The signs of the times

March 24, 2003 8:40 AM

How to make a protest sign
This past weekend thousands of Americans took to the street to protest or support the war - many with protest posters. Making a protest poster isn't that difficult but the web makes it even easier with sites on the web that offer protest posters for every angle on the issue. Another Poster for Peace has a collection of posters from some of the top names in graphic design available royality free. Insta-protest offers a collection of 80 posters printable on your laser or inkjet printer from their Flash interface. Mike Flugennock has cartoon posters critical of the war and a number of other topics. The Propaganda Remix Project has been mentioned here before for their WWII remixed posters. Finally Anti-War offers a gallery of posters in color and black and white.
For those of us who are supporting the President in this war you might want to print out one of these. There's got to be others in support of the war - but where are they?
Designing protest posters can also be part of your high school history class with this Art as Political Protest lesson plan. So, what sign are you?
posted by DragonBoy (10 comments total)

Brushtroke.tv's got a design contest going. Some good stuff.
posted by hairyeyeball at 8:41 AM on March 24, 2003

Judging from the looks of some of the protestors I saw milling around Grand Central, Mattel could make a fortune with a My First Protest™ kit.

Then there's the "creative and quirky" protestors, like the specimen I saw in unkempt hair, dirty jeans and $125 dollar sneakers, banging on an african drum in the middle of a crowded trainstation. I dunno what they told that kid, but his back-to-nature thumpity-thump collegiate shaman act made me feel like starting a war, not stopping one.
posted by jonmc at 9:08 AM on March 24, 2003

Wonderful stuff! Really gives us a glimpse of the variety of opinions and the creativity that is possible in free societies.

No such luck for the Iraqis in Basra, being massacred by Saddam's thugs for trying to protest there.
posted by reality at 3:36 PM on March 25, 2003

If you need help expressing your political idealogy, stay the fuck away from the protest line.
posted by Dark Messiah at 4:10 PM on March 25, 2003

Boy, that went south fast.

PS. Oh, yeah, Osama's little helper, I know--protestors are pro-Saddam ! D'............oh. Boy, that gets the arab's thumbs up for braniackity.
posted by y2karl at 4:21 PM on March 25, 2003

If you need help expressing your political idealogy, stay the fuck away from the protest line.
posted by Dark Messiah at 7:10 PM EST on March 25

He is just upset because protesters, like cyclists, always get stuck in the grille of his SUV. (My bike came out this weekend. See you on Baseline Rd Mr. Messiah.)
posted by srboisvert at 5:53 PM on March 25, 2003

There's also this site: Protest Usability. p.s. I'm so sorry your due-process died.
posted by bryanboyer at 7:15 PM on March 25, 2003

That protest usability site is great.
posted by DragonBoy at 7:23 PM on March 25, 2003

Support the War Effort! MNYAF's anti-anti-war protest. Support our troops.
posted by hama7 at 12:18 AM on March 26, 2003

I don't think that the current breed of American dissenter is fueled by anti-Americanism. I believe that fear drives the current breed. People are afraid of what they see their country doing domestically and globally, and when people are afraid they come together in groups in order to feel less alone. The protesters know that America's great gift to them is the freedom to protest, and most of them love America for that freedom, at least the protesters I've spoken to do. The loudest and most passionate protesters I've talked to recently were veterans of the Vietnam War.

Anthony Swofford
author of Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles.
posted by y2karl at 1:11 AM on March 26, 2003