LS #8 Ok, but how do you design for a Protest

In my last blog post, I started thinking about how protest design works and which big movements have bold and clear designs that everyone recognizes. But what actually makes a great protest design? A design that sticks in people’s minds, inspires action, and is simple and easy to understand.

Let’s break it down:

The Design Anatomy of Protest: Typography, Icons, and More

When it comes to protests, visuals play a crucial and important role in conveying urgency, solidarity and emotion. The design elements of protest materials like typography, color, symbols, and imagery are more than only aesthetic choices. They are tools for communication, organize people around causes, and amplifying voices. Obviously, the graphic language of protest design is rarely made by professional designers but by marchers and people that want something to change, but exactly this lack of budget, urgency and motivation has created and developed its own graphic language and “rules of protest design” (Riechers, 2021).

Typography: The Voice of the Movement

Typography is the cornerstone of protest design. It transforms words into powerful visuals, ensuring that messages are loud and clear. In protests, typography often serves two main purposes: readability and emotional resonance.

• Bold Fonts: Protest signs often use bold, sans-serif fonts to grab attention and convey urgency. Blocky, all-caps text screams for attention, mimicking the act of shouting. Fonts like Impact or custom hand-drawn lettering create a sense of immediacy and raw emotion.
• Handwritten Text: The unpolished look of handwritten text adds authenticity to protest messages. It conveys a personal touch, making the message feel direct and heartfelt. This rawness resonates deeply with audiences and serves as a reminder of the human effort behind the cause (Schwendener, 2015).
• Size and Layout: In a protest setting, readability is critical. Designers use large fonts and simple layouts to ensure messages can be understood from a distance, whether on a placard in a crowd or a digital image on social media (Gosling, 2022).

Icons and Symbols: Visual Shortcuts to Meaning

Icons and symbols are the universal language of protest design. A single image can encapsulate the essence of a movement, making it instantly recognizable across cultures and languages.

• Adaptable Icons: Symbols that evolve with movements remain effective. The Black Lives Matter fist, for example, has been adapted to incorporate different skin tones, reflecting inclusivity, diversity as well as intersectionality within the cause (K.S.C., 2020).

Color: Setting the Tone of Protest

The influence of color is undeniable. Colors have the ability to shape our behavior, emotions, and mindset; they can calm us, energize us, provoke opposition, and inspire us to act. This effect is especially apparent in protests and demonstrations, where activists have realized that associating their movement with a particular color can help them gain visibility and support. There are colors that are used often as they are associated with Urgency, Anger and Protest and others that are used for certain topics (Lombardo, 2021).

• Red: Often associated with passion, urgency, and anger, red is a common color in protest materials demanding immediate attention or justice. An example is the Saffron Revolution in Myanmar 2007 that arose due to the decision of the military government to remove subsidies on fuel prices, which caused a 60-100% increase of gas prices (Steinberg, 2008).

Or another known example are the Red Rebels, a street performance group that joined the activism organization Extinction Rebellion in 2015. They mainly do slow motion demonstrations in red cloaks that symbolizes the blood that almost all species on the planet have in common (Red Rebel Brigade, n.d.).

• Black and White: These colors symbolize seriousness, mourning, or defiance. Black Lives Matter effectively uses black and white to emphasize strength and solidarity while keeping the message stark and unambiguous.

• Yellow: Yellow is often associated with energy, optimism, and caution. It can evoke feelings of hope and happiness, but also attention, making it effective in movements that seek to raise awareness or demand urgent action, such as campaigns for mental health or social justice. In 2014, the Umbrella Movement in Hongkong made use of the color yellow by bringing yellow umbrellas to the demonstrations that were pro-democracy (Davidson, 2024).

• Green and Blue: Movements like Fridays for Future use greens and blues to symbolize nature and environmental care, while bright colors in general evoke optimism and hope (Fridays For Future, 2024). Also, green became the color/ symbol of resistance to anti-abortion laws (Connolly , 2022).

• Purple: Violet represents dignity, justice, and the fight for equality. It has historically been linked to the women’s suffrage movement and LGBTQ+ rights, symbolizing resilience and the ongoing pursuit of social change. Also, purple has become the official color of the Women’s Day (8^th  March) which is celebrated every year to honor achievements and struggles of women worldwide (Mullally, 2023).

Slogans and Messaging: Clarity is Key

A great slogan is the heartbeat of protest design. It’s the soundbite that gets chanted, shared, and remembered (Van De Velde, 2022).

• Conciseness: Brevity is essential. Short phrases like “No Justice, No Peace” or “My Body, My Choice” pack a punch while remaining easy to remember and replicate (Denton, 1980).
• Repetition: Effective slogans often use repetition to enhance impact, such as “Black Lives Matter” or “Act Now” as they are short and can be embedded easily and repetitive in chants, posters and in the media.
• First Person: Protest slogans are becoming increasingly individualized, especially in recent years and therefore reflect the growing individuality in demonstrations, Examples are ‘Je suis Charlie’, ‘Me Too’ or ‘I can’t breathe’ (Van De Velde, 2022).

Mediums and Materials: From Streets to Screens

Protest design spans a variety of mediums, each with its unique considerations (Sunmola, 2020)

• Placards and Signs: Often handmade, these designs prioritize bold typography and durable materials like cardboard for practicality. Their imperfection adds a raw, human touch.
• Posters and Flyers: These allow for more detailed messaging and artistic expression, combining text, imagery, and colors to inform and inspire.
• Digital Design: Social media posts and digital posters amplify messages far beyond physical protests. The designs often include shareable elements like hashtags and calls to action, ensuring the message spreads globally.

Design for Accessibility

An often-overlooked aspect of protest design is accessibility. Ensuring designs can be understood by diverse audiences is key to inclusivity. Depending on the context it is important to consider and adapt the different design aspects mentioned above to achieve maximum accessibility in protest design (Vision Australia, 2025).

• Readable Fonts:  Big clear fonts with high contrast ensure legibility for people with visual impairments (Gosling, 2020)
• Language: Including multiple languages or universally recognized symbols can make messages accessible to a broader audience. Though sometimes this and the bullet point before are hard to combine, as it is hard to put multiple languages on one placard and still expect the font to be big and bold.
• Audio and Video: In digital formats, including captions, subtitles, or audio descriptions ensures accessibility for people with hearing or visual disabilities.

The Impact of Good Design

Protest design isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about creating a visual identity for movements, fostering emotional connections, and mobilizing action, it’s a tool of empowerment and representation. Posters, stickers, and digital graphics serve as both art and argument, encouraging viewers to interact with the content in ways that dissolve the boundary between protest and education (Jasmine, 2024). When done well, it leaves an indelible mark on history. An Example could be Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign or the “Silence = Death” design from the AIDS activism movement. These visuals became cultural touchstones, encapsulating the spirit of their respective causes (Art Institute Chicago, 2008).

Sources

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Extinction Rebellion. (2019, April 20). The origins of the extinction symbol. Logo Design Love. https://www.logodesignlove.com/the-extinction-symbol

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