BUY LOCAL Poster
Published in the Green PAtriot Posters book, and included in International exhibitions such as “Urban Orchard” (part of the 21st Triennale International Exhibition in Milan, Italy in 2016).
I designed the “BUY LOCAL” poster in memory of my Grandmother (Jean Boelter). PAying tribute to one of the most important people in my life, I wanted to document the legacy of her family farm (which was so very important to her). the farm fed extended friends and family through the Great Depression, and she would talk about how farming was “in our family’s blood.” My Grandfather (Joe Boelter) served in WWII, while GRam worked in a factory and raised her young children. sadly the last parcel of family land had been sold to Detroit MEtro Airport not long before she passed, and the farm is now a memory hidden in runways and airfields.
the Green Patriots Poster project presented a “design brief” … the brief was to leverage a midcentury propaganda aesthetic / messaging for environmental awareness. a compelling fit for telling my grandparents story, while conveying a critical environmental message. As one of fifty Artists / Designers / Activists included in the book, I have been honored to have this piece published and exhibited Internationally.
The cover poster of the book is by Shepard Fairey. Additional Exhibit images include Design Museum Boston, and Cal State Fullerton's Begovich Gallery.
Green Patriot Posters
Images for a New Activism
Published by Metropolis Books
Edited by Edward Morris, Dmitri Siegel. Text by Michael Bierut, Thomas L. Friedman, Steven Heller, Edward Morris, Dmitri Siegel, Morgan Clendaniel.
“This book brings together the strongest contemporary graphic design currently promoting sustainability and the fight against climate change. Collectively, essays by Michael Bierut, Steven Heller, Edward Morris and Dmitri Siegel look back in time to posters and ideas that set the stage for the current movement (World War Two posters, images of international cooperation, posters from the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s) and address the state of the poster: what is the efficacy and mode of distribution for purposeful, message-oriented graphic images today? Thomas L. Friedman advocates for "a redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology that can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the twenty-first century." The bulk of the book is given over to a compilation of the best posters on the theme of sustainability by a variety of contemporary artists (both emerging and established), among them Shepard Fairey, Michael Bierut, DJ Spooky, James Victore and Geoff McFetridge. These posters, which have a strong graphic presence and which never rest on the tired slogans of the past ("Save the Earth," etc.), show that graphic design does not passively respond to the zeitgeist--it helps shape it. The book, which is sustainably printed in the U.S., reproduces 50 of these posters as tear-outs. Also included is a section on action, with documentation of designs at work in the world: on buses, billboards, protesters' placards, graffiti, t-shirts and so on. This movement is about a new form of patriotism, one that exhibits pride of place, but not fear of others.” - source
Urban Orchard
21st Triennale International Exhibition | Milan, Italy.
“Joining a DIY approach, we designed a landscape of printed matters – originals, facsimile, fictional items – to give an overview of the urban orchards’ movements from WWI until today.
A poster series with claims from the green revolution campaigns is offered to the public to collect.” - source