In this project, we were tasked with creating a poster version of one of the articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a way that’s appropriate and relates to the context of the article.
“Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a United Nations document adopted in 1948, which covers the fundamental rights of all people, adopted shortly after the WW11.
It was the first document that protected fundamental human rights regardless of gender, race, colour, religion, political opinions, origin and more, and is credited with paving the way for future human rights treaties.
For this project, I decided to choose Article 19.
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
This article guarantees the right to hold and express an opinion of any kind without interference and to consume and share media with caveats to this covered in the universal child rights document.
When thinking about what inspirations to research, I immediately went to protest posters/signs, punk-related graphic design and the post-modernism movement.
I felt that each of these types of design carries an association with freedom to express your opinions or relate to that message in some way.
“When we think of modern-day protest, often our first visual cues are the large, bold, creative and arresting signs and placards that poke through seas of people and often go viral on social media.”
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/kemba-earle-project-graphic-design-politics-180423
As said in this article by “itsnicethat”, protest signs have very clear visual cues as they are meant to be seen from afar and gather as much attention as possible. The result is posters/signs with bold writing, creative short messages meant to be read quickly and bold illustrative designs meant to catch people’s eyes or make the message clear.