Just before the bombs began falling in the Iraq war, George Craigie, visiting lecturer in Graphic Design at DJCAD, asked a group of third year students to tap in to the vociferous debate surrounding the looming conflict to develop visual pro or anti-war communications campaigns. Here, he describes the project and its thought-provoking results.
I asked students to think carefully about all the issues concerning this state of affairs and form their own opinion on whether we should or should not go to war. Having decided their position, the students were asked to prepare a communications campaign which would argue their point.
I didn’t know what to expect but had high hopes that the group of 28 could emulate some of the inspiring visual messages that students faced with the big political questions in the past had achieved. I was looking for work like that of American students during the Vietnam war, the anti-De Gaulle posters from Paris and the students at Tianenmen Square.
In response, 80% of students pursued a peace message while the other 20% were pro-war - no abstentions! I was taken aback at the sophistication of the responses. Charles Bell’s "Time to Think" featured a toilet roll and tissue pack. Each leaf of paper had positive words about the human condition and civilisation - think about what is good about civilisation before you flush it all down the toilet! Alex Johnson’s Guerilla graphics campaign is an emphatic pro-war image and very memorable.
George is a Dundee alumnus and director of Laurencekirk-based Crucial Visual Communications.