Developing Discourse: The Poster Exhibition as a Frame for Social Design Research
Posters are message systems—informing, educating, or inspiring—whether they are viewed in public spaces, in galleries or museum environments, or while browsing the Internet. From the confrontational and political to the promotional, persuasive, and educational, the poster in all its forms has persisted as a vehicle for the public dissemination of ideas, information, and opinion. Posters can be viewed as windows into our world in the service of our collective community conscience.
The presentation will present and discuss four poster exhibitions: The Graphic Imperative: International Posters of Peace, Social Justice, and the Environment, 1965–2005 (2005), Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Awareness Posters, 1985–2010 (2010), Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for the Digital Age: 2001–2012 (2012), and Women’s Rights Are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-Based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination (2016). These exhibitions were organized to encourage a critical dialogue on important contemporary and complementary sociopolitical themes over the past 20 years.
Elizabeth Resnick is a Professor Emerita, former chair, and current part-time faculty in Graphic Design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. She is a passionate design curator who has organized seven comprehensive exhibitions, including the current traveling exhibition Women’s Rights Are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-Based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination (2016). Her own posters have been included in the Mexican, Bolivian, and Warsaw Biennials and many poster invitational exhibitions. Her publications include The Social Design Reader (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019); Developing Citizen Designers (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016); Design for Communication: Conceptual Graphic Design Basics (John Wiley and Sons, 2003) and Graphic Design: A Problem-Solving Approach to Visual Communication (Prentice-Hall, 1984).