A few days ago I was asked by a friend if I could design something to reflect solidarity across the board and show support to those that may appreciate it on both sides.
Here is what I was tagged in:
“Would you be up for making a meme about this to put on our profiles? You know showing solidarity across the isle with other peaceful people? Something doesn't disclude military members who used military to defend their country.”
Days later, I asked for clarification on it as that is a LOT to put into a design. Simplicity is always better and I knew that for a “profile” picture for social media, it will need that, but this is a lot of people to reach/show that kind of support.
Late Saturday night, giving up on going to bed at a normal time, I decided that perhaps I should try, I mean in the past when ever in a bind, my creative hour tends to be around 11pm or later. I hoped that this would prove to be the same for this. When I stay up late for that “creative boost hour” I normally have a pot of coffee, but this time I was running on cold milk and hope to fall asleep by 1 or 2am after dealing with pregnancy insomnia.
Sure enough after searching I realized, a ribbon may be it, but now the tricky part is breaking it down into parts. After nearly an two hours, a rough layout was composed. I quickly fired it off to my friend to get feedback as well. She loved it and here is the final piece.
Also here is her statement that goes along with this graphic:
“I'm posting this because violence is not my voice. People who harass others are not my voice. Rioters are not my voice. The media is not my voice. None of these people represent me or my views. I recognize that there are pros and cons to both sides of an issue and that all sides of our political spectrum are plagued with voices that do not represent them. I recognize that our media presents different "facts" to different groups, and I'm determined to seek out true facts even if it runs contrary to my current position. I'm open to a peaceful and respectful conversation.”
Have I mentioned I love my job?
Saturday, Nov 19, 2016 · 6:54:29 PM +00:00 · baspringer
UPDATE So since I shared this symbol on Facebook (before here) it took sorta took off (not viral, but enough for me to be knocked off my feet lol). Any who after seeing quite a bit of people wondering if they could buy this on a pin or something, we decided to order lapel pins for now. Since we did not expect this to be well received, we’re sorta catching up.
With selling, we did not feel it was right to make a profit off of this symbol but rather use at least 50% of the profits to donate to charities that help protect our human rights and also help those that really needed it. Also the charities that we will decide on, will be ones that do not have a bulk of the donations to cover “over head” costs- We want the donation to be as impactful as possible. the remaining profits will pay for the expenses that we incurred in having them made into such products. For now we have lapels coming, and we may have window clings and magnets (among others). If interested in when a lapel comes, please let me know as we only have a small batch coming first.