Current TV: Interview w/ Shepard Fairey

"Obama inspired his art, and his art is inspiring supporters. Street artist and DJ, Shepard Fairey talks about the positive shift in his work from tagging to political campaigns, and the correlation of his two careers."

"Damned Spot: All-Time Favorite Political Ads"

From the folks at Slate:

Classic New Obama Ad: "Don't Know Much"

Check out this new Obama ad which is going up in several battleground states. It is really good and quite funny in spots, though it is also a little cutesy. Overall, I like it and think it will resonate with boomer-types:

What do you think?

Power to the Poster!

My good pal (and brilliant graphic designer), Justin Kemerling, is a co-creator of a really great public political poster project over at The Match Factory. The project is called "Power to the Poster." The idea is to encourage people to create interesting, challenging and provocative political posters, post them to the web, and allow anyone to download, print and post these pieces of political art in their communities. Here is how Justin and his co-conspirators describe it at the site:

A graphic design democracy project.

There is a restless, hopeful movement with eyes set on new possibilities for change leading to the prosperity of the collective.

And, of course, there is the clutter-ridden madness of a constant control room information flow.

Power To The Poster is the former taken to dismantling the latter.

This website is for people to use a ready supply of well-designed, wild postings that comment on the issues of our time. These 11x17, B/W posters in PDF format are for anyone, anywhere to download, print and post. Here's how:

• Download a Poster in 11 x 17 PDF format from our downloads page.

• Open your Poster in a PDF viewer program on your computer. One such program is Adobe's Acrobat. Totally free.

• Print your Poster on any printer capable of printing at 11 x 17 inches. If you don't have a printer you can print it at just about any copy center. Also, if you can, you should always print your posters on some serious FSC recycled, chlorine free paper.

• Take your new Poster print to a high traffic area. Maybe its at your work, maybe a wall in your neighborhood, maybe a coffeehouse, maybe its your refrigerator. (Respect people's property, of course).

• Post it and watch heads turn.

• Repeat.

Here are some more great and FREE designs (click any image to enlarge):










Now, go download, print and post...

... and TELL A FRIEND ABOUT THIS GREAT PROJECT!

The "War on Greed"

The folks at Brave New Films have launched what they call, a "War on Greed." Check it out:

Here is the original film by Robert Greenwald:


Here is a cartoon - "Larry the Loophole" - that breaks down the basics:



Any thoughts on this topic?

Graphic Resistance

LeBron, the "Mad Brute"?

I grew up in Cleveland and like Cleveland sports teams. Of course, currently, the Caveliers have the greatest player in pro basketball on their team, LeBron James. Recently, James caused a stir when he appeared on the cover of Vogue Magazine. Decide for yourself:

Exhibit A: 1917 U.S. Army propaganda poster...


Exhibit B: Recent cover of Vogue by Annie Leibowitz featuring LeBron James and supermodel Gisele Bundchen...

Now, your turn. Is this a "racist" cover by Vogue? Is LeBron the "Mad Brute" that needs to be "destroyed" as he steals the beautiful (white), Teutonic "lady Liberty"? Given the U.S.'s tragic history of lynching "black brutes" who have relationships with white women, is this problematic? Is it relevant that in its long history, Vogue has apparently only had 4 black people on its cover? Or, is this some sort of knowing, or subversive, twist on those age-old images/stereotypes? Is Leibowitz having "fun" by parodying that old poster? Is it just the fashion industry doing what it always does to sell magazines... push right up to the line to cause controversy and attract attention? What do you think?

The Project for the Old American Century

As I've written several times before, I really like "political art," also known as propaganda. Good political art requires a certain kind of skill. Of course, it is usually heavy-handed, but when done well, it can also be very interesting and provocative.

I was reminded recently of this really good progressive propaganda website called The Project for the Old American Century. Here is their "Statement of Principals." In essence, the group is a reaction to the radical rightwing Project for a New American Century, which formulated the policy foundation for all the lunacy of the Bush years. The folks at The Project for the Old American Century are pissed about all this and are doing something creative about it.

The Project for the Old American Century has a fine collection of propaganda posters patterned on old war posters, advertisements, labor iconography and other government propaganda. They also have other resources at their website, like pamphlets, charts, documents, articles, and more, so I hope you'll click the link above and check it out further over there. In the meantime...

Here are a few of the posters that are critical of the Bush administration and their policies:




These fall under the "say it loud, I'm liberal and proud" category:



Uhhhh... this one sums up the Bush years pretty nicely, I think...


Do you know of any other good political art websites? If so, let me know. Leave a comment...

Say It Loud (I'm Progressive and Proud)

The Center for American Progress has created four tv ads to reclaim the label "progressive" and artciulate what it means today in terms of core values and policy details. Here they are. What do you think? Which one do you like the best? Which one do you find least effective? If you were going to make a spot about your core political values, what would it look/sound like?









And, as always, feel free to take these down and pass 'em around... or, better yet, send the link to this blog to all of your friends!

Art of Mental Warfare: "Warning" (music by Trent Reznor of NIN)

Woah. Here's another intense piece of propaganda...
(Please note that this video includes some tough images of injured and dead soldiers/civilians)


Any thoughts?

Do you know of any other interesting political propaganda pieces?

Knife Party: "What Barry Says"

This is a amazing piece of propaganda-animation from the folks at Knife Party . It is a few years old, but still well worth a look.

Check it out. Spread the word.

Graphic Resistance 2

This poster was created in 1988 by British artist Paul Peter Piech.

The copy/text on this lino-cut poster reads: “Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government.”—Peter Benenson.

The copy/text on the sardine can reads: “Product of Latin—South and Central America.”

Graphic Resistance