Pennies in Protest: Turning Hate Into Change

The hate group Westboro Baptist Church (Wikipedia article on WBC) is visiting my hometown of Richmond, Virginia and some clever locals (including my good friend Sara) have decided to use the group's negative energy to make something positive happen. They developed Pennies in Protest as a non-violent peaceful anti-protest. Rather than just go down to the locations where they will be protesting and shouting back at them (as amusing as that can be), they're encouraging folks to donate for each minute the Westboro bigots will be in town to the causes that they are against!
Pennies in Protest has already collected over $4,000 and the donations will be split evenly between The Virginia Holocaust Museum, The Weinstein Jewish Community Center, the Jerusalem Connection, and the Hermitage High School Gay-Straight Student Alliance (GSA). The anti-protest was inspired by a synagogue that was targeted by the group in New York City that raised $10,000 in 50 minutes!

You can add your own pennies to the cause by visiting the Pennies in Protest website HERE.
You can also join them on Facebook HERE.

Image made with Absurd Sign Generator.

Ampersands for Haiti

I'm pleased to announce that Font Aid IV: Coming Together, a collaborative typeface to benefit the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti, has just been released by The Society of Typographic Aficionados. It features ampersands from nearly 400 international designers, myself included (see ampersand below). The font is already for sale at Veer & Ascender Fonts, and will also be available at MyFonts and FontShop later in the week. All proceeds from the sale of the ’ÄúComing Together’Äù font will go to Doctors Without Borders, to help with their relief efforts in Haiti. More details and a full list of contributors can be found HERE.

REPRESSED V: FREE TO SPEAK - Call for Entries

From our friends at Gallery 5 in Richmond, Virginia comes this call for activist art...

REPRESSED V: FREE TO SPEAK May 2010

Josˆ© Marˆ‚a Heredia - poet: inspired the Cuban people to stand up and fight against Spain.

Seymor Chwast-designer - illustrator: his anti-war poster "End Bad Breath" indirectly encouraged the anti-war movement of the 70's.

John Lenin and Yoko Ono - famous musicians/artists: created the powerful anti-war campaign stating "THE WAR IS OVER...if you want it to be."

What makes statement driven art so emotionally powerful? It being witness to a piece of work that creates a bond between you, the viewer and the creator of the piece. A bond that can change the direction of thought and purpose.

A successfully executed statement driven piece can be the catalyst that inspires the average person into an active agent for change. Art exists in societies to create shared dialogues and experiences. No matter the medium, art and artists can be the spark to establishing a commonality, to allow us to empathize with each other and encourage altruistic pursuits for the greater good.

Dedicated to social awareness, Gallery5 invites visual and performing artists to submit their statement focused work to Repressed V: Free to Speak.

Deadline is March 6th.

More info and an application can be downloaded HERE (PDF).

Millionaire Squatters

For much of the 90's I was an active member of an amazing squatted art/music/activist space in New York City's Lower East Side called ABC NO RIO (I even designed the logo that's still in use!). During the time I was there, the building (which has been in continuous use since 1980) was threatened with closure, but thanks to the efforts of dedicated volunteers the building was officially given to the collective that ran it and the process was started to raise the funds to rehabilitate the dilapidated structure. Money trickled in over the years, but it was never enough for the growing costs (phase one is now budgeted at 2.4 Million) and it seemed like a full rehabilitation would only happen in the distant future. Fast forward to earlier this year when ABC was awarded 1.6 Million in city funding, leaving a much more manageable budget gap to be filled. Not bad, but then this past November Steven Englander, the space's executive director,  received an anonymous donation of an additional 1 Million dollars! Needless to say phase one plans are now full steam ahead and the space will live on for generations to come.

Thanks to The Groundswell Blog for sharing this news!

