Creative Reaction Lab
A Proper Gander at Propaganda
Redesigners for Justice Education + Civic Engagement Training for Black + Latin Youth
Invited to a national social justice initiative, I delivered award-winning work that challenged assumptions and raised real money for equity-focused youth programs.
Create a social justice poster that would both fund equity-focused youth programs and provide just enough cognitive dissonance to make people uncomfortable enough to think.
Challenge
Insight
“Safe" advocacy art doesn't start conversations. But subverting historical propaganda techniques? That creates the kind of cognitive dissonance that demands attention.
Solution
“Gerechtigkeit liegt im Auge der Entfremdeten" (Equity Is in the Eye of the Disenfranchised) — a provocative piece that:
Won Gold in Graphis Poster Design Annual 2020
Earned highest auction bid of the season
Continues supporting youth programs through print sales
Designing for Justice
The original piece — seen here in its full glory and awkwardly being delivered by this guy to CRL offices — earned top bid at 2020's pandemic-adapted auction. (It now lives in someone's private collection, presumably making guests question their assumptions.)
Prints continue supporting Creative Reaction Lab's mission to build a new kind of civic leadership — helping young people become what they call “Redesigners for Justice.
The Eyes Have It
The scale of each of the eyes represents the percentage of the global population with each eye color. The numerical percentages of each are listed around the border of the poster.
The Artist’s (Disconcertingly Pretentious) Statement
Gerechtigkeit liegt im fluge der Entfremdeten
(Equity Is in the Eye of the Disenfranchised), takes much of its inspiration from some for the most effective poster design in history —Nazi propaganda-and co-opts, reinterprets and subverts it to disconcert and challenge the viewer to engage with the piece despite whatever confusion or unease they might experience.
The real challenge was figuring out how to convey the disparate groups of marginalized communities seeking equity across the spectrum of venues from which they have been systemically excluded. After much research and exploration, the human eye presented itself as a concise and iconic way in which to represent all of humanity. Mitigating what are admittedly some challenging influences the creative itself is cartoonish, quirky, and playful. A squadron of giant eyes -sized according to the global breakdown percentages of the major categories of eye color. - takes flight to fight the good fight of...Gerechtigkeit für alle (Equity for All.)
The piece not only mimics the heroic composition of fascist and military propaganda but it literally speaks in the language of what was once called the Herrenrasse (master race) by Hitler's totalitarian regime. The use of German is not by any means meant pejoratively towards those of German descent.
Rather it's to take the viewer off guard and ask them to reassess their reaction to a language that is in and of itself as inculpable of wrong doing as any other language. It's used to challenge ideas about immigrants, and how language can be both formally and informally policed in the US (e.g. “Speak English, you're in America.") by American citizens (particularly when a non-European language is spoken by people of color.) It's used to suggest that multiculturalism is a worthy ideal regardless of the cultures involved. And, finally, it's worth noting that Americans of German descent make up the single largest ethnic group in the US yet only 2% of those speak German. Writing the piece in German as translated by Google is a way of questioning what heritage and ancesty is truly what “white America" takes pride in.
All of these conceptual and design decisions were employed in the hope that the piece does not simply provide a passive viewing experience but one that causes the viewer to explore, question, learn, and reflect on the visual and literal languages used.
Chris Aguirre
29. Januar 2019
Seriously, who even talks like that?
As presented and full text.
As a wheat paste wild posting
Detail
Message Multiplied
The piece resonated so deeply with Creative Reaction Lab founder Antionette Carroll that she immediately requested Spanish and English editions — seeing its potential to reach even broader audiences. The three versions now hang as a triptych in CRL's offices, challenging viewers across languages.