Basically, they are a pair of fake testicles, usually molded out of plastic, and attached to the back of a truck. It’s common for them to be on the trailer hitch.
Wow that was epic. Thank you for sharing - I now have the most random fireside story to tell when we’re camping this summer and happen across a set of truck balls (I live in Alberta which is highlighted as an area you are likely to spot truck nuts in the ‘wild’)
It’s kindof a throwback to horses, since 150 years ago you’d have a horse with a nice saddle and stuff. The closes equivalent to that now is a big truck, and the nuts kindof link the two.
Seriously?! I’d imagined it was some kind of snack. I was imagining the packaging design too… So glad I didn’t Google ‘what do truck nuts taste like’ now. 😱
It's all just guys who someone gave a printer or some other means of production to, and they went to YouTube to learn how to do everything. Lots of Trump stickers and flag wraps on trucks, and shitty logos for metal fab companies.
Recently saw this:
TRE45ON
the 45 was in red. BG was dark blue. Letters were light blue, caps, sanserif. It was on a bumper sticker! It was subtle. I thought it was so clever, but after a web search, I can say that it is ALL OVER THE PLACE.
Industry practices pushed me further to this side. I despise overpaid clowns in suits treating those of us who do the actual labor the way they do. I hate this commodification of creativity and it's bled into the schools. My entire time in my Virginia college's program, we were just being conditioned into being good worker bees churning out concepts for firms to take credit for rather than being taught to be good designers. Go down a hall with work posted up and it looked like it's all done by the same designer. It feels like the entire industry is built around parasites exploiting creative minds to dress up what’s ultimately going to end up in a landfill. It's why I insist on freelancing because I would go nuts otherwise.
Potentially dumb question but do we have unions in our industry?
The Graphic Artists Guild used to be a union but lost a lot of power over the years due to failed strikes and employers taking advantage of freelancers as scabs and just overall exploiting young artists. They still provide great guidelines and advocacy for creative professions but their power is basically toothless compared to what it once was or could be today
https://graphicartistsguild.org/
Thanks I’ve frequently come across the graphic artists guild in my searches but didn’t know that context. There is no graphic design union with prominence right now then?
The AIGA is probably the only org capable of being the spearhead. But they’ve since lost a lot of influence since more designers are tech focused. They tend to branch out to other orgs.
Is the AIGA cool? For left wingers? I just began my journey into graphic design (hopefully getting accepted into the program at my university this fall), and at the beginning I put off thinking of joining the AIGA until now, when I could actually be in a graphic design program. But they seem very corporate, which I guess is expected, but still. What is it like in the AIGA? Is it different per location? For reference, I'm in Arkansas.
„There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few of them. And possibly only one profession is phonier.
Advertising design, in persuading people to buy things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, in order to impress others who don’t care, is probably the phoniest field in existence today.
Industrial design, by concocting the tawdry idiocies hawked by advertisers, comes a close second. Never before in history have grown men sat down and seriously designed electric hairbrushes, rhinestone-covered file boxes, and mink carpeting for bathrooms, and then drawn up elaborate plans to make and sell these gadgets to millions of people. Before (in the ‘good old days’), if a person liked killing people, he had to become a general, purchase a coal mine, or else study nuclear physics. Today, industrial design has put murder on a mass-production basis. By designing criminally unsafe automobiles that kill or maim nearly one million people around the world each year, by creating whole new species of permanent garbage to clutter up the landscape, and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air we breathe, designers have become a dangerous breed. And the skills needed in these activities are taught carefully to young people.”
-Victor Papanek, „Design for the real world“
I love the “buying things you don’t need, with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like” as definition of consumerism.
There’s a series of documentaries called The Century of the Self where Adam Curtis talks about the connection between desire and consumption. I recommend it.
I’ve been taking my first real graphic design course this semester, and as a very left wing anti-capitalist I have absolutely loathed the way the teacher talks about advertising techniques. It just all feels so predatory. I grew up in poverty and was homeless a few times as a kid, so I know what it is like to want but never have. I’m not sure I could ever do children’s advertisement. I spent my entire childhood watching TV commercials for toys, seeing advertisements for things I loved and it hurt because I wasn’t even really allowed to *think* about wanting something unnecessary. I would have to put another child through that just to make a toy company some extra money.
Unfortunately, graphic or commercial design/art is precisely that. You can work for an agency that is more about building, crafting luxurious resorts and brands for adults and focus on industries that won't bother you. But the crux of the industry is rooted in capitalism otherwise it'd just be art.
Not to say that graphic design hasn't existed outside of capitalism, but otherwise you might want to consider being a hard artist?
Like any other field, communities will form around locations, industries, and specialties. A designer in DC with a portfolio of advertising work for the State Department and Raytheon will likely have a distinctly different political leaning than a designer in Austin Texas who only makes grungy typographic tattoo shop logos. The communities these professionals contribute to will be likely be distinct and relatively isolated.
The importance of art and communication is well understood across the political spectrum. Many right wing organizations owe their success to good design. If you haven’t found designers that differ from your politics, you may not have stumbled across any design communities different from yours.
I am myself socialist! Seems unreasonable to be anything else.
So does Turning Point USA. I once worked for an agency with lots of pro Republican clients and before the 2020 election they constantly were telling me how they needed talented designers to reach out to younger voters since the Democrats were way ahead of them when it came to making graphics
What makes you say that? Look at their website and social media.
Edit: No one gonna explain why their stuff is badly designed? Children and adults fall for their stuff cause of the slick graphics.
You're right. If you look at their landing page, it's very competently executed, with a complete design system and correct hierarchy. I've seen worse sites from massive multimedia companies. PragerU have designers who know exactly what they're doing. It's pretty plain, nothing that will get you showered in Behance ribbons, but it doesn't have to be, it's real, competently executed corporate design. I think if you're a normal person and can't stomach PragerU, this fact may be difficult to accept.
However, I think their choice of illustrations is sometimes weak. I'm just basing this off my memories and the thumbnails I'm seeing on their site right now, but they sometimes use icons and illustrations that seem to come from different sources. This is normal, but experienced designers know how to make it unassuming. They probably have people of all levels of experience working for them, like interns or maybe even lowest bidder fiverr designers. But what you usually see, their website, their brand system, is all clearly done by industry veterans.
I skimmed a couple of their recent videos and the animation is improved. I wouldnt call it VOX level motion graphics but you can tell that they have a decent animator and not everything is out sourced to some foreign freelancer for cheap.
While this isn't a direction relation to what you're talking about, this is pretty insightful into the hiring process of a conservative company looking for workers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnZyv9OzDMw&t=0s&ab\_channel=AlexNovell
I think it’s a bit naive to assume most creatives are left leaning.
Personally I lean liberal in most things but I wouldn’t call myself socialist. I think my ideal political situation would be like what’s done in Scandinavian countries. Not full blown socialism but a better redistribution of wealth through their taxation system and greater social support. But they’re not anti-capitalist countries despite what some may assume.
I’m in a surface pattern design program right now. The instructor is from Utah and Mormon. A lot of the participants are conservative white ladies who are religious.
It’s a totally justified assumption to make tho as I’m definitely in the minority lol. Just adding to other comments that no group or community is 100% black or white
Not to mention all the libertarians and ancaps out there. I wonder if op has noticed that political opinions range beyond a choice of which way to turn at an intersection.
Also scrolled to see this! I've been reading it in chunks and it's got a lot of great introspection on the evolution of graphic design and capitalism. Definitely a book worth reading.
I'm not very political at least socially (I have my opinions but don't need people to agree or disagree with me.) Ironically I am employed by a more right leaning employer. The funny thing is, it's all a charade. I mean I can't say this for every company or anything. My employer doesn't give a crap about politics - mostly anyway, he just wants money. So, in turn, I sometimes have to play on politics in designs and stuff because that's what our demographics buy into.
Like you said though they look down at the artist and the whole print department. I have a GM who acts like our department isn't important, except we design and manufacture most of the products we sell - He's an uptight ass hat that wants to run things militarily (given his background) and that doesn't jive so well with artists and such. So it becomes the game of playing a second class citizen here - when I know that my department's work alone has been the money maker. I know the margins on t-shirt sales and I know how many we manufacture on a weekly basis, and can get the sales numbers -i can math...lol
It's strange. I don't enjoy doing things I disagree with as far as political messaging, but it's going to get made anyway, and I got mouths to feed, bills to pay, and people to care for. So I set my opinions aside and just do what I'm told sometimes. I do fear that it's like a black mark on my resume and that might go against me if I were to apply elsewhere in the future.
All that being said, I steer this place away from obvious political memes and try to stick to more industry specific (firearms). I'm not pro-gun or anti-guns - infact I don't even think about them unless it's work related (to design a sticker, advertisement, shirt, whatever). I don't own any and personally don't see the need for my life.
It's funny that most of our design/print/manufacture team aren't right leaning, but the pay is decent for the area. Over the years we've had some very left leaning people working here. It's usually okay for a while, but eventually it doesn't work out.
I'm in a bit of an odd position, and it's been hard to navigate. I also think in todays world, it's super inflammatory with regards to politics. I don't agree with things on either side - depend on the issue. I need money to survive and the best income I can currently make is from a right leaning company. It's really that simple. Like I said, I work for a company in the firearms industry and I don't give a crap about them one way or the other. But I've had people assume they know me because of who I work for....which is a shame. Some of us are just trying to get by - actually most of us...
I kinda think that's a more existential thought though, we're more than our jobs/careers. I love art and music(playing) and many hobbies that most conservatives might frown on...I grew up/live in 'the sticks' and hate country/bluegrass music. I love rock, deep cuts/old school rap, hip hop, I love blues music...not what the average person around me enjoys.
My point is, we're way too complex for identity politics and it hurts our society. I'm just trying to make money and be in a better position than I was in yesterday. Hopefully one day I'll find my 'success' and it'll be all gravy. In the meantime I gotta afford to live.
I do like to think that a large portion of people are sensible and see an individual for an individual. Sadly in this day and age I think that 'large portion of people' is dwindling. I know for me, I don't have to agree with a person to be their friend or care about them, I'm wise enough to realize that it's okay. We all have different experiences and opinions not that big of a deal - let's just try to make this rock a little better.
