OBEY HOPE

I was amazed to see this poster by Shepard Fairey back at the beginning of the year. My surprise and amazement came from both the style and message of the poster. Part of my shock came from the way this poster is both typical Fairey (direct, colourful and politically charged) but also how he’s drawing from the same aesthetics to present the optimism buried within. And really it’s his optimism that I’m most stuck by as I tend to focus on the sense of domination inherent to his work. But now I’m starting to review that as a sense of optimism, that for every OBEY poster that he’s working to motivate us all to participate and help shape something, but with an awareness of how power and dominance has shaped the past 100 years.

I was immediately struck by how the posture of Obama is remeniscent of one of my most loved and hated political images of the last century: Che Guevara. But at the same time Fairey’s poster indicates that the struggle for freedom that has occurred over the last hundred years is continuing. I’m struck as to how his poster is building a relationship between one era’s struggle with the present.

This past year I’ve been struck with how design is playing role in this US election and I’m going to try and follow it as best I can: as a removed observer looking through the images and ideas that are being presented officially and unofficially to get a sense of what forces are driving this most turbulent election.