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Visual Impact: Creative Dissent in the 21st Century

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An accessible and richly illustrated exploration of how art and design have driven major social and political change in the 21st century.

Visual Impact highlights the extraordinary power of art and graphic design to effect social and political change. Richly illustrated with over 400 images, this is a visual guide to the most influential and highly politicised imagery of the digital age.

Organised thematically by global issues and events, Visual Impact’s generously illustrated spreads, clearly present and explain the most influential and highly politicised imagery of the twenty-first century. Themes and issues include popular uprisings (the Arab Spring, the London Riots), social activism (marriage equality), and environmental crises (Hurricane Katrina), as well as the recent Je Suis Charlie protests.

Showcasing over 200 artists and designers, ranging from internationally renowned names such as Ai Wei Wei and Shepard Fairey to anonymous internet users distributing work across Twitter and Facebook, Visual Impact features exciting graphics from emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia and China, and recent work created in response to the Arab Spring.

Complements Phaidon titles Graphic Agitation and Graphic Agitation 2 by providing insight to the art and design shaping today’s global political landscape.

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2015

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About the author

Liz McQuiston

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for Molly Ye.
1 review
March 6, 2018
This is a great book for people who are curious about what different kinds of poster designers are out there and what contribution they had made to this world and to the different cultures. A great amount of brilliant and genius works are categorized based on what event/occasion they were designed for. The author combined history and design together, so that readers would know posters don’t necessarily have to be created by well-dressed beautiful people who sit in a fancy office, everyone who care about making changes to this world can come up with brilliant ideas that can easily touch others’ hearts.
Profile Image for Grace Kelly.
74 reviews2 followers
January 7, 2016
It's great, discovered lots of amazing artists through it and it's not too much of a heavy read, although it is packed with information and I learnt a lot.
612 reviews8 followers
May 31, 2017
An interesting survey of political art and design from the past 17ish years. The writing is a bit repetitive, but it goes quickly, and it presents a very broad range of projects and perspectives. Definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in learning how visual art can make a political statement.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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