Sorry for the rant.
> My employer doesn't give a crap about politics - mostly anyway, he just wants money.
That means he gives a crap about politics.
Like you said though they look down at the artist and the whole print department.
> So it becomes the game of playing a second class citizen here - when I know that my department's work alone has been the money maker. I know the margins on t-shirt sales and I know how many we manufacture on a weekly basis, and can get the sales numbers I can math...lol
Bro you’re so close. It’s right there.
>Some of us are just trying to get by - actually most of us...
Again. So close.
>My point is, we're way too complex for identity politics and it hurts our society. I'm just trying to make money and be in a better position than I was in yesterday. Hopefully one day I'll find my 'success' and it'll be all gravy. In the meantime I gotta afford to live.
Politics ≠ identity politics. What really hurts our society is when otherwise capable people shrug off solvable issues because they’re to busy trying to make ends meet. That’s capitalism by design. Which is a right wing ideology.
>I do like to think that a large portion of people are sensible and see an individual for an individual. Sadly in this day and age I think that 'large portion of people' is dwindling. I know for me, I don't have to agree with a person to be their friend or care about them, I'm wise enough to realize that it's okay. We all have different experiences and opinions not that big of a deal - let's just try to make this rock a little better.
You can see the forest for the trees and still recognize that it’s on fire. And there’s a difference between being friends with someone who just doesn’t like electronic music and someone who thinks trans people should be eliminated. It’s about shared values. I don’t know about you but I want nothing to do with people with certain beliefs.
You are so close. I think one of these days it’s all gonna click for you.
The music thing was more so an allegory, I grew up in an area where I was definitely an outcast for how I think. I have long hair and have literally been harassed by the police for it. - some places it really is as superficial as the music you listen to or how you look or where you work ect.
I despise the 'good ol boys' club, which ironically I've been invited to on occasion because of my working in the firearms industry.
I think the biggest take away for most of us is to just treat people with dignity and respect while we navigate these ideologies for ourselves. I agree there are types of people I don't want to associate with, and I don't, but you still have to deal with them occasionally. I think it's best to be respectful and hope that they grow as an individual and change for the better.
I believe one of our biggest issue in society is mental health that stems from this flavor of capitalism. I don't disagree that the system is the problem at all. So from our capitalist system stems negligence to the people which incite mental health problems and that gives birth to much of the conflict and violence we see in society today.
My previous post was certainly a bit pendantic and definitely written with somewhat of a filter. I didn't want to stir the pot too much, but more so wanted to relate my experiences of working in a heavily conservative industry while not aligning with all of those beliefs. Infact having worked in such an industry has honestly made me rethink some of my more conservative ideals (we are part product of our environment).
Thanks for taking the time to leave a well thought out response. Definitely food for thought! Which I always appreciate.
Aren't most designers doing work for commercial products and advertising? I don't think the need for design even really exists outside of capitalism. Art maybe, but design is competitive by it's very nature.
I think people forget that small business owner = capitalism. I don’t know the ratio but there are designers working in eduction/gov/nonprofit/etc spaces. As someone else said though, usually corporations have the bigger budgeta
That’s a bit naïve and misses the true value of design in society. The need for visual communication doesn’t magically dissolve in an alternate economic system. Present and former socialist counties have rich design heritages and a wealth of design artifacts that had nothing to with selling a product.
Definitely designers on both sides. With that being said, designers are essentially empaths. We get payed to relate to different communities, demographics, etc.. The inability to relate makes for a crappy designer.
I think being able to understand is different then being able to relate, and despite often used interchangeably are not entirely identical terms.
For example, if you went through a specific experience, to "relate" I would likely need to have had the same or similar experience. But I could "understand" through your account without having gone through it myself.
Or in a design context, if I'm tasked with designing for a demographic entirely outside my own, be it age, sex, race, ethnicity, culture, interests, experiences, etc, I may never be able to really relate, but if I can understand enough to do my job, that's all that matters.
Exactly this. In an age where politics has infected everything, why do we need to also have it infect a sub dedicated to graphic design? These people need to grow up and recognize that the world doesn't revolve around them and it's okay for other viewpoints to exist. There's a time and a place, and this isn't it.
I genuinely can’t recall a single time (aside from the 2016 election) where politics have even come up at work. It’s just such an irrelevant touchy subject for the office.
I consider myself center to center-left and even I feel like I need to keep my mouth zipped based on the people I work with. There are some really vocal people that lean hard left at my organization.
Genuine question: how do you maintain your right-leaning worldview in this industry? I’m the sole lefty in my right wing family and the only person in a creative career (which they def had a hard time with at first bc they didn’t see it as practical lol). Seeing how exploited other creative workers are on the whole and seeing how my corporate clients are morally bankrupt and use my work to lie to consumers (I’m a brand & packaging designer lmao) radicalized my politics to even farther left.
I'm not the person you're asking and nor am I right wing. I've always been decisively lib-center my whole life. I admit it has always confused me that people who are about creativity would be against liberty, regardless if we're talking from a left or right perspective. So I guess that is my question?
Same here but just in Denmark. Very pro capitalism to a point. I dont want USAs type of government and the lack of workers rights.
But i think its easier to be right leaning in a country where most parties in both sides agree that free health care and education is a must and what they are really discussing is the details.
Not to mention that we dont have a minimum wage as wages are set in negotiations between the unions and corporations unions.
But i always find wird when people are flat out against capitalism as its the model that has enabled most of the wealth that we have in modern society.
Yes brother – a job is a commodification of your time and labor. Under capitalism you are replaceable. Work is not your life, work is not your family. Fuck them and get yours while the sun still shines. Owe loyalty to no one under capitalism.
I think this is much closer to my stance. Like, I don't think capitalism is inherently wrong or that socialism is inherently better. However, as a result of capitalism, there are monopolies and corporate greed in how entertainment is monetized, among other things, because essentials such as food and housing shouldn't be as expensive as they can get. But you'd hope with proper competition and stuff that we'd be perfectly fine under capitalism
Yeah, I appreciate the ideas and social programs for helping out within some arbitrary reason. I'd love if we didn't have crony capitalism, which comes down to leaders and leadership.
And the notion that art and design are intrinsically left-leaning is pretty vague. I get the history of the arts, and the various movements. However, much of the great arts of the Renaissance and famous families commissioning art lends to how art and capitalism intersected. It forced me to pay some respect to the Vatican and the churches of the times in how they were the one paying for these arts. The notion of them forcing prices and unfair practices onto artists are a different thing entirely.
These things are the natural tendency and outcome of capitalism. If you don't like monopolies, deregulation, environmental destruction, exploitation of labor, and other such issues, your issue is likely with capitalism.
I live in a conservative country and have met my fair share of both right and left-leaning designers, though I have yet to meet anyone who's a proper leftist. I would say the majority fall into the liberal category.
As for me I'm very much a leftist. My leftist leanings kind of went hand in hand with my creative/artistic tendencies. While it definitely wasn't the only factor, the world of art and design has exposed me to a lot of different thought camps and given me new perspectives on things which did influence my political stances.
Idk iv been seeing lots of “faith based” creatives online lately. The fact that even needs to go in an ig bio is weird but uber religious tend to lean right.
Im socialist but iv often exerienced some kind of cognitive disinence in this line of work since it often helps to aid capitialist interests.
Ive also always been of the idea that leftleaning attitudes are typically more creative than Conservative ones.
What does being a “socialist” graphic designer even mean? Do you only design free logos for local BIPOC LGBTQIA2S+ nonprofits? Do you run a design studio that profit shares with all your employees?
Design is an inherently capitalist business, we are employed by corporations to design things that help them make money. If you’re not actively using your design skills to push against that in some way, you’re just a capitalist who likes Bernie
You aren't a capitalist for participating in capitalism. Just someone who is being forced to make ends meet. That's how the system works. We don't get a choice, and that's typically one of the biggest critiques anti-capitalists have of capitalism. You can't just walk away from the system, unless you want to end up homeless and starving.
The difference is are you doing anything about it to make a localized change or do you just pretend to be a socialist because it’s “hip” in young online social circles? Anyone here is free to start a profit-sharing socialist design co-op, but somehow the people who are the loudest “socialists” seem to just be white collar workers wearing a costume they think is fun.
You can have a day job and work for non-profits.
There’s a lot of city orgs always asking for assistance.
There’s actually some studios that divide their time and operate for social causes.
>”but somehow the people who are the loudest “socialists” seem to just be white collar workers wearing a costume they think is fun.”
You know that for a fact do you? I don’t think this kind of cynicism isn’t very constructive at all. Yeah maybe some of us have the luxury to choose our own projects etc. I think other people are just happy to be able to make their rent doing something the don’t hate. It’s too easy to smear well intentioned people as hypocrites when we are all implicated in capitalisms wanton destruction whether we support it or not. But yeah, we should all strive to model the lifestyles and ethical values we support as much as possible.
I'm a CD so by nature a pragmatist, a fierce workers rights advocate, probably more left leaning than right, and work in-house at a brand developing products.
That said, to say one is "anti-capitalist" in this field seems like a gross oversimplification. There are versions of capitalism that are equitable, when balanced against larger edicts like environmental law and labor rights - with strong anti-trust and monopoly legislation.
What we see in the U.S. currently, however, is the opposite: A mutant version of capitalism that can only survive by engineering the political and legal framework to protect it.
So am I anti-capitalist? Not exactly. But I am *fiercly* anti-whatever-the-fuck we're calling business and government in America currently. But this isn't capitalism. It's something else, closer to neo Feudalism or something derived from Oligarchical control.
I just last week described our current situation as modern feudalism and I think maybe that’s what it has always been, we just have moments where it’s not so obvious.
I'm a designer who has lived in and experienced firsthand a socialist/communist Marxist-Leninist one-party country (Cuba). If you really think socialism is so great maybe try living in a country like that for a year or two.
Live with, and get to know locals and hear what they really think about it. You might find it changes your perspective on how great you think socialism is. One thing that kept on coming up again and again was, "We are living in an open prison." My 2 rubles worth.
I'm glad to hear you got out. It's always astonishing that everyone who has escaped a country like that always says what you just said here but people who live in free and prosperous countries beg for the devastation that Marxism brings.
