WHAT THE STREETS TAUGHT ME ABOUT DESIGN
By Tyler Galloway
For over a decade, working under the studio moniker “the new programme” and with the help of a small stream of student collaborators, I’ve served as the principal designer for Stand Up KC. This organization is a founding city in the nationwide Fight for $15 movement to earn restaurant and low-wage workers a living wage, needed benefits, increased workplace safety, freedom from sexual harassment, and the right to unionize. Kansas City was one of the first seven cities in American history to see fast food workers go on strike.
All the same principles of identity design can fight capital, as well as promote it. Stand Up KC’s visual identity provided a solid foundation for a wide array of posters, banners, flyers, and other ephemera the organization needed. Over more than a decade of fruitful collaboration, we’ve learned many solid, easy-to-implement strategies for thoughtful, strategic design that add credibility, increase worker solidarity, and create immediate public recognition.
That spirit has guided this work from the beginning. As Assata Shakur wrote: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
