Occupy Design, a website out of San Francisco, attempts to streamline the visual identity of OWS by creating "freely available visual tools around a common graphic language to unite the 99%." The site offers high res graphics for download, including icons for logistical purposes like making bathroom signage at protest sites and infographics for signage (example above). Non-design savvy demonstrators can also request custom designs.
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A friend's Facebook feed led me to The Occupied Times of London, a website and free weekly printed paper which covers international OWS news and is an offshoot of Occupy London. Designed by Tzortzis Rallis and Lazaros Kakoulidis, the newspaper features striking typography that's carried over to the online edition as well.
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A few weeks ago, the New York Times featured several designers' suggested logos for the OWS movement. See all the proposed ideas here.
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I found a closed OWS contest on the spec design site 99designs which offered $145 for a protest "currency" that would be handed out at events. Without getting on my soapbox about spec contests (ahem, Huffington Post), I find it counterintuitive, to put it mildly, to ask designers to work on spec for OWS material, but 10 designers did respond and the above entry was declared the winner.
[Digression on Political Spec Work:
Obama for America was recently criticized for holding a competition to design a poster promoting Obama's jobs bill that would then be sold in the campaign store. Critics cited the irony in asking designers to work for free in the name of job creation. While I understand that commissioning a poster from a specific designer or a staff member would have been viable alternatives, I'm torn on this particular case.
So how, then, is the 99designs contest different from Obama for America poster competition, or the Huffington Post hoopla, for that matter? For me, it comes down to whether the requested work is framed as an opportunity to support a cause or as a job. (Granted this isn't an entirely foolproof distinction and can certainly be manipulated, as when a for-profit entity like the Huffington Post inexcusably frames a non-paying spec job as an "opportunity" for a designer to raise his/her own profile.)
I entered an Obama t-shirt design contest in 2008 because I viewed my time and creativity as a "donation" I was more than happy to make and I ended up selling the design via cafepress and giving the proceeds to the campaign as well. The lowball pay offered on 99designs, however, combined with a speculative working process belittles the maker more than asking for the same thing gratis. As this post demonstrates, there are plenty of designers out there coming up with creative ways to contribute and share—for free—in the name of OWS.
In my experience, when done for free, the value of the work comes from the decision and pleasure of transforming one's feelings of support into an object. And why can't designers choose to donate their time and abilities if they believe in the politics, just as someone else may choose to donate their time to phone bank or join a protest?]
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More in keeping with the spirit of the movement, OccupyGeorge applies OWS messaging and statistics to our existing currency with stamps, and the site offers its templates as a free download, from which you can make your own "stamped" bills with your printer. (Second image: a dollar bill marked with the same statistic as the Occupy Design poster from the top of this post.)
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Finally, on the flip side, in a response to what he felt was an initial dismissive reaction to OWS, Los Angeles designer Fro Reza created a series of propaganda posters from the point of view of the 1%.