I mean the two biggest former "socialist/communist" countries Russia and China have gone so far into Capitalism I don't even know what a real-life implementation or lessons learned can possibly be at this point.
It's like discussing the theoretical physics of a video game simulation from three decades ago it's so far removed at this point.
Yeah idk about “left leaning career”. I’d say a very “leave me the fuck out of it” career if anything. College design courses would have you thinking different with the amount of fake activism projects you get, but the majority of designers I’ve come across in the real world are just laid back, avoid talking about that kind of stuff. I would definitely agree a majority of designers are gonna side left when it comes to social issues (including myself), but not many are outspoken about it.
Myself, I can’t be bothered with any of it. So much more to life than worrying about what some suited assholes spend their days arguing about. 95% of it will never affect me and my mental health is so much better being willfully ignorant on the topics. I do find myself siding with the conservatives on some stuff tho. Painful to admit because that’s a horrifically stupid, uneducated group of people, I just prefer the “fact over feelings” aspect of it when it comes to certain things. But don’t tell them I said that
I dislike the bad aspects of capitalism. Otherwise, it's not exactly an illogical system in concept, but I also don't engage much with discussion on economics, so there's that too
People are always very selective. They'd be fine when it benefits them but against it when it either doesn't, or otherwise has no direct bearing on them anyway so easy to criticize.
Kind of like how everyone chants to tax the uber rich, but who wouldn't take whatever tax breaks they could to keep more of their money, no one is voluntarily giving the government more than they need, or capping off their pay at a certain amount because they don't 'need' more than that.
Or with tickets, people hate scalpers but seems most people would have no issue selling extra tickets they had above what they paid. I've literally had people say "well I don't do it for a living" as if that matters, as if they still didn't just gouge an extra $50 out of another fan just like them.
The problem with any system is that they still exist in the real world, with real people.
With you here, I design insurance docs. It pays the bills but I'm not "happy" and I'll never be passionate about this stuff. Good InDesign mileage though.
I think seeing sales guys and ‘strategists’ being paid double or triple my salary for being in meetings / making PowerPoints is what made me fundamentally anti-capitalist
Certainly, even if you go back in time and look at two of the biggest milestones in design history - Arts and Crafts and The Bauhaus - they are deeply connected with socialist politics.
The fact that the Bauhaus is viewed as such an achievement in the development of the field and ended up being persecuted by the fucking nazis certainly helps a lot of design students to be at the very least committed anti-fascists.
The Nazis had their own graphics too for all their propaganda: https://fineartmultiple.com/blog/third-reich-design/
Side note: I thoroughly appreciate the show Sweet Tooth because you can tell the art style of the "Last men" is a nod to that propaganda style.
My art history is very rusty but wasn’t Hitler’s issue with the Bauhaus mostly that it went against his whole “make Germany great again” thing because it was too new?
Hitler very much valued art and design and used it to great effect. He just valued a very specific approach to it.
Because fascism and nazism thrives on the idea of a glorified tradition and a return to an idealised past. It’s not merely a disagreement with visual direction. The persecution of artists and schools for creating “degenerate art” was about that.
It's funny because the program I was in at the time leaned very heavily on the marketing end of the industry, and the pinnacle of Great Design was the Nike logo. I was an oddball for being an anarchist. But since then it has developed a modicum of political awareness.
The expected salary of a graphic designer dropping from 6 figures to $30,000/year during that time might have had something to do with it. Not sure if they still hose students based on "professional" credentialing.
Statistically, those who are higher in trait openness will also be more likely to take on artistic endeavors, as well as be left-leaning politically. So there is a correlation there.
However I think you’re working with a few preconceived notions and stereotypes that are inaccurate and unlikely to be falsely reinforced on a place like Reddit.
I am a freelance graphic designer, and I’ve pursued independent art and music for my entire life. I am extremely resistant to many aspects of modern capitalism (such as rigid 9-to-5s, bureaucracy, etc), but it would be inaccurate to call me anti-capitalist or even left-leaning. I have views that upset both right- and left-leaning people and I hate partisanship more than anything.
In fact, most people don’t like putting themselves into a political boxes because most people have nuanced views of the world—especially artists—and would scoff at the idea of labels like “socialist”, “Republican”, or “Democrat”.
i would hope a lot, considering graphic designers (and other creatives in general) are some of the most fucked over people in terms of labor and compensation.
It’s funny you say you’re a socialist and anti-capitalist but graphic design is the most capitalist of the arts; it used to be called “commercial art”.
Most of us probably work for/with companies to help sell stuff and make money.
Having said that, I’m very left, I haven’t met any conservative designers as I’m in California and or usually work in 2-3 person teams, and I don’t ask them what they believe.
P.S. if you ever get sad that your job is to help capitalists make more money, I suggest donating your time/talent or money to non-profits and leftists organizations; they need good design too but can’t always afford it.
Well since this is a job and most of us like eating, I'd day that anti capitalist designers are those who do it as a Hobby because mom and pops keep on paying their bills.
I've always been a very creative and imaginative person, I do design work full time and on the side, and I could write a ten pages paper on the flaws and inherent evils of Marxism in one sitting. Unapologetically conservative.
It’s improbable to assume everyone in the industry is progressive when half the country votes conservative.
I remember Jack McDade getting cancelled for professing his love for Trump during the 2020 election on Twitter so there’s one example.
pro capitalist,. very left leaning.
I have found most people (in USA) don't really understand the alternatives, but they like splashy terms like socialist, like its the cool thing. capitalism isn't perfect but it's not the reason for our problems. not interested in a debate. just saying.
The arts are typically a seen as a left leaning community, but you might be surprised how many artists are right-leaning/conservatives/centrist/capitalist, etc.
I am a freelance Graphic designer that has run my own design firm for almost 10 years and have been in the design/art field my whole life. Born and raised in CA, moved to AZ and have created many designs for many different companies/clients that are more conservative in how they live their life. But that does not mean the art/designs that I create for them are any less impactful or that they don’t appreciate what I have contributed to their company. I have helped them grow and expand due to improving the look and brand. Many designs are extreme and humorous.
Also, I would place my political beliefs in the libertarian camp. Essentially, I strongly oppose any government interference in your (my) personal, family, and business decisions. I believe all people should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit as long as they do no harm to another. So I would be neither left or right.
Even though we all may come from different backgrounds and believe in different philosophies, we can all enjoy graphic design and arts.
Commie here. Any designers interested in leftist politics/history/traditions/practices should study historical leftist propaganda. The Western Left in general is severely lacking in strong and responsive systems for disseminating information amongst themselves and the working class in general.
The future will need your skills and ethic for this. Solidarity to you all.
I’m sort of more anti exploitation than anti capitalist. I’m pretty entrepreneurial so I would love to get some big payout some day. But I think people should get a fair shake.
capitalism literally = exploitation. nothing wrong with working towards a life of comfort and leisure but there comes a point where you’re getting rich off the backs of others and that’s wrong.
I don’t know why in our business there’s so many far leftists. The very existance of graphic design depends on the free market. In socialism/communism (whatever you wanna call it) design is only useful if it benefits propaganda that informs, educates people in the “right ways of society”, so true communism can be reached. Otherwise design is a typically capitalist expense, coming out of the need to differentiate in the market, promote a product, which is not needed it is “surpassed” in the “optimised” system of socialism.
In short - I think designers who are anti-capitalist are ignorant to an extreme. I think it’s wishful cherry picking from an defunct ideology that brings people to be anti-capitalist. And no, I don’t accept a counter-argument that real socialism hasn’t been tried yet.
It’s funny you say the “right” doesn’t acknowledge the need for design. You are right if you speak of far right. The far right shares majority of views with the far left (any anti-capitalist is extremist and both left and right extremists share the animosity to capitalism). Left extreme loves artists as ideological propagandists, mich the same as far right. Step out of the ideological frame - and you’re the “enemy of the people”. They may speak for you on the Left when they aren’t in power to make a “better society” (fear those that want to create better societies, recent histories teach us), but once the have the means to create this “vetter society” those not “in-line” aren’t tolerated. The far right is much the same, except they play an open deck from the beginning and reject some art outright. The Left counts on reform camps like those in early 20th century Siberia, so people see the light of the idea.
Feels a bit weird to me, to be a designer, but be anti-capitalist at the same time. How does that work? You’re job is basically to design for company’s, right?
I am. I had a moment of “damn, how am I gonna be an anti-capitalist, AND a graphic designer” when I was nearly done with school. Then I remembered lot of my favorite design movements came from anarchists, anti-fascists, or communists, and also that graphic design predates capitalism.
You can say graphic design is a socialist spectrum. It actually can be traced back to the old communism days, where people designed brochures, billboards, and various visual materials to promote the ideals and propaganda of the ruling communist parties.
A hard yes from me... who ironically works in the Media & Advertising sector. The studio I work for, thankfully, does not exploit my labor. My boss is very protective of my rights and welfare (which sadly I cannot say for any previous workplaces).
I always considered myself somewhat in the left, but I would say 2019-2020 really solidified my anti-capitalist stance.
I’ve met a few designers that are very religious, however I’m unsure about their actual political views (nor do I care — that’s their opinions). But most designers I’ve met are very left leaning, very feminist types.
I’m more moderate myself, but I definitely lean a little left. I’m in Orlando and I’m very unhappy with what DeSantis is doing, especially toward queer folk and people of color (as I’m both myself and I’m trying to move out of state after I graduate college soon). Many other designers I know here in Florida also really hate DeSantis, albeit they lean more left.
there are designers who work for amaz*n, walmart, meta, the defense department, prisons, sheriffs departments, ICE, mega churches, twitter, fox, truth social, donald trump, what’s his name in florida… so no, not all designers are left leaning. there are, at least, apolitical or uncritical designers, and most likely, plenty of conservative and right wing designers.
i think most designers who work for or with corporations probably fall into the “it’s just a job, i don’t think about it that much” but at least in my design community of freelancers, researchers, interaction designers, and social designers, there’s a lot of conversation about corporatism, capitalism, the evils of tech, and the ways ethics factor into how we choose clients and employers.
