Graphic #47
This issue of GRAPHIC brings together several projects by designers, design researchers, and artists who are concerned with contemporary social issues. In response to the 2016 Paris Agreement, the environmental group Extinction Rebellion (XR) was launched in 2018. In 2017, the Me Too movement erupted on social media with the hashtag #MeToo. The year 2019 witnessed the death of George Floyd and Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Since early 2020, the whole world has been affected by the coronavirus.
We invited 10 teams that approach such contemporary issues from various angles and provided them with 16 pages so that they could convey their research areas. As a result, their works of various unexpected styles have been put together in one issue under the title “Current Issue”. Some teams present their work in the form of a report, chronology, or journal. Some of them opt for talks, interviews, coloring books, PowerPoint, or declarations as a means to reinforce their arguments, thereby illustrating why their work is indeed part of “Current Issue”. It is worth noting that despite the varying topics and research methods, the teams all share the same kind of critical mind, and search for appropriate modes of expression.
In addition to the 10 contributions laid out across 16 pages, this issue contains 3 short essays that expand upon the topics raised. The writers with different backgrounds and thematic concerns put forward their own points, but their conflicting essays are expected to give rise to a constructive discussion on the whole.
The contributions and essays have not been bound adhesively. Instead, they have been bound separately like brochures or flyers, and then placed inside a box—in a gesture that reflects the sharp rise in the use of postal services in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, our intention is to give the impression of unboxing a gift. We hope this issue of GRAPHIC arrives in the mail like a gift of inspiration.
Contributors this issue:
David Williams, Manchester Type
Inter Graphic Views, Ingo Offermanns
Klasse Klima, Berlin University of the Arts
Natural Enemies of Books, Studio MMS
ORGD (Open Recent Graphic Design)
Prem Krishnamurthy
Parallel-Parallel.com, Dorothee Dähler, Yeliz Secerli
Revue Faire, Studio Syndicat
SPINE, Tetsuya Goto
Studiengruppe Informationsdesign, Matthias Görlich
Sulki and Min
Troublemakers 2020, Futuress
Yellow Object, Hong Kong Protest Poster Archive
All photos by Graphic Magazine