Posters4Tomorrow Exhibitions - December 10th Worldwide

Poster4Tomorrow, an international poster competition to promote freedom of expression, will have 23 worldwide exhibitions opening on December 10th. On display will be 100 posters selected by 9 jurors (including Marjane Satrapi, the author and filmmaker of Persepolis) from 1,834 submissions received from 67 countries. The entire 100 will be revealed online and in the galleries on the 10th, but here's a sneak preview of some of a few of the winners:




Exhibition location and dates:

Ankara, Turkey, Bilkent Universit, December 10-18
Beirut, Lebanon, Lebanese American University, December 10-17
Belgrade, Serbia, REX, Cultural Lab, December 10-14
Brussels, Belgium, Libre Acadˆ©mie de Belgique, December 10-13
Buenos Aires, Argentina, University of Buenos Aires, December 10-20
Cheonan, South Korea, SangMyung University, December 10-13
Derry, United Kingdom, University of Ulster, December 10-January 8, 2010
Gdansk, Poland, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, December 10-13
Heidelberg, Germany, Theaterplatz, Heidelberg, December 10-18
La Paz, Bolivia, Museo Nacional de Arte, December 10-January 8, 2010
Lima, Peru, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, December 10-15
Lisbon, Portugal, Lx Factory, December 10-14
Los Angeles, United States, Seyhoon Gallery, December 10-17
Marrakesh, Morocco, Ecole Supˆ©rieure des Arts Visuels, December 10-25
Milan, Italy, La Triennale di Milano, December 10-20
Montreal, Canada, ˆâcole de Design, UQAM, December 10-14
Paris, France, Les Arts Dˆ©coratifs, December 10-13
Quito, Ecuador, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, December 10-January 10, 2010
Sevilla, Spain, Facultad de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, December 10-17
Stockholm, Sweden, Designens Hus, December 10-13
Strasbourg, France, Agora Building, Council of Europe, December 10- March 10, 2010
Tbilisi, Georgia, French Embassy Cultural Center, December 10-20

The project has been endorsed by Reporters Sans Frontiˆ©res and the Italian chapter of Amnesty International and granted the endorsments of two interrnational organizations, the Council of Europe and the French Commission for UNESCO. More info about the entire project can be found HERE.

credits:
Paris exhibition poster: Illustration by Marjane Satrapi, Graphic design by Hervˆ© Matine
Milan exhibition poster: Photo by Sergio Tornaghi - Studio Smog, Graphic design by Pasquale Volpe
THE PRESSident: Pamela Campagna, Thomas Scheiderbauer - Triggiano, Italy
Censure: Rˆ©mi Gombert - Perenchies, France
Because this mouth is mine: Frank Arbelo - La Paz, Bolivia
Hello: Babak Madandar - Tehran, Iran
Freedom of expression : Mingliang Li - Guangzhou, China

Tools For Actions

Plant The Piece, a guerrilla gardening art project I created with fellow artist Christopher Humes in which we made guns out of dirt and plant seeds, is included as #54 of the Candadian Centre for Architecture's list of 99 Tools For Actions, which is part of their traveling exhibition "Actions: What Can You Do With The City". Check out all the Actions HERE.

Crisis Folklore - Groundswell Call for Submissions

Groundswell Collective is creating a brand new print publication and they're looking for essays for the first issue on "crisis folklore":

How we imagine future stories that describe our current time period can give us an alternative glimpse of the cultures we are shaping in the here-and-now. To get outside of the modes of analysis we typically offer, we look for the future storytellers, asking what are the tales of resistance in the post-crash era? Crisis being a daily reality, where do we locate our collective daydreams? Can we accurately envision these future stories for ourselves and for others?

Texts can be expository, analytical, or speculative. We are limited in space, but not in scope, and so we’Äôre seeking (but not limited to) such subjects as:

• Counter-cultural or resistant reworkings of contemporary problems
• Shifts in the language of dissent, movement, and movements
• Sociological mis/understandings of shifts in folklore in response to crisis
• Possibilities for subversion, especially via art
• Imagined criticisms, counter-hegemonic creation myths, forecasted histories, pre-emptive sense-making, etc.

In addition to expanded reviews of events and work covered on the blog the magazine will feature critical essays and artist/activist interviews. We are seeking contributing partners/writers.

More details can be found HERE.

Blog Action Day is October 15th

If you're a blogger, why not spend October 15th talking about Climate Change for Blog Action Day...

