women’s march

In the days following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a nationwide movement began to take shape in response to widespread concern over the future of women’s rights, civil liberties and democratic values. Activists planned the Women’s March on Washington and hundreds of sister marches around the world in under three weeks. While many Americans were processing the results, we mobilized. As a creative studio, we knew our tools could serve the resistance.

We launched an initiative to design, print and distribute protest posters ahead of the marches scheduled for January 21, 2017. Tapping into the rich history of printmaking and protest art, we developed a type-led, unpolished and emotionally direct visual language that increased visibility, accessibility and representation. Over 15,000 posters reached the hands of marchers across the country.

But the posters were just the outcome. The deeper impact was a process that was crowdsourced, community-led and youth-powered. In 2019, we passed the creative reins to 16-year-old activist Evangelia Artemis-Gomez, who helped lead a second wave of poster production in 12 cities. Another 10,000 posters, co-created by youth organizers and nonprofits, hit the streets ahead of the 2020 election.

Posters don’t speak just at marches. They become part of history. Ours have been archived in the permanent collections of Poster House and The New York Historical in New York and the Design Museum in London. Our work has also become a model of how design can respond quickly, visibly and with resonance.