Beyond Policing poster design
My client was organising a panel discussion about alternatives to policing and safe(r) spaces at the university. As the Equal Opportunity and Women’s Representative at weißensee academy of art, Berlin, Germany, she organises regular events there with feminist and intersectional perspectives.
THE BRIEF
The intended audience was students who want to learn about policing and surveillance in universities, and alternatives to those models. This was during a time of heightened police violence and student protests, and we wanted to highlight optimistic possibilities in the poster, rather than using a potentially triggering image of police violence on campus.
The university print room recommended we send them a file setup on SRA3 paper, and they would cut it down to A3. My client requested an adapted version of the graphic for social media and a smaller Pdf for emailing.
THE PROCESS
I did some brainstorming and sketches thinking about visual representations of transformative justice and safe(r) spaces. I had an vision of a rusting old police car being used as a planter box. So I collaged together a somewhat broken and graffitied police van, with a bountiful crop of flowers sprouting from it. Honestly, this illustration was a lot of fun to create.
We decided to go with a fanzine/risograph aesthetic so I reduced the colours of the illustration to yellow, cyan and black, and distressed it, giving more of a low-fi photocopy feel. Lightly distressed (but still readable) typeography was added to match.
Being mostly in German, there were some long words that needed to be fit on the poster. Even though there was a fair amount of text that had to be included, I wanted to create a feeling of spaciousness in the design. This was achieved by including a large central illustration, with plenty of white space. The flower motto was repeated in the graffiti on the van and the abstract shape highlighting the date, time and location of the event.
CLIENT FEEDBACK
“I chose to work with Jen because I really like their work and appreciate their political integrity. Jen has the perfect balance of being organised with clear communication skills but is also chill – they see the bigger picture and have their priorities straight! I have never needed to follow up for things or over-explain my ideas to Jen (if anything it would be the other way around!), they always understand my ‘power critical’ approach immediately and we have fun in the process.
We’ve worked together on quite a few projects now, which says a lot in itself. It’s genuinely a pleasure to work with someone I can have a chat with while also having a super productive working relationship and meeting all the deadlines.
I also often felt that Jen went beyond their role as a designer. They helped me structure and organise different stages of the projects, and regularly gave useful advice on how to navigate more complicated political decisions within institutional settings. Jen also has knowledge on making design accessible, both in print and online, which can involve more complicated tools. That support was often just as valuable as the design work itself.
Plus I really like the finished designs!! I initially had some vague aesthetic ideas of what I wanted, but I didn’t really have the capacity to do a lot of research myself. I was therefore very grateful that Jen developed a visual concept and brought me different ideas to respond to. I especially love that this particular work has a zine aesthetic. It feels quite unusual in university-type spaces, and it gave the projects a visual language that felt much more aligned with what I was hoping for.
I recommend Jen a million percent.
Not only are the final pieces always great, but the whole process of working together is very smooth. It’s a pretty rare combination to find someone with so much experience in political organising and critical creative practice who is also able to produce strong visual work on a deadline and juggle all the organisation that comes with it.
I always felt like Jen understood both the political content and the practical realities of getting things done, which made collaboration really easy and enjoyable.”
— Anisha Gupta Müller, Kunsthochschule Weissensee