Art, Culture, and Politics: Poster Project

Artists have a long history of making artwork to raise awareness. Posters are graphic and accessible, which makes them great vehicles of expression. Students were given four steps to reflect, explore, and express in this project.

1. Make it Topical: For people to understand your artwork, make it relevant. Address your eras most pressing issues.
2. Use Iconic Imagery: Using visuals so common in society, anyone could recognize them. Create  your own twist on popular culture.
3. Develop technique: Your poster needs to be visually striking. Be Bold!
4. Make your art approachable: Make your message easy to understand and encourage a conversation.

Making a mind map, students brainstormed ideas of current topics they felt strongly about. Having multiple options, they then chose iconic imagery that would represent each issue. We then went into developing the technique of stencil making, looking at artists Shepard Fairey and Banksy. In this process they begin to understand positive and negative space. Once the stencil is created, the student must envision the next steps needed to be taken for the poster to be visually striking. Using language can help initiate a message and conversation. Students were given the option of using bold typography like Corita Kent and Barbara Kruger do in their artwork.This would help to balance the work of art and initiate a conversation. We are in the final stages of this project. Can you tell what topics these artists are addressing in their projects?

#SaklanCreative