Milking Cancer

Milking Cancer is a new rBGH awareness campaign from Breast Cancer Action that targets pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly...

Milking Cancer from Breast Cancer Action on Vimeo.

Who's looking out for the Insurance Companies?

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Yesterday was The International Day of Peace

Somehow I missed that this was happening yesterday, but at least you can see what it was all about in the 24 Hour Peace Day Broadcast that's still available and you have plenty of time to prepare for next year!...



Find out more about the International Day of Peace HERE.

Power To The Poster...on your wall

The folks at the Power To The Poster project are now offering high quality prints of 30 of the issue driven posters they've collected. I was proud to help with the selection process along with a long list of fellow socially conscious design folks. Each 15" x 24" poster sells for just $20, with $10 going to the artist and $10 to the printer and they just ask that you donate an additional $10 to a charity of your choice (there are larger posters available for a similar deal as well). The 30 selected posters can be purchased HERE. And of course all of the original posters can still be downloaded as hi-res PDFs from their site HERE.

The Yes Men need your help!

It may be economically tough times but The Yes Men are hiring!

Flavorwire reports that these ever-pranking, culture-jamming, do-gooders have put out an open call for help on a new project. Perhaps they are gearing up for the US theatrical release of their new movie The Yes Men Fix The World.



Here's the scoop:

Help the Yes Men! The Yes Men need your help! If you live in New York, legendary cultural jammers the Yes Men and friends need you now to pull off some large-scale shenanigans in September. It’Äôll be fun and stupid, and it’Äôll create a splash in the media. Your work COULD get seen by millions! To volunteer, please contact larken@artevolve.org. Here’Äôs what they need: * People who can sew or build things. * People who know how to shoot and edit video and have their own equipment. * People who enjoy wearing deeply ridiculous costumes in potentially perilous situations. The work will go on for four weeks starting now. You can volunteer for any length of time that you like. The location will be: 342 Maujer, Bushwick (L train to Grand Street) www.houseofyes.org

all I can say to this is... um...YES!

post script: I noticed that all of my friends fall neatly into the 3 categories listed in this - coincidence? I think not.

Linkage: From Social Trading Cards to Social Stock Exchanges

I'm heading to Austin for a week, so hopefully this'll tide you over while I'm away...


The social reality trading card alternative to Pokemon.

Investing in a Social Stock Exchange.

Taxicab curator. Thanks Carlos!

Fallen Princesses (image shown) via

A classic anti-billboard screed from 1960. via

Eco-friendly alternative to motivational office posters (image shown). Thanks Marc!

Duchamp Reloaded (image shown) via

Clever Condoms

The ocean of plastic is on the East Coast as well.

Mini-Golf meets Art in Brooklyn. Thanks Mica!

Bacardi using misogyny to sell alcohol...to women?! via

And for those of you following the story from last week...
busted Barrel Monster artist gets a commision...from the company he stole from. Thanks Carlos!

Save The Date: 24 October - An International Day of Climate Action

350 introduces a day of international climate action: 24 October...

Polar Bears, Who Cares

I can't tell if Dan Power's Energy Wasting Site is an anachronism against the squandering of finite resources or just having a last hoorah born out of a fractured mind as he waits for his heart to give out, but either way he has dubbed April 1, 2009 "Energy Wasting Day" and he's shining a spotlight on the issue regardless. Actually, he's trying to get a number one single, but I think he's making type two diabetes his number one priority. He's bringing sexy back to the Let's Waste Energy scene and I withhold judgement until further notice.

Learning Life Skills from Baseball

My friend Chris Mercer has started the fantastic Life Skills Baseball program for urban kids here in Richmond, Virginia...

Coen Brothers on Clean Coal

Another in the Reality series of "clean" coal commercials, this time by the Academy Award winning Coen Brothers...



via

Change the Web, Win some Money

The Change the Web Challenge wants your web apps for a better world (and they've got $10,000 in prize money as an incentive):

Social Actions' Change the Web Challenge is about building innovative tools to help people find and share opportunities to take action on the websites, blogs, and social networks that we all visit everyday.