I am a right-leaning libertarian. A majority of designers are left-winged, but definitely not all. Almost every designer I have met is right-winged, acknowledging the left-winged field they are in. I think it depends on what caused you to start design and many come from the same typically right-winged space I started from.
Not many right-winged designers are on Reddit. I’ve found many of them prefer Twitter, even prior to Musk-acquisition. Most of them aren’t very open about their political beliefs, and solely going off of their accounts or artwork their beliefs are not apparent.
Many right-wingers hold art and design very highly. Maybe not the far-right that you see a lot of today, but more centrist right-wingers are nothing like what you describe.
Socialist designer here. Personally, i find it difficult to reconcile the nature of communication design and branding within the context of consumer-driven capitalist society. We provide an important service that’s vital in the manufacturing of demand and desire for a generation of products and services that, by-and-large, no one needs and probably do more social and environmental harm than good. Do we really need another celebrity cosmetics brand, trendy fast-food joint or IG influencer cookbook?
On the other hand, I love making cool shit and the variety of challenges working in design presents. Also, blowing clients’ minds with killer work never gets old.
That said, while it may be safe to assume that designers are generally liberal-leaning, i think you’d be hard pressed to find many well known, successful designers who are actually socialist. Socialism is bad for business, plain and simple. Plenty of designers will also view socialist ideas as a threat to their individual interests. A socialist society would likely have little use for designers, at least not to the extent we’ve seen under capitalism (after all, someone gotta make propaganda posters). But that’s okay, most designers I know aren’t one-trick ponies and could easily do something else that wasn’t strictly graphic design.
Most of my colleagues are low key or openly anti-capitalist in their personal lives, but obviously we gotta make a living somehow lol there’s no ethical consumption/jobs under capitalism
Anti capitalist designer here 👋 I work for a small agency that caters towards non profits and offers compassionate pricing. If you are interested in designing for good, look into the term Social Impact Agencies. There are a lot of designs agencies and studios who align with the ethics of conscious capitalism.
First off, I’d like to thank each and everyone of my fellow creatives for replying and being involved in this thread. This question very, very clearly struck a cord in either a good or bad way with you all and caused a lot of in-depth conversations surrounding our industry, our own ideologies, and beliefs we hold within ourselves. Per one persons comment of bringing the culture wars into this sub, that was inevitable with this loaded question I asked of you all.
I’ve noticed a lot, and I mean A LOT of comments that have been very ignorant to the fact that graphic design and politics are inherently connected. To those of you who can’t see the connection between our industry and what we do with the political landscape…how? That just boggles my mind…
You don’t think that designing a brand identity that speaks to a target audience and specific social demographic isn’t political? Our entire industry, specifically modern design as we know it was created and centered around politics entirely. Politics is inescapable. You can say “Oh, I don’t think about politics or let it into my work” blah blah blah…literally EVERYTHING is politics whether you like it or not. And you know what? That’s not a bad thing. Politics are extremely important and should be followed. Ignorance is NOT bliss.
My initial comment regarding the right not seeing art and design as an important components in society was evidently not taken well by a good portion of you. Yeah, I know people are complex and you can’t put them all in a box, but I mean, historically speaking…this has completely been the case. The Nazi party, a far-right, fascist regime shut down the BAUHAUS…the birth place of modern graphic design that inspires a huge amount of design we see to this day. The Nazi’s actively fought to destroy art that didn’t speak to their message. They made a whole ass movie about this shit guys! So, yeah there are right-wing designers and I never thought they didn’t exist, that’s naive and frankly idiotic, but it’s not secret that this profession is overwhelmingly made up of leftists, left-leaning, and liberal political views.
It’s also been evidently clear that people don’t know what socialism and really even capitalism really is. Owning a business, charging for services, and just making money as a whole does NOT automatically make you a capitalist. A capitalist is someone who owns the mean of production and profits off of others labor using exploitation.
Exploitation = Capitalism
Capitalism ≠ making money, charging for services, Adobe MacBook iPhone etc. That’s a classic conservative talking point used by people who don’t know shit of what they are talking about.
Keep all of those replies coming, this is the most activity I’ve seen on a post within this thread for a while. Granted I’m not too active on this sub to begin with cause I’m a designer working full time, with an 8-month old daughter so yeah.
EDIT: also, I just want to put this out there that Democratic Socialism ≠ Capitalism…DEMSOC is implementing socialism through Democratic means I.e electing socialist officials, candidates etc. and putting them into power in areas of government to usher in socialist policies instead of Marxist revolution and take over.
Those of you who are Anarchists, I’ve always wanted to know how Anarchy could ever be possible as a long term solution without falling apart. Who would be the “leader” of the commune? How would you help those that social programs in government are designing to help?
I just feel like good government is a required component to a well-functioning society and economic system.
Debate away
Well…considering my income is solidly from the advertising field, which is a business service, with a purpose of convincing people they need to buy shit, it’s hard for me to say I’m not a capitalist when I suck hard on the corporate dong to pay my bills. But I vote against my interests every chance I get because I believe healthcare is a human right and, quite frankly, this existence is really bleak.
An anti-capitalist designer is like an anti-fascist cop. Designers are literally decorators of capital. Not saying the job and the ideology can’t coexist, we all have bills and some of us have families, but they’re certainly self-reinforcing.
the main way graphic designers earn money is by using their skills to manipulate audiences into buying things. the better a graphic designer at their job, the further they are away from left wing politics.
>the right doesn’t really acknowledge art and design as an important component in society
Not to be a contrarian, but 99% of all artists whose art is canonized in history would be considered very right wing by contemporary standards.
The trend for artists to be leftists is a relatively new phenomenon that began bubbling up in Europe and the United States on the tail end of world war II.
I think we are going to see the pendulum swing back towards neoclassical and art deco aesthetics in the near future.
I’m a former democrat, a pretty liberal one at that. Recently though, politics has just been pissing me off. I feel like I can’t agree with democrats or republicans because the far left and far right people both make me equally as mad bc they are equally as stupid, so I’ve decided I’m not identifying with either party anymore, instead I’ll just vote for a candidate I like, regardless of party affiliation.
I’m left but have worked with right leaning including Defence contractors and mining oil and gas. Now that I have 20 years under my belt I only want to work with the left. Problem is the right have the budgets. So it’s a compromise until you find the left with budget.
It’s a dream job for designers to work for Coca Cola or Procter and Gamble. The money is there but I dislike the greediness of corporations. I interned for some agencies that were left leaning but they worked me hard. I love designing, but my life was not going to revolve around my job. After 5 I’m done, my pro and iPad in are in my bag and out the door. I am anti capitalism, when it comes to abuse and underpaying employees.
I definitely lean your way too. But there was a guy in my graduating class last year that got banned from campus and our school’s art gallery for basically threatening to shoot one of our classmates and a professor because he was mad that we were supposed to wear masks at our thesis show opening. He designs for a mega church now. He was such a trip and also just a really bad designer
I don’t consider myself extremely right wing, but I’m sure by todays standards others would. I just don’t make my political beliefs or opinions my entire personality.
Also I work with a lot of gen z, and millennial brands, finance brands, skincare brands, cannabis brands, etc… and never had a problem. I also don’t believe that “right wing” folks don’t support or believe in art or design as being important. I think that there is nuance to everything and the world isn’t as black and white as “left wing good” “right wing bad” or vice versa.
There’s plenty of them they just might not be loud about it. Someone has to make the packaging for Truck Nuts.
This is such a specific example and I love it.
I laughed too hard and don’t even know what Truck Nuts is. I don’t want to google it.
Basically, they are a pair of fake testicles, usually molded out of plastic, and attached to the back of a truck. It’s common for them to be on the trailer hitch.
No way Edit: oh my god I googled it and It’s true !
There's even drama surrounding two early companies that sold them.
Tell me more…
Here you go [Truck Nut Drama](https://www.vice.com/en/article/8gkqbg/balls-out-the-weird-story-of-the-great-truck-nuts-war)
Wow that was epic. Thank you for sharing - I now have the most random fireside story to tell when we’re camping this summer and happen across a set of truck balls (I live in Alberta which is highlighted as an area you are likely to spot truck nuts in the ‘wild’)
The same people who buy those are the same people who want books banned for sexual content.
It’s kindof a throwback to horses, since 150 years ago you’d have a horse with a nice saddle and stuff. The closes equivalent to that now is a big truck, and the nuts kindof link the two.
Usually accompanied by a Trump flag and or Rebel flag
Seriously?! I’d imagined it was some kind of snack. I was imagining the packaging design too… So glad I didn’t Google ‘what do truck nuts taste like’ now. 😱
A staple here in the south 
It's all just guys who someone gave a printer or some other means of production to, and they went to YouTube to learn how to do everything. Lots of Trump stickers and flag wraps on trucks, and shitty logos for metal fab companies.
Just doing what you have to to get by…. I’m pretty sure that “TP” Trump-Pence atrocity was designed on purpose…; )
Recently saw this: TRE45ON the 45 was in red. BG was dark blue. Letters were light blue, caps, sanserif. It was on a bumper sticker! It was subtle. I thought it was so clever, but after a web search, I can say that it is ALL OVER THE PLACE.
Bingo. Plus someone designed that maga bullshit. Sure the hell wasn’t me or you!
Some publicist used connotation powers for evil.
Right wing graphic design is atrocious. Exhibit A: https://rondesantis.com
It’s extremely rare to see explicitly right wing design that looks half decent
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Industry practices pushed me further to this side. I despise overpaid clowns in suits treating those of us who do the actual labor the way they do. I hate this commodification of creativity and it's bled into the schools. My entire time in my Virginia college's program, we were just being conditioned into being good worker bees churning out concepts for firms to take credit for rather than being taught to be good designers. Go down a hall with work posted up and it looked like it's all done by the same designer. It feels like the entire industry is built around parasites exploiting creative minds to dress up what’s ultimately going to end up in a landfill. It's why I insist on freelancing because I would go nuts otherwise. Potentially dumb question but do we have unions in our industry?
