Tick tock, tick tock: the 2017 General Election is edging ever closer. Don’t say we didn’t warn you: for every day of this week up to polling day on Thursday, we’ll be reminded you to get out there and vote with the help of some talented UK-based contributors.
Following yesterday’s brilliant contributions from illustrator and printmaker Gaurab Thakali, Riposte magazine’s art director Shaz Madani and illustrator Marlena Synchyshyn, we bring you posters from three more creatives.
Illustrator, artist and designer Dominic Kesterton has made work for The New York Times, Bloomberg, The New Yorker, ASOS, Converse, Lazy Oaf, Nobrow, Bleep, KesselsKramer, The Telegraph, Creative Edinburgh, Ladybeard Magazine, Double Dot Magazine, Novation, SintLucas and Neo.Life. We featured his work on the site earlier this year. “I wanted to make something you could imagine seeing in a library in the nineties, printed off A4, laminated and pinned up at the end of a bookcase with golden drawing pins on each corner,” Dominic explains. “Last time I voted it was right across the street from me in a library that I had never been in despite walking past it every day for years. ‘Partake’ is kind of a clunky and pompous sounding command compared to other more frequented call to action vocabulary and hopefully makes a viewer double check the image and process what its about. If I show that a dog likes voting then maybe you will.”
Joel Antoine-Wilkinson was one of our Graduates back in 2015, and the former Kingston student has been impressing us with his cleanly executed graphic design ever since. Of his contribution to the project, Joel explains that “the poster features multiple different typefaces made by designers all of the age of 25 or under based in the UK.” The typefaces and type designers are Kia Tasbihgou’s Propos, Alex Gross’ OP Grotesque and Seb McLauchlan’s Gestalt. “For young people voting it is our chance to be seen and heard in a political context. I wanted to reflect this by selecting typefaces created by designers based in the UK within the 18-25 age group,” Joel says. “In the lead up to this election I saw a lot of young people informing and encouraging each other about taking part in the vote, therefore I thought it was an appropriate and positive decision. I was lucky enough to receive typefaces from Alex Gross, Kia Tasbihgou, Seb Mclauhclan, William Lyall and Rifke Sadleir who I think are all making very exciting work at early stages of their career. To put it simply I wanted to emphasise that young people are capable of making things happen.”
Joey Yu is an animator, illustrator and curator whose work made it onto the site back in January. “Like a rapper would say in a music video, turn up,” Joey says. “Only this is a slightly different gig. We’re bombarded with some much information, dates and figures- you never know when or what’s going on.I just wanted to create a really simple piece you could screenshot and save the date, in the clearest way possible!”
Over to Dominic, Joel and Joey and remember to turn up this Thursday.
Joel Antoine-Wilkinson
Dominic Kesterton