "American corporation". It's even cliche. But with some wit, there's still room to play.

Top image credit:
Chaz Maviyane-Davies. COCACOLONIZATION. Postcard on international branding.

For more information

Creative Defiance. The Graphic Design of Chaz Maviyane-Davies
Boston Globe. The Picture of Protest
Massachusetts College of Art. Graphic Design Department