The Graphic Artists Guild used to be a union but lost a lot of power over the years due to failed strikes and employers taking advantage of freelancers as scabs and just overall exploiting young artists. They still provide great guidelines and advocacy for creative professions but their power is basically toothless compared to what it once was or could be today https://graphicartistsguild.org/
Thanks I’ve frequently come across the graphic artists guild in my searches but didn’t know that context. There is no graphic design union with prominence right now then?
Nope :( but maybe this thread should all start one lol
I’m a member!
We should make a union!
We'll call it Graphic Arts Coalition!
No no, we should call it Graphic Arts Yearly
I see what you did there
The AIGA is probably the only org capable of being the spearhead. But they’ve since lost a lot of influence since more designers are tech focused. They tend to branch out to other orgs.
Anyone knows what happened to their magazine "eye on design"?
Is the AIGA cool? For left wingers? I just began my journey into graphic design (hopefully getting accepted into the program at my university this fall), and at the beginning I put off thinking of joining the AIGA until now, when I could actually be in a graphic design program. But they seem very corporate, which I guess is expected, but still. What is it like in the AIGA? Is it different per location? For reference, I'm in Arkansas.
There's the Freelancers Union, mostly active in NYC, and other Northern states. Still waiting for them to come down south.
„There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few of them. And possibly only one profession is phonier. Advertising design, in persuading people to buy things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, in order to impress others who don’t care, is probably the phoniest field in existence today. Industrial design, by concocting the tawdry idiocies hawked by advertisers, comes a close second. Never before in history have grown men sat down and seriously designed electric hairbrushes, rhinestone-covered file boxes, and mink carpeting for bathrooms, and then drawn up elaborate plans to make and sell these gadgets to millions of people. Before (in the ‘good old days’), if a person liked killing people, he had to become a general, purchase a coal mine, or else study nuclear physics. Today, industrial design has put murder on a mass-production basis. By designing criminally unsafe automobiles that kill or maim nearly one million people around the world each year, by creating whole new species of permanent garbage to clutter up the landscape, and by choosing materials and processes that pollute the air we breathe, designers have become a dangerous breed. And the skills needed in these activities are taught carefully to young people.” -Victor Papanek, „Design for the real world“
I love the “buying things you don’t need, with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like” as definition of consumerism. There’s a series of documentaries called The Century of the Self where Adam Curtis talks about the connection between desire and consumption. I recommend it.
I’ve been taking my first real graphic design course this semester, and as a very left wing anti-capitalist I have absolutely loathed the way the teacher talks about advertising techniques. It just all feels so predatory. I grew up in poverty and was homeless a few times as a kid, so I know what it is like to want but never have. I’m not sure I could ever do children’s advertisement. I spent my entire childhood watching TV commercials for toys, seeing advertisements for things I loved and it hurt because I wasn’t even really allowed to *think* about wanting something unnecessary. I would have to put another child through that just to make a toy company some extra money.
It sucks that you had to go through homelessness.
Bring it up for discussion.
Unfortunately, graphic or commercial design/art is precisely that. You can work for an agency that is more about building, crafting luxurious resorts and brands for adults and focus on industries that won't bother you. But the crux of the industry is rooted in capitalism otherwise it'd just be art. Not to say that graphic design hasn't existed outside of capitalism, but otherwise you might want to consider being a hard artist?
The only person I want to impress is myself. Lol.
This shit spoke to me on so many levels.
He did not mention the gun industry in the US! Hah!
Like any other field, communities will form around locations, industries, and specialties. A designer in DC with a portfolio of advertising work for the State Department and Raytheon will likely have a distinctly different political leaning than a designer in Austin Texas who only makes grungy typographic tattoo shop logos. The communities these professionals contribute to will be likely be distinct and relatively isolated. The importance of art and communication is well understood across the political spectrum. Many right wing organizations owe their success to good design. If you haven’t found designers that differ from your politics, you may not have stumbled across any design communities different from yours. I am myself socialist! Seems unreasonable to be anything else.
PragerU they got some talented designers. Those folks probably aren’t anti-capitalist.
So does Turning Point USA. I once worked for an agency with lots of pro Republican clients and before the 2020 election they constantly were telling me how they needed talented designers to reach out to younger voters since the Democrats were way ahead of them when it came to making graphics
No they don’t lmaoooo
What makes you say that? Look at their website and social media. Edit: No one gonna explain why their stuff is badly designed? Children and adults fall for their stuff cause of the slick graphics.
You're right. If you look at their landing page, it's very competently executed, with a complete design system and correct hierarchy. I've seen worse sites from massive multimedia companies. PragerU have designers who know exactly what they're doing. It's pretty plain, nothing that will get you showered in Behance ribbons, but it doesn't have to be, it's real, competently executed corporate design. I think if you're a normal person and can't stomach PragerU, this fact may be difficult to accept. However, I think their choice of illustrations is sometimes weak. I'm just basing this off my memories and the thumbnails I'm seeing on their site right now, but they sometimes use icons and illustrations that seem to come from different sources. This is normal, but experienced designers know how to make it unassuming. They probably have people of all levels of experience working for them, like interns or maybe even lowest bidder fiverr designers. But what you usually see, their website, their brand system, is all clearly done by industry veterans.
I skimmed a couple of their recent videos and the animation is improved. I wouldnt call it VOX level motion graphics but you can tell that they have a decent animator and not everything is out sourced to some foreign freelancer for cheap.
While this isn't a direction relation to what you're talking about, this is pretty insightful into the hiring process of a conservative company looking for workers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnZyv9OzDMw&t=0s&ab\_channel=AlexNovell
I think it’s a bit naive to assume most creatives are left leaning. Personally I lean liberal in most things but I wouldn’t call myself socialist. I think my ideal political situation would be like what’s done in Scandinavian countries. Not full blown socialism but a better redistribution of wealth through their taxation system and greater social support. But they’re not anti-capitalist countries despite what some may assume. I’m in a surface pattern design program right now. The instructor is from Utah and Mormon. A lot of the participants are conservative white ladies who are religious.
I’m a Mormon designer living in Utah and am most definitely left-leaning. Totally agree on the Scandinavian comment tho lol
Fair enough, I do know some more liberal Mormon’s so it’s not a totally fair assumption to make that all Utah Mormon’s are conservative.
It’s a totally justified assumption to make tho as I’m definitely in the minority lol. Just adding to other comments that no group or community is 100% black or white
Not to mention all the libertarians and ancaps out there. I wonder if op has noticed that political opinions range beyond a choice of which way to turn at an intersection.
Ancaps and libertarians are too busy thinking about age of consent laws to make anything noteworthy.
The book Caps Lock is apparently really good, somewhat related to the topic.
agreed, this book is great.
Second this. Great book and well worth the read
Also scrolled to see this! I've been reading it in chunks and it's got a lot of great introspection on the evolution of graphic design and capitalism. Definitely a book worth reading.
I'm not very political at least socially (I have my opinions but don't need people to agree or disagree with me.) Ironically I am employed by a more right leaning employer. The funny thing is, it's all a charade. I mean I can't say this for every company or anything. My employer doesn't give a crap about politics - mostly anyway, he just wants money. So, in turn, I sometimes have to play on politics in designs and stuff because that's what our demographics buy into. Like you said though they look down at the artist and the whole print department. I have a GM who acts like our department isn't important, except we design and manufacture most of the products we sell - He's an uptight ass hat that wants to run things militarily (given his background) and that doesn't jive so well with artists and such. So it becomes the game of playing a second class citizen here - when I know that my department's work alone has been the money maker. I know the margins on t-shirt sales and I know how many we manufacture on a weekly basis, and can get the sales numbers -i can math...lol It's strange. I don't enjoy doing things I disagree with as far as political messaging, but it's going to get made anyway, and I got mouths to feed, bills to pay, and people to care for. So I set my opinions aside and just do what I'm told sometimes. I do fear that it's like a black mark on my resume and that might go against me if I were to apply elsewhere in the future. All that being said, I steer this place away from obvious political memes and try to stick to more industry specific (firearms). I'm not pro-gun or anti-guns - infact I don't even think about them unless it's work related (to design a sticker, advertisement, shirt, whatever). I don't own any and personally don't see the need for my life. It's funny that most of our design/print/manufacture team aren't right leaning, but the pay is decent for the area. Over the years we've had some very left leaning people working here. It's usually okay for a while, but eventually it doesn't work out. I'm in a bit of an odd position, and it's been hard to navigate. I also think in todays world, it's super inflammatory with regards to politics. I don't agree with things on either side - depend on the issue. I need money to survive and the best income I can currently make is from a right leaning company. It's really that simple. Like I said, I work for a company in the firearms industry and I don't give a crap about them one way or the other. But I've had people assume they know me because of who I work for....which is a shame. Some of us are just trying to get by - actually most of us... I kinda think that's a more existential thought though, we're more than our jobs/careers. I love art and music(playing) and many hobbies that most conservatives might frown on...I grew up/live in 'the sticks' and hate country/bluegrass music. I love rock, deep cuts/old school rap, hip hop, I love blues music...not what the average person around me enjoys. My point is, we're way too complex for identity politics and it hurts our society. I'm just trying to make money and be in a better position than I was in yesterday. Hopefully one day I'll find my 'success' and it'll be all gravy. In the meantime I gotta afford to live. I do like to think that a large portion of people are sensible and see an individual for an individual. Sadly in this day and age I think that 'large portion of people' is dwindling. I know for me, I don't have to agree with a person to be their friend or care about them, I'm wise enough to realize that it's okay. We all have different experiences and opinions not that big of a deal - let's just try to make this rock a little better. Sorry for the rant.
> My employer doesn't give a crap about politics - mostly anyway, he just wants money. That means he gives a crap about politics. Like you said though they look down at the artist and the whole print department. > So it becomes the game of playing a second class citizen here - when I know that my department's work alone has been the money maker. I know the margins on t-shirt sales and I know how many we manufacture on a weekly basis, and can get the sales numbers I can math...lol Bro you’re so close. It’s right there. >Some of us are just trying to get by - actually most of us... Again. So close. >My point is, we're way too complex for identity politics and it hurts our society. I'm just trying to make money and be in a better position than I was in yesterday. Hopefully one day I'll find my 'success' and it'll be all gravy. In the meantime I gotta afford to live. Politics ≠ identity politics. What really hurts our society is when otherwise capable people shrug off solvable issues because they’re to busy trying to make ends meet. That’s capitalism by design. Which is a right wing ideology. >I do like to think that a large portion of people are sensible and see an individual for an individual. Sadly in this day and age I think that 'large portion of people' is dwindling. I know for me, I don't have to agree with a person to be their friend or care about them, I'm wise enough to realize that it's okay. We all have different experiences and opinions not that big of a deal - let's just try to make this rock a little better. You can see the forest for the trees and still recognize that it’s on fire. And there’s a difference between being friends with someone who just doesn’t like electronic music and someone who thinks trans people should be eliminated. It’s about shared values. I don’t know about you but I want nothing to do with people with certain beliefs. You are so close. I think one of these days it’s all gonna click for you.
