If you’re fired up and passionate about a certain issue, chances are you aren’t alone. This week’s group of featured entries from our Protest Posters 2 competition cover a variety of topics that each designer has passionately and artistically addressed, bringing attention to important issues.
The first design is “US Mass Shootings” (above, left), designed by Arnaud Ghelfi. Ghelfi is a Swiss-American art director and graphic designer whose work has been featured in many different design books, including quite a few here at Graphis. He established his own graphic design studio, l’atelier starno, in 2005 in Corte Madero, California, where he creates high-quality print and digital designs for companies of all sizes, clients of all backgrounds, and plenty of not-for-profits. This poster, however, was self-commissioned, as Arnaud wanted to use visual elements related to the topic to make a statement. The poster features the American flag, but with the stripes being made by whizzing black bullets. Mass shootings, Ghelfi says, have become as American as apple pie. It’s no secret that mass shootings have steadily and terrifyingly increased in recent years, and with this simple yet eye-catching design, Ghelfi hopes to draw attention to this tragic fact and hopefully inspire others to remediate these tragedies.
Next up is “Heartbeat” (above, right), designed by Scott Laserow. Laserow has been creating posters since 2004, and they have appeared in many international publications as well as various exhibitions and permanent collections. He’s received countless awards, and has even gone on to serve as a judge for various poster competitions. When he’s not designing, he teaches graphic and interactive as a professor at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This poster was created for his client, Biophilia Posters, and came from Laserow’s wish to create a poster that “celebrates the innate connection between humans and nature.” To design his poster, Laserow was inspired specifically by rhythm, which then led him to the idea of a heartbeat. The heart represents rhythm, life, connection, and love, according to Laserow. By seamlessly connecting two things that have become more and more disconnected as of late, Laserow’s poster reminds us that we’re always welcome in the arms of Mother Earth.
