There's a lot going for @AOC: she's a once-in-a-generation gifted orator, she's got a sharp political mind, she's got the humility and self-awareness to surround herself with other smart people and recruit them to advise her.
1/
1/
But even her most ardent admirers tend to overlook the role of graphic design in her work. From the start - her initial primary campaign - she has led the field with striking, beautiful graphic design. I framed one of her posters and hung it my house.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/29687015957/
2/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/29687015957/
2/
AOC's latest graphic campaign is in support of the #GreenNewDeal, a visionary proposal for a better future that has been sorely lacking in visual materials.
3/
3/
(The major exception being @mollycrabapple's animation in "A Message From the Future," an @intercept video with AOC and @NaomiAKlein).
4/
4/
The new posters recall the WPA illustrations for the National Park Service, icons of design that retain remarkable currency nearly a century later.
https://www.loc.gov/collections/works-progress-administration-posters/?fa=subject%3Anational+parks+%26+reserves
5/
https://www.loc.gov/collections/works-progress-administration-posters/?fa=subject%3Anational+parks+%26+reserves
5/
There are six in all. The first is Gavin Snider's Flushing Meadows poster, celebrating the 1939 New York World's Fair, a high water mark for hope in a moment of crisis.
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/flushing-meadows-gnd-poster
6/
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/flushing-meadows-gnd-poster
6/
Next is Scott Starrett's Pelham Bay Park poster, celebrating the Bronx's most iconic WPA success story, a beloved beach and golf course.
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/pelham-bay-park-gnd-poster
7/
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/pelham-bay-park-gnd-poster
7/
The third poster is Gavin Snider's tribute to LA's Griffith Observatory, the centerpiece of one of the country's exemplary, beloved and well-used city parks.
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/griffin-observatory-gnd-poster
8/
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/griffin-observatory-gnd-poster
8/
Fourth is Lazarus Nazario's poster celebrating the Plaza Del Totem in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a symbol of indigenous resilience erected as a rebuttal to the shameful celebration of the great historic monster Christopher Columbus.
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/plaza-del-totem-gnd-poster
9/
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/plaza-del-totem-gnd-poster
9/
Fifth is Gavin Snider's poster for Detroit's Hart Plaza, whose monument commemorates the Underground Railroad in one of America's great historically Black cities, a city that has been brutalized by white supremacy and austerity.
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/hart-plaza-gnd-poster
10/
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/hart-plaza-gnd-poster
10/
Finally, there's Dayi Tofu's commemoration of Boston's Public Garden, part of the city's "Emerald Necklace" of urban parks.
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/the-public-garden-gnd-poster
11/
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/the-public-garden-gnd-poster
11/
The posters are a reminder that we are not the fallen remnants of a lost civilization, no longer capable of visionary collective projects to secure our future. We have done this before and we can do it again.
12/
12/
We are not atomized individuals, incapable of effecting change beyond the scope of what one person can do - or what one billionaire can coerce. We are a society, and we can steer our course.
13/
13/
The posters are union made, 18" x 12", and cost $24 each. You can get all six in a $90 bundle.
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/green-new-deal-poster-pack
eof/
https://shop.ocasiocortez.com/collections/all/products/green-new-deal-poster-pack
eof/