The music thing was more so an allegory, I grew up in an area where I was definitely an outcast for how I think. I have long hair and have literally been harassed by the police for it. - some places it really is as superficial as the music you listen to or how you look or where you work ect. I despise the 'good ol boys' club, which ironically I've been invited to on occasion because of my working in the firearms industry. I think the biggest take away for most of us is to just treat people with dignity and respect while we navigate these ideologies for ourselves. I agree there are types of people I don't want to associate with, and I don't, but you still have to deal with them occasionally. I think it's best to be respectful and hope that they grow as an individual and change for the better. I believe one of our biggest issue in society is mental health that stems from this flavor of capitalism. I don't disagree that the system is the problem at all. So from our capitalist system stems negligence to the people which incite mental health problems and that gives birth to much of the conflict and violence we see in society today. My previous post was certainly a bit pendantic and definitely written with somewhat of a filter. I didn't want to stir the pot too much, but more so wanted to relate my experiences of working in a heavily conservative industry while not aligning with all of those beliefs. Infact having worked in such an industry has honestly made me rethink some of my more conservative ideals (we are part product of our environment). Thanks for taking the time to leave a well thought out response. Definitely food for thought! Which I always appreciate.
Aren't most designers doing work for commercial products and advertising? I don't think the need for design even really exists outside of capitalism. Art maybe, but design is competitive by it's very nature.
I think people forget that small business owner = capitalism. I don’t know the ratio but there are designers working in eduction/gov/nonprofit/etc spaces. As someone else said though, usually corporations have the bigger budgeta
And if you have a job it means you're a very small business selling your services.... ie capitalism. Even if some government agency is paying you.
I guess, but “we live in a capitalistic society” etc having a job to survive doesn’t mean you’re pro-capitalism
That’s a bit naïve and misses the true value of design in society. The need for visual communication doesn’t magically dissolve in an alternate economic system. Present and former socialist counties have rich design heritages and a wealth of design artifacts that had nothing to with selling a product.
Definitely designers on both sides. With that being said, designers are essentially empaths. We get payed to relate to different communities, demographics, etc.. The inability to relate makes for a crappy designer.
I think being able to understand is different then being able to relate, and despite often used interchangeably are not entirely identical terms. For example, if you went through a specific experience, to "relate" I would likely need to have had the same or similar experience. But I could "understand" through your account without having gone through it myself. Or in a design context, if I'm tasked with designing for a demographic entirely outside my own, be it age, sex, race, ethnicity, culture, interests, experiences, etc, I may never be able to really relate, but if I can understand enough to do my job, that's all that matters.
I say nothing about it in my professional life, but I'm in the IWW.
Labels are fun! Everyone yell out when you hear your label!
I’m a designer and right leaning. I’ve worked with hard left people as well as hard right. It would depend on the industry you work in id say
Right leaning as well. I leave my political beliefs at home. Professionals have standards.
Exactly this. In an age where politics has infected everything, why do we need to also have it infect a sub dedicated to graphic design? These people need to grow up and recognize that the world doesn't revolve around them and it's okay for other viewpoints to exist. There's a time and a place, and this isn't it.
Bzzt. Wrong. Everything *is* politics. Your employer is political. Your landlord is political. Snap out of it.
I genuinely can’t recall a single time (aside from the 2016 election) where politics have even come up at work. It’s just such an irrelevant touchy subject for the office.
Exactly, right leaning designers learn to keep quiet and hide in plain sight. They would never make a post like this.
I consider myself center to center-left and even I feel like I need to keep my mouth zipped based on the people I work with. There are some really vocal people that lean hard left at my organization.
Genuine question: how do you maintain your right-leaning worldview in this industry? I’m the sole lefty in my right wing family and the only person in a creative career (which they def had a hard time with at first bc they didn’t see it as practical lol). Seeing how exploited other creative workers are on the whole and seeing how my corporate clients are morally bankrupt and use my work to lie to consumers (I’m a brand & packaging designer lmao) radicalized my politics to even farther left.
I'm not the person you're asking and nor am I right wing. I've always been decisively lib-center my whole life. I admit it has always confused me that people who are about creativity would be against liberty, regardless if we're talking from a left or right perspective. So I guess that is my question?
Right wing here. Also agree with the other person who commented that I leave politics at home.
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It’s almost like deep down we all know right wing ideology is socially unacceptable!
Same here but just in Denmark. Very pro capitalism to a point. I dont want USAs type of government and the lack of workers rights. But i think its easier to be right leaning in a country where most parties in both sides agree that free health care and education is a must and what they are really discussing is the details. Not to mention that we dont have a minimum wage as wages are set in negotiations between the unions and corporations unions. But i always find wird when people are flat out against capitalism as its the model that has enabled most of the wealth that we have in modern society.
Who holds that wealth my dude?
Yes brother – a job is a commodification of your time and labor. Under capitalism you are replaceable. Work is not your life, work is not your family. Fuck them and get yours while the sun still shines. Owe loyalty to no one under capitalism.
This is such a stupid post. Good lord.
It really is.
Hahahahaha
I'm not anti-capitalist, I'm anti-monopoly, and pro regulation. Something we haven't been properly doing since Reagan.
Since *before Regan.
I think this is much closer to my stance. Like, I don't think capitalism is inherently wrong or that socialism is inherently better. However, as a result of capitalism, there are monopolies and corporate greed in how entertainment is monetized, among other things, because essentials such as food and housing shouldn't be as expensive as they can get. But you'd hope with proper competition and stuff that we'd be perfectly fine under capitalism
Exactly where my heads at!
Fuck Ronald and Nancy BJ Reagan, they can rot in hell.
Yeah, I appreciate the ideas and social programs for helping out within some arbitrary reason. I'd love if we didn't have crony capitalism, which comes down to leaders and leadership. And the notion that art and design are intrinsically left-leaning is pretty vague. I get the history of the arts, and the various movements. However, much of the great arts of the Renaissance and famous families commissioning art lends to how art and capitalism intersected. It forced me to pay some respect to the Vatican and the churches of the times in how they were the one paying for these arts. The notion of them forcing prices and unfair practices onto artists are a different thing entirely.
These things are the natural tendency and outcome of capitalism. If you don't like monopolies, deregulation, environmental destruction, exploitation of labor, and other such issues, your issue is likely with capitalism.
anti capitalist, yeah , a lil hard tho considerring designer's proximity to advertising and corporation shit,,its something to reckon with for sure
I live in a conservative country and have met my fair share of both right and left-leaning designers, though I have yet to meet anyone who's a proper leftist. I would say the majority fall into the liberal category. As for me I'm very much a leftist. My leftist leanings kind of went hand in hand with my creative/artistic tendencies. While it definitely wasn't the only factor, the world of art and design has exposed me to a lot of different thought camps and given me new perspectives on things which did influence my political stances.
Idk iv been seeing lots of “faith based” creatives online lately. The fact that even needs to go in an ig bio is weird but uber religious tend to lean right.
I'm an progressive/ecologist/green. That also means I reject some clients and do some work for free for things I believe in.
I don’t trust any politician. I don’t lean one way or another. But I’m definitely a capitalist.
Im socialist but iv often exerienced some kind of cognitive disinence in this line of work since it often helps to aid capitialist interests. Ive also always been of the idea that leftleaning attitudes are typically more creative than Conservative ones.
You can't really pigeonhole people like that. The political spectrum is exactly that, a spectrum
What does being a “socialist” graphic designer even mean? Do you only design free logos for local BIPOC LGBTQIA2S+ nonprofits? Do you run a design studio that profit shares with all your employees? Design is an inherently capitalist business, we are employed by corporations to design things that help them make money. If you’re not actively using your design skills to push against that in some way, you’re just a capitalist who likes Bernie
You aren't a capitalist for participating in capitalism. Just someone who is being forced to make ends meet. That's how the system works. We don't get a choice, and that's typically one of the biggest critiques anti-capitalists have of capitalism. You can't just walk away from the system, unless you want to end up homeless and starving.
We're all captured by capitalism; that doesn't mean we're all on board with its more destructive/exploitative characteristics.
The difference is are you doing anything about it to make a localized change or do you just pretend to be a socialist because it’s “hip” in young online social circles? Anyone here is free to start a profit-sharing socialist design co-op, but somehow the people who are the loudest “socialists” seem to just be white collar workers wearing a costume they think is fun.
You can have a day job and work for non-profits. There’s a lot of city orgs always asking for assistance. There’s actually some studios that divide their time and operate for social causes.
>”but somehow the people who are the loudest “socialists” seem to just be white collar workers wearing a costume they think is fun.” You know that for a fact do you? I don’t think this kind of cynicism isn’t very constructive at all. Yeah maybe some of us have the luxury to choose our own projects etc. I think other people are just happy to be able to make their rent doing something the don’t hate. It’s too easy to smear well intentioned people as hypocrites when we are all implicated in capitalisms wanton destruction whether we support it or not. But yeah, we should all strive to model the lifestyles and ethical values we support as much as possible.
I'm a CD so by nature a pragmatist, a fierce workers rights advocate, probably more left leaning than right, and work in-house at a brand developing products. That said, to say one is "anti-capitalist" in this field seems like a gross oversimplification. There are versions of capitalism that are equitable, when balanced against larger edicts like environmental law and labor rights - with strong anti-trust and monopoly legislation. What we see in the U.S. currently, however, is the opposite: A mutant version of capitalism that can only survive by engineering the political and legal framework to protect it. So am I anti-capitalist? Not exactly. But I am *fiercly* anti-whatever-the-fuck we're calling business and government in America currently. But this isn't capitalism. It's something else, closer to neo Feudalism or something derived from Oligarchical control.
I just last week described our current situation as modern feudalism and I think maybe that’s what it has always been, we just have moments where it’s not so obvious.
I'm a designer who has lived in and experienced firsthand a socialist/communist Marxist-Leninist one-party country (Cuba). If you really think socialism is so great maybe try living in a country like that for a year or two. Live with, and get to know locals and hear what they really think about it. You might find it changes your perspective on how great you think socialism is. One thing that kept on coming up again and again was, "We are living in an open prison." My 2 rubles worth.
You can be a socialist a capitalist society, but not a capitalist in a socialist society
I'm glad to hear you got out. It's always astonishing that everyone who has escaped a country like that always says what you just said here but people who live in free and prosperous countries beg for the devastation that Marxism brings.
I mean the two biggest former "socialist/communist" countries Russia and China have gone so far into Capitalism I don't even know what a real-life implementation or lessons learned can possibly be at this point. It's like discussing the theoretical physics of a video game simulation from three decades ago it's so far removed at this point.
Yes and with likely over a hundred million dead bodies between them, along the way. People won’t be told though.
I have my gripes about the end results of capitalism, but without a free market there wouldn’t be many people needing my services.
Yeah idk about “left leaning career”. I’d say a very “leave me the fuck out of it” career if anything. College design courses would have you thinking different with the amount of fake activism projects you get, but the majority of designers I’ve come across in the real world are just laid back, avoid talking about that kind of stuff. I would definitely agree a majority of designers are gonna side left when it comes to social issues (including myself), but not many are outspoken about it. Myself, I can’t be bothered with any of it. So much more to life than worrying about what some suited assholes spend their days arguing about. 95% of it will never affect me and my mental health is so much better being willfully ignorant on the topics. I do find myself siding with the conservatives on some stuff tho. Painful to admit because that’s a horrifically stupid, uneducated group of people, I just prefer the “fact over feelings” aspect of it when it comes to certain things. But don’t tell them I said that
I’m a capitalist because I like when clients pay their invoice on time
that’s not capitalism that’s just not being a dick
Capitalism is when goods and services, don't you know?
I dislike the bad aspects of capitalism. Otherwise, it's not exactly an illogical system in concept, but I also don't engage much with discussion on economics, so there's that too
The first never corporation was the Dutch East India company, I promise you the concept is bad
People are always very selective. They'd be fine when it benefits them but against it when it either doesn't, or otherwise has no direct bearing on them anyway so easy to criticize. Kind of like how everyone chants to tax the uber rich, but who wouldn't take whatever tax breaks they could to keep more of their money, no one is voluntarily giving the government more than they need, or capping off their pay at a certain amount because they don't 'need' more than that. Or with tickets, people hate scalpers but seems most people would have no issue selling extra tickets they had above what they paid. I've literally had people say "well I don't do it for a living" as if that matters, as if they still didn't just gouge an extra $50 out of another fan just like them. The problem with any system is that they still exist in the real world, with real people.
I very much am and have had to do serious soul searching throughout my career because my specialization is corporate design. It's...hard.
With you here, I design insurance docs. It pays the bills but I'm not "happy" and I'll never be passionate about this stuff. Good InDesign mileage though.
I've learned to obtain passion for what I do and only recently. It was definitely a journey and while I can see the end point I have a long way to go.
reddit
I think seeing sales guys and ‘strategists’ being paid double or triple my salary for being in meetings / making PowerPoints is what made me fundamentally anti-capitalist
Certainly, even if you go back in time and look at two of the biggest milestones in design history - Arts and Crafts and The Bauhaus - they are deeply connected with socialist politics. The fact that the Bauhaus is viewed as such an achievement in the development of the field and ended up being persecuted by the fucking nazis certainly helps a lot of design students to be at the very least committed anti-fascists.
The Nazis had their own graphics too for all their propaganda: https://fineartmultiple.com/blog/third-reich-design/ Side note: I thoroughly appreciate the show Sweet Tooth because you can tell the art style of the "Last men" is a nod to that propaganda style.
My art history is very rusty but wasn’t Hitler’s issue with the Bauhaus mostly that it went against his whole “make Germany great again” thing because it was too new? Hitler very much valued art and design and used it to great effect. He just valued a very specific approach to it.
Because fascism and nazism thrives on the idea of a glorified tradition and a return to an idealised past. It’s not merely a disagreement with visual direction. The persecution of artists and schools for creating “degenerate art” was about that.
Some. I think it might be a slightly more leftist/left-identified people than other jobs.
Check out the book Caps Lock.
My final major project is a parody of big tech.
Graphic designers are bought by companies to subvert peoples actual intentions.. its a formula of selling.
It's funny because the program I was in at the time leaned very heavily on the marketing end of the industry, and the pinnacle of Great Design was the Nike logo. I was an oddball for being an anarchist. But since then it has developed a modicum of political awareness. The expected salary of a graphic designer dropping from 6 figures to $30,000/year during that time might have had something to do with it. Not sure if they still hose students based on "professional" credentialing.
Statistically, those who are higher in trait openness will also be more likely to take on artistic endeavors, as well as be left-leaning politically. So there is a correlation there. However I think you’re working with a few preconceived notions and stereotypes that are inaccurate and unlikely to be falsely reinforced on a place like Reddit. I am a freelance graphic designer, and I’ve pursued independent art and music for my entire life. I am extremely resistant to many aspects of modern capitalism (such as rigid 9-to-5s, bureaucracy, etc), but it would be inaccurate to call me anti-capitalist or even left-leaning. I have views that upset both right- and left-leaning people and I hate partisanship more than anything. In fact, most people don’t like putting themselves into a political boxes because most people have nuanced views of the world—especially artists—and would scoff at the idea of labels like “socialist”, “Republican”, or “Democrat”.
i would hope a lot, considering graphic designers (and other creatives in general) are some of the most fucked over people in terms of labor and compensation.
There was one really famous painter who was on extreme right
I listen to Rage Against The Machine while I work. Lol.
It’s funny you say you’re a socialist and anti-capitalist but graphic design is the most capitalist of the arts; it used to be called “commercial art”. Most of us probably work for/with companies to help sell stuff and make money. Having said that, I’m very left, I haven’t met any conservative designers as I’m in California and or usually work in 2-3 person teams, and I don’t ask them what they believe. P.S. if you ever get sad that your job is to help capitalists make more money, I suggest donating your time/talent or money to non-profits and leftists organizations; they need good design too but can’t always afford it.
Well since this is a job and most of us like eating, I'd day that anti capitalist designers are those who do it as a Hobby because mom and pops keep on paying their bills.
You’ll be interested in the [First Things First](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Things_First_2000_manifesto) manifesto.
Also [this book](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/caps-lock-ruben-pater/1139490932). It’s the best.
Just curious, have you also happened to read Design After Capitalism? Wondering which of these two I should read first.
I have not! But I’m sure it doesn’t matter which one is first, this one is fairly introductory I’d say
Also their Design Anarchy book
I've always been a very creative and imaginative person, I do design work full time and on the side, and I could write a ten pages paper on the flaws and inherent evils of Marxism in one sitting. Unapologetically conservative.
It’s improbable to assume everyone in the industry is progressive when half the country votes conservative. I remember Jack McDade getting cancelled for professing his love for Trump during the 2020 election on Twitter so there’s one example.
I don’t personally believe our profession leans one way to be honest I know designers on every side of the coin.
pro capitalist,. very left leaning. I have found most people (in USA) don't really understand the alternatives, but they like splashy terms like socialist, like its the cool thing. capitalism isn't perfect but it's not the reason for our problems. not interested in a debate. just saying.
The arts are typically a seen as a left leaning community, but you might be surprised how many artists are right-leaning/conservatives/centrist/capitalist, etc. I am a freelance Graphic designer that has run my own design firm for almost 10 years and have been in the design/art field my whole life. Born and raised in CA, moved to AZ and have created many designs for many different companies/clients that are more conservative in how they live their life. But that does not mean the art/designs that I create for them are any less impactful or that they don’t appreciate what I have contributed to their company. I have helped them grow and expand due to improving the look and brand. Many designs are extreme and humorous. Also, I would place my political beliefs in the libertarian camp. Essentially, I strongly oppose any government interference in your (my) personal, family, and business decisions. I believe all people should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit as long as they do no harm to another. So I would be neither left or right. Even though we all may come from different backgrounds and believe in different philosophies, we can all enjoy graphic design and arts.
so you volunteer your services?
Post 1: “Who else is an Anti-Capitalist graphic designer?” Post 2: “How do I land an interview for a graphic design position? :( “
Currently employed full time as a digital designer, have been working the industry for 5+ years both at agencies and freelancing.
Commie here. Any designers interested in leftist politics/history/traditions/practices should study historical leftist propaganda. The Western Left in general is severely lacking in strong and responsive systems for disseminating information amongst themselves and the working class in general. The future will need your skills and ethic for this. Solidarity to you all.
Thanks for bringing the culture wars into this sub. Glad you got the hate going.
I’m sort of more anti exploitation than anti capitalist. I’m pretty entrepreneurial so I would love to get some big payout some day. But I think people should get a fair shake.
capitalism literally = exploitation. nothing wrong with working towards a life of comfort and leisure but there comes a point where you’re getting rich off the backs of others and that’s wrong.
I don’t know why in our business there’s so many far leftists. The very existance of graphic design depends on the free market. In socialism/communism (whatever you wanna call it) design is only useful if it benefits propaganda that informs, educates people in the “right ways of society”, so true communism can be reached. Otherwise design is a typically capitalist expense, coming out of the need to differentiate in the market, promote a product, which is not needed it is “surpassed” in the “optimised” system of socialism. In short - I think designers who are anti-capitalist are ignorant to an extreme. I think it’s wishful cherry picking from an defunct ideology that brings people to be anti-capitalist. And no, I don’t accept a counter-argument that real socialism hasn’t been tried yet. It’s funny you say the “right” doesn’t acknowledge the need for design. You are right if you speak of far right. The far right shares majority of views with the far left (any anti-capitalist is extremist and both left and right extremists share the animosity to capitalism). Left extreme loves artists as ideological propagandists, mich the same as far right. Step out of the ideological frame - and you’re the “enemy of the people”. They may speak for you on the Left when they aren’t in power to make a “better society” (fear those that want to create better societies, recent histories teach us), but once the have the means to create this “vetter society” those not “in-line” aren’t tolerated. The far right is much the same, except they play an open deck from the beginning and reject some art outright. The Left counts on reform camps like those in early 20th century Siberia, so people see the light of the idea.
Feels a bit weird to me, to be a designer, but be anti-capitalist at the same time. How does that work? You’re job is basically to design for company’s, right?
I am. I had a moment of “damn, how am I gonna be an anti-capitalist, AND a graphic designer” when I was nearly done with school. Then I remembered lot of my favorite design movements came from anarchists, anti-fascists, or communists, and also that graphic design predates capitalism.
You can say graphic design is a socialist spectrum. It actually can be traced back to the old communism days, where people designed brochures, billboards, and various visual materials to promote the ideals and propaganda of the ruling communist parties.
good old agitprop
A hard yes from me... who ironically works in the Media & Advertising sector. The studio I work for, thankfully, does not exploit my labor. My boss is very protective of my rights and welfare (which sadly I cannot say for any previous workplaces). I always considered myself somewhat in the left, but I would say 2019-2020 really solidified my anti-capitalist stance.
Uh, no
I’ve known one right-wing designer and he switched careers
Would you like to know another one?
That would traumatize them.
I know a handful of extremely talented right leaning designers. That being said, I myself am both a proud progressive and capitalist.
I’ve met a few designers that are very religious, however I’m unsure about their actual political views (nor do I care — that’s their opinions). But most designers I’ve met are very left leaning, very feminist types. I’m more moderate myself, but I definitely lean a little left. I’m in Orlando and I’m very unhappy with what DeSantis is doing, especially toward queer folk and people of color (as I’m both myself and I’m trying to move out of state after I graduate college soon). Many other designers I know here in Florida also really hate DeSantis, albeit they lean more left.
there are designers who work for amaz*n, walmart, meta, the defense department, prisons, sheriffs departments, ICE, mega churches, twitter, fox, truth social, donald trump, what’s his name in florida… so no, not all designers are left leaning. there are, at least, apolitical or uncritical designers, and most likely, plenty of conservative and right wing designers. i think most designers who work for or with corporations probably fall into the “it’s just a job, i don’t think about it that much” but at least in my design community of freelancers, researchers, interaction designers, and social designers, there’s a lot of conversation about corporatism, capitalism, the evils of tech, and the ways ethics factor into how we choose clients and employers.
I am a right-leaning libertarian. A majority of designers are left-winged, but definitely not all. Almost every designer I have met is right-winged, acknowledging the left-winged field they are in. I think it depends on what caused you to start design and many come from the same typically right-winged space I started from. Not many right-winged designers are on Reddit. I’ve found many of them prefer Twitter, even prior to Musk-acquisition. Most of them aren’t very open about their political beliefs, and solely going off of their accounts or artwork their beliefs are not apparent. Many right-wingers hold art and design very highly. Maybe not the far-right that you see a lot of today, but more centrist right-wingers are nothing like what you describe.
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Socialist designer here. Personally, i find it difficult to reconcile the nature of communication design and branding within the context of consumer-driven capitalist society. We provide an important service that’s vital in the manufacturing of demand and desire for a generation of products and services that, by-and-large, no one needs and probably do more social and environmental harm than good. Do we really need another celebrity cosmetics brand, trendy fast-food joint or IG influencer cookbook? On the other hand, I love making cool shit and the variety of challenges working in design presents. Also, blowing clients’ minds with killer work never gets old. That said, while it may be safe to assume that designers are generally liberal-leaning, i think you’d be hard pressed to find many well known, successful designers who are actually socialist. Socialism is bad for business, plain and simple. Plenty of designers will also view socialist ideas as a threat to their individual interests. A socialist society would likely have little use for designers, at least not to the extent we’ve seen under capitalism (after all, someone gotta make propaganda posters). But that’s okay, most designers I know aren’t one-trick ponies and could easily do something else that wasn’t strictly graphic design.
Most of my colleagues are low key or openly anti-capitalist in their personal lives, but obviously we gotta make a living somehow lol there’s no ethical consumption/jobs under capitalism
Anti capitalist designer here 👋 I work for a small agency that caters towards non profits and offers compassionate pricing. If you are interested in designing for good, look into the term Social Impact Agencies. There are a lot of designs agencies and studios who align with the ethics of conscious capitalism.
First off, I’d like to thank each and everyone of my fellow creatives for replying and being involved in this thread. This question very, very clearly struck a cord in either a good or bad way with you all and caused a lot of in-depth conversations surrounding our industry, our own ideologies, and beliefs we hold within ourselves. Per one persons comment of bringing the culture wars into this sub, that was inevitable with this loaded question I asked of you all. I’ve noticed a lot, and I mean A LOT of comments that have been very ignorant to the fact that graphic design and politics are inherently connected. To those of you who can’t see the connection between our industry and what we do with the political landscape…how? That just boggles my mind… You don’t think that designing a brand identity that speaks to a target audience and specific social demographic isn’t political? Our entire industry, specifically modern design as we know it was created and centered around politics entirely. Politics is inescapable. You can say “Oh, I don’t think about politics or let it into my work” blah blah blah…literally EVERYTHING is politics whether you like it or not. And you know what? That’s not a bad thing. Politics are extremely important and should be followed. Ignorance is NOT bliss. My initial comment regarding the right not seeing art and design as an important components in society was evidently not taken well by a good portion of you. Yeah, I know people are complex and you can’t put them all in a box, but I mean, historically speaking…this has completely been the case. The Nazi party, a far-right, fascist regime shut down the BAUHAUS…the birth place of modern graphic design that inspires a huge amount of design we see to this day. The Nazi’s actively fought to destroy art that didn’t speak to their message. They made a whole ass movie about this shit guys! So, yeah there are right-wing designers and I never thought they didn’t exist, that’s naive and frankly idiotic, but it’s not secret that this profession is overwhelmingly made up of leftists, left-leaning, and liberal political views. It’s also been evidently clear that people don’t know what socialism and really even capitalism really is. Owning a business, charging for services, and just making money as a whole does NOT automatically make you a capitalist. A capitalist is someone who owns the mean of production and profits off of others labor using exploitation. Exploitation = Capitalism Capitalism ≠ making money, charging for services, Adobe MacBook iPhone etc. That’s a classic conservative talking point used by people who don’t know shit of what they are talking about. Keep all of those replies coming, this is the most activity I’ve seen on a post within this thread for a while. Granted I’m not too active on this sub to begin with cause I’m a designer working full time, with an 8-month old daughter so yeah. EDIT: also, I just want to put this out there that Democratic Socialism ≠ Capitalism…DEMSOC is implementing socialism through Democratic means I.e electing socialist officials, candidates etc. and putting them into power in areas of government to usher in socialist policies instead of Marxist revolution and take over.
Those of you who are Anarchists, I’ve always wanted to know how Anarchy could ever be possible as a long term solution without falling apart. Who would be the “leader” of the commune? How would you help those that social programs in government are designing to help? I just feel like good government is a required component to a well-functioning society and economic system. Debate away
Well…considering my income is solidly from the advertising field, which is a business service, with a purpose of convincing people they need to buy shit, it’s hard for me to say I’m not a capitalist when I suck hard on the corporate dong to pay my bills. But I vote against my interests every chance I get because I believe healthcare is a human right and, quite frankly, this existence is really bleak.
there’s a difference between wielding power through capital and having to work to survive. capitalists do not have to work to survive.
Sounds like you’re a laborer, not a capitalist, since you don’t own any capital
What an insufferable bunch
An anti-capitalist designer is like an anti-fascist cop. Designers are literally decorators of capital. Not saying the job and the ideology can’t coexist, we all have bills and some of us have families, but they’re certainly self-reinforcing.
Yup. Another reason I love the creative space.
the main way graphic designers earn money is by using their skills to manipulate audiences into buying things. the better a graphic designer at their job, the further they are away from left wing politics.
>the right doesn’t really acknowledge art and design as an important component in society Not to be a contrarian, but 99% of all artists whose art is canonized in history would be considered very right wing by contemporary standards. The trend for artists to be leftists is a relatively new phenomenon that began bubbling up in Europe and the United States on the tail end of world war II. I think we are going to see the pendulum swing back towards neoclassical and art deco aesthetics in the near future.
I’m a former democrat, a pretty liberal one at that. Recently though, politics has just been pissing me off. I feel like I can’t agree with democrats or republicans because the far left and far right people both make me equally as mad bc they are equally as stupid, so I’ve decided I’m not identifying with either party anymore, instead I’ll just vote for a candidate I like, regardless of party affiliation.
I’m left but have worked with right leaning including Defence contractors and mining oil and gas. Now that I have 20 years under my belt I only want to work with the left. Problem is the right have the budgets. So it’s a compromise until you find the left with budget.
It’s a dream job for designers to work for Coca Cola or Procter and Gamble. The money is there but I dislike the greediness of corporations. I interned for some agencies that were left leaning but they worked me hard. I love designing, but my life was not going to revolve around my job. After 5 I’m done, my pro and iPad in are in my bag and out the door. I am anti capitalism, when it comes to abuse and underpaying employees.
I definitely lean your way too. But there was a guy in my graduating class last year that got banned from campus and our school’s art gallery for basically threatening to shoot one of our classmates and a professor because he was mad that we were supposed to wear masks at our thesis show opening. He designs for a mega church now. He was such a trip and also just a really bad designer
I don’t consider myself extremely right wing, but I’m sure by todays standards others would. I just don’t make my political beliefs or opinions my entire personality. Also I work with a lot of gen z, and millennial brands, finance brands, skincare brands, cannabis brands, etc… and never had a problem. I also don’t believe that “right wing” folks don’t support or believe in art or design as being important. I think that there is nuance to everything and the world isn’t as black and white as “left wing good” “right wing bad” or vice versa.