Social Actions (a N2Y3 winner) has created an open database of 60,000+ actions from 40+ sites -- including GlobalGiving, Change.org, DonorsChoose.org, Kiva.org, NABUUR, TakingITGlobal, Idealist.org, and VolunteerMatch. Now we want to get these actions out there -- onto the websites, blogs, and social networks that millions of people visit everyday. Next time inspiration strikes you to make a difference, the opportunities to take action will be but one click away.

Social Actions is facilitating this challenge to encourage innovations for distributing opportunities to make a difference across the Internet and mobile devices. Through a NetSquared Community vote, 20 finalists will be chosen. A panel of judges selected by Social Actions will choose 3 winners from among the 20 finalists, to be announced at NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference, April 28th 2009. Winners will receive cash awards of $5,000 (first place), $3,000 (second place), and $2,000 (third place).

You have until April 3rd to enter, so don't delay. Get the full details HERE.

Linkage: Organic Hamsters and Heartwarming Graffiti

Heartwarming graffiti that no one will complain about. via

Do you trust a bank whose logo looks like underpants? Thanks Sherry & John!

Ant-consumerist Rev. Billy is running for Mayor of New York. via

Nature's Revenge graffiti (image shown) via

"Available Online For Free" the sticker (image shown) via

Biodegradable bag lasts just 60 days via

How green is your toilet paper? via

Hamsters prefer organic food, or at least this one does. via

Capucine Saves The World

What do you do when your adorable French child becomes an internet video sensation? Use your new found power to help a good cause AND make another cute video!...




Thanks Mica!

Making the Homeless Fresh

The members of the public arts collective There Once Was A Rebellion (T.O.W.A.R.), based here in Richmond, VA, recently created a project to fashionably clothe the homeless during the coldest part of the year. They have taken cast-off sweatshirts and screen printed them with new images and the text "I was lost, but now I'm fresh". They then placed them on homemade hangers and left them on the streets of Richmond to be taken. They admonish however, "Although we know it will be tempting, because these sweatshirts will look so fresh on your backs, please if you come across them, try to leave them for the homeless and those who are in more need of them than you probably are." Find out more about T.O.W.A.R. and their upcoming projects HERE.

Power To The Poster - First 100 Days

Power To The Poster, the poster sharing website, has been recently revamped for the first 100 days of the Obama presidency. They're shifting to positive messages and color posters, but all are still available as free 11x17 PDF downloads. Check em out and find out more HERE.

Previously: Rally In Peace

Linkage: Bad Water, Living Signs, etc.

VitaminWater sued for fraudulent health claims by Center for Science in the Public Interest. via

Signs come to life in the Pedestrian Project (image shown) via

Post Obama Shepard Fairy uses xConstructivism to sell for Saks (image shown)

Guantanamo's dark cloud as manifest by artist Julia Mandle via

Reallife: the latest social networking fad! via

Call for submissions: Essays from Jewish and Arab-Americans on peace in the Middle East. Thanks Mim!

DesegreGAYtion

These striking images come from the DesegreGAYtion Initiative which "aims to point out the absurd discrimination that presently exists against Gay and Lesbian couples". The artist behind the project wants people to print out "Gays" and "Straights" stickers and place them in public places to elicit a conversation about the state of equal rights in the US. More pictures and info, as well as the sticker template, on their MySpace page HERE.

Linkage

Well this week flew by thanks to MLK and Obama and so there were plenty of links I didn't get around to writing about once again...

DIY laser bike lane via

Urban Repaid Squad makes their own bike lanes (shown)

Affordable recycled paper houses thanks Carlos & Mark!

Women run co-operative housecleaning service in Brooklyn

Replace ads with art via Firefox plugin

LeVar Burton explores the Science of Peace thanks Mica!

Osocio says goodbye to W campaigns

Don't feed the lions: the street art of Posterchild (shown) via

Israeli Apartheid?

Kevin Yuen-Kit Lo at LOKi design shared a recent poster he designed for Tadamon!'s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. The current situation in Gaza is undeniably tragic, but like most of what happens in Israel/Palestine the response by progressives in the US is a mixed bag. The typical left/right dividing lines seem to shift when it comes to that region and I find it hard to talk with people about it since emotions run so high. I'm interested to know where readers of this blog fall. Feel free to comment below, though please be respectful of others here, I'm not looking for diatraibes and will delete personal attacks.

If you are interested you can download a PDF of Kevin's poster HERE.

Speak of Peace

I was sent these images from Milan, Italy, with the following note:

More than 3000 comic balloons saying "Peace" were placed on top of the city's posters: now from the mouth of every single testimonial comes one single message. The promotions don't scream "cheap" or "new" anymore - "peace" became the key word this Christmas.

Pace, paz, paix, frieden, as-salaam, shalom, he ping, heiwa and mir. Different ways of saying the same thing: Peace.

Peace was the subject of a guerrilla operation to promote the social role of graphic design. The pacifist campaign hit the outdoor posters of Milan, Italy, between the 19th and 21st December, with explicit peace messages.

A silent army of socially concerned designers wishing to do raise awareness of social issues put up one of the most interesting operations of guerrilla graphics to have happened recently in the city of Milan. A universal wish for a peaceful Christmas, to be understood in every part of the world.

The project is a part of Good 50x70.

Amnesty : You Are Powerful

Here is Amnesty International U.K.'s latest film called "you Are Powerful". It was created for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Agency : Mother. Music : R.E.M - Until the Day is Done
From Dailymotion.


Here is another video of the Declaration of Human Rights re-interpreted in this nice motion film created by Seth Brau. A very nice mix of illustrations and typography. Produced by Amy Poncher. Music from Rumspringa.



Source : Human Rights Action Center.

Frosty The Coalman

You missed your chance to see this catchy holiday ditty on the oxymoronic American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE) website, but thankfully YouTube has kept it alive in all its greenwashing glory...






For an alternative view on "clean" coal take a visit to Reality...

Free Will Power

Free.Will.Power is a new campaign from NARAL Pro-Choice America which focuses on recruiting more young people to the cause by using a host of Web 2.0 tools. A series of videos was produced to promote the initiative, one for each word of the campaign title...

Stop Pain

Check out the campaign from the French non-governmental humanitarian organization, supported by the World Health Organization and state-approved, Douleurs Sans Frontiˆ®res (Pain Without Borders). Like Doctors Without Borders they try to help people with medical and social care in areas where suffering caused by wars, disasters or hunger never ends.
In their campaign they used the treadmill to show the endless suffering of people in places like Cambodia, Indonesia or Africa.
This campaign was made in March of 2008 by TBWA/MAP Paris and is meant for raising funds.

"To put an end to endless pain, Make a donation"
War : Cambodia


















Tsunami : Indonesia


















Fires and War : Africa


















They also have a video :


Source.

Unicef Campaign in China

This is the new campaign of the UNŸƒCEF association concerning China.
A strong baseline "Don't ignore me" and a touching creation by the Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai Agency.

The sign says : Don’Äôt ignore me.
China has over 1.5 million underprivileged children.
To help, call 020 82266673.












































via commercial-archive.com

Donations For Creations: Richmond, VA - Nov. 22nd

As part of their final project, students from Design Rebels, my class on socially conscious graphic design at Virginia Commonwealth University, have set up an event for this Saturday called Donations for Creations that will benefit Daily Planet, an area homeless services center. Folks throughout the Richmond area are encourage to attend:

Donations for Creations
November 22nd, Saturday
2:00pm ’Äì 8:00pm
1509 W. Main Street
Richmond, Virginia

Come bring donations of winter clothes and non-perishable food for the Daily Planet homeless aid provider, and exchange them for artwork from local artists and artisans.

Check our blog for a list of items the Daily Planet needs to aid people without a place to live this winter.

The more generous your donation, the more fabulous the art piece you can take home with you. Please come out and join together with Richmond's artists to promote art while helping the community.

If you can't make it to our event or would like to support the Daily Planet directly, you may do so here.

There will also be musical acts performing throughout the afternoon.

The students/event were already featured on a local web video program MashUp (click the Nov. 14th episdoe).

Get more info on their blog HERE.