The TL;DR: is that I’m making these available for free because ideas should spread.
Download, print, and post them wherever they’re needed.
Here To Stay (Support Trans Youth)
Deportations (Before the Holocaust there were Deportations)
HB807 (Missouri proposes pregnant woman registry)
Ordained 1 and 2 (Mother and Father Migrants) *NEW*
The Blah Blah Blah behind the freebies:
I’ve always had an affinity for the art of propaganda, but with everything that’s been going on in the world lately, I’ve been thinking about it more and more. Propaganda has a reputation problem. I think it’s usually associated with manipulations and control, usually by governments or corporations. And yeah, it is all that. But at its core, propaganda is just art with a message that persuades, agitates, or mobilizes. It’s a tool, and like any tool, its merit depends on who wields it and why.
I don’t think it’s super common knowledge that propaganda kind of started with the Catholic Church. The word itself comes from the Latin propagare which means to spread, as in planting or growing things. It was first really used in 1622 when the Vatican established the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.
Since then, propaganda has been used by governments, various religious institutions, corporations, grassroots movements, and artists. It’s been a weapon of war, an attempt at control, a tool of revolution, and a way to shape public consciousness.
Anyway, it feels like it’s a good time to try and spread, plant, and grow some ideas. So as I’ve been working lately I’ve been exploring some of my favorite elements of prop.
Some things on my mind that you might like checking out include Picasso’s Guernica, Soviet Constructivist posters, Diego Rivera’s murals, punk posters and zines, labor movement graphics, WPA posters, and my beloved Dadists.
Within all of those people and movements, I really dig the bold lines and stark contrasts…figures framed by circles, radiating lines, and even halos…spotty atmospheric inking and slightly off registration that give this incredible sense of urgency…lone figures surging with power in the face of impossible odds that teeter between inspiring and absurd. It’s all such delicious stuff.
In the spirit of spreading the seeds of ideas, I’m trying to release free printable posters and stickers for various issues that struck me enough to make a thing. I hope you enjoy these nuggets of liberal propaganda and plant them somewhere!