About G4C
What is Graphix4Change?
Let’s start with what it is NOT:
- Graphix4change is not a militant organization.
- It is not a corporate entity, nor is it a non-profit organization.
- It is not even a grass-roots web movement.
It is simply the personal website of an opinionated graphic designer and design instructor… me. It is my soapbox to rant, my wallboard to post signs on, my website connection to the great experiment called Democracy in America and to a larger extent the experiment of a democratic World Wide Web.
I have never sold advertising on the site, nor is the work funded by anyone other than myself. From time to time I get hired to create works for others (campaign literature, posters, etc.), or even sell images I’ve created privately, but in general I have used the site to post my personal work and made it available worldwide, for free.
Why would I do this? Not because I’m independently wealthy, but as a designer, most of the work I do is for hire for someone else’s message or product, and I wanted a venue to express my own political views that no one seemed to want to pay me for. And since political art only seems to ever find an audience in the art world every four years or so, posting images on-line allows for a 24/7/365 virtual exhibit without needing a physical venue.
I have the great fortune of having viewers, fans and detractors from countries all over the world, something I never could have achieved through my client work alone or by exhibiting solely in Chelsea.
So if you’ve made it through this far, thank you for taking the time to visit my little self-important site. Feel free to download images, contact me with comments and suggestions. And if you are looking to hire a smart-assed designer for your progressive cause, I’d be happy to be paid for what I do.
Mike K
Creator of www.graphix4change.com
A little bit of history...
Back in 2001, I decided to go back to school for my Masters in Communication Design degree part time, with the intent of developing posters of some as yet undefined political nature. So to do this I began taking classes at New Jersey City University at nights. My first semester was September 2001. Then 9-11 happened, just across the river. Friends and family were affected. I drove past the shadow of the NYC skyline every night coming home from classes. It was a dark time.
Moreover, my family originates from the Middle East, and having close ties to an Arab-American community in New Jersey, I heard a lot of ugly talk and discrimination. Not from strangers but from people whom I worked with and sat next to in Church. My work began to focus on aspects of this discrimination, both by some in public and some in government. The Patriot Act came into existence, then the Iraq War. My work was as much an attempt to make sense of the new normal as it was a reaction to it. Slowly my work moved from my identity as an Arab-American in Post 9-11 America to an American in this shifted political landscape.
Much of the work on this site was developed within the context of my Master Thesis on Politics and Consumerism, hence the subversion of many popular brands. Having always been a hug fan of satire, SNL and The Daily Show, it just made sense that I would confront the issues of the day by making fun of them. Now, post-grad school, two jobs and two kids later, I have less time to do “my own work”. Still, I occasionally train my eye on certain topics that irk me, as I devour more news than a normal person should.