ACT UP Graphics vs Atelier Populaire

ACT UPのグラフィック / アトリエ・ポピュレール

Both sit in Printmaking and Social Movements, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

ACT UP Graphics

ACT UP Graphics — SILENCE=DEATH バッジ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainACT UP Graphics — ラインストーンのバッジ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainACT UP Graphics — Gran Fury / ACT UP《The Government Has Blood on Its Hands》ポスター — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The visual strategy of the AIDS-crisis direct-action movement. The pink triangle of SILENCE=DEATH, a clarity seized from advertising's own grammar and the principle of free reproduction forged activist graphics as strong as the ads they stood against.

Atelier Populaire

Atelier Populaire — 『闘いは続く』1968（CC0）Atelier Populaire — マルセイユのアトリエ・ポピュレール（CC0）Atelier Populaire — 《Travailleurs la lutte continue》アトリエ・ポピュレール 1968 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

In the Paris uprising of May '68 students occupied the art school and ran its print workshop. One-color silkscreens, simple figures and declarative slogans came off the press nightly under rules of anonymity, no sale and street posting, which became the prototype of protest graphics.

ACT UP GraphicsAtelier Populaire
Era1987–1990sMay–June 1968
FamilyPrintmaking and Social MovementsPrintmaking and Social Movements
KindStyleStyle
CuesThe pink triangle inverted / Advertising grammar seized / Declarative typography / Free reproductionOne-color silkscreen / Simplified figures / Declarative slogans / Anonymous mass production
Best used forHealth and rights campaigns where those affected print and distribute the message · Demands that must break a public silence with the same force as advertisingRally notices that must be printed and pasted onto walls the same day · Protest posters stating one claim, produced anonymously as collective work
TypeHeavy sans capitals with signs like the equals mark set as wordsNear-handdrawn bold letters, one short line filling the sheet
CompositionOne symbol and one short line, legibility at distance taking priorityTwo elements only, a figure and a line, the rest left bare white
MaterialArtwork built to survive black and white copying, free reproduction assumedOne silkscreen color on cheap stock, misregistration accepted
CautionLifting the symbol without stating a demand strips out the movement's claim and leaves an emblem of sympathy.Once a signature and a price are attached the principle drains away and only a protest-looking graphic is left standing.

Put these two together

Printmaking and Social Movements

IndexStyle