Statement

My goal through these posters was to encourage Arab Americans to continue their high voter turnout, and to inform Americans about some of the common misconceptions surrounding arabic culture. In doing so, each of my posters address a different audience: the first, a primarily American audience, the second, an Arabic audience, and the third, both audiences. Overall, formally I was influenced by traditional islamic patterning and abstraction, and tried to retain this sense of sparsity in my work, coupled with this underlying idea of intricacy and detail, found in my appropriated patterns. 

In my first poster, I wanted to clear up any misconceptions surrounding the hijