New Exhibition Explores How Graphic Design Shapes Political Change

On the heels of recent revelations about Facebook's data breaches, Cambridge Analytica and how that all may have impacted Brexit and the 2016 US elections - a timely new exhibition explores the ways graphic messages have challenged, altered and influenced key political moments.

Opening today at London's Design Museum, Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18 brings together state propaganda, protest placards, posters and internet memes from the past ten years in a fascinating testimonial to how graphic design is being used by both the marginalised and the powerful to shape political messages across the globe.

Spanning the global financial crash, the Arab Spring, the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Brexit, and the response to the Grenfell Tower disaster, the exhibition's rather nihilistic title references the journey from Shepard Fairey's iconic 'Hope' poster - the defining image of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign - to the Trump 'Nope' meme [below] it spawned a decade later.

Featuring over 160 objects and installations, the show lets visitors journey through Occupy Wall Street, Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution and the streets of Sao Paulo, as well as the opportunity to have their fortunes told by that well-known seer and visionary, the All-Seeing Trump. It also looks at the role that prominent platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have played, including an interesting display by social listening platform Pulsar, which has used public opinions shared on social to create a 'visual profile' of leading political figures.

2016 presidential protests, Brazil (image credit: Charles Albert Sholl)

The exhibition itself is divided into three sections: graphic design by activists and demonstrators (Je Suis Charlie banners, a replica of the infamous inflatable duck from the 2016 Brazil protests against president Dilma Rousseff, a brolly from the 2014 ‘Umbrella Revolution' in Hong Kong) makes up the largest section in the exhibition, 'Protest', while 'Power' looks at more 'official', establishment uses of graphic design to assert national and political authority, plus how that iconography has been subverted by activists.

In the final section, 'Personality', you'll find examples of graphic representation of leading political figures, be that the famous Corbyn/Nike swoosh mash-up, or the Guy Fawkes mask used to protect the identities of hacktivist network Anonymous.

Corbyn 'Swoosh' T-shirt (image credit: Bristol Street War)

To promote the exhibition, the museum has also released a video narrated by London-based spoken word artist Deanna Rodger, giving her account of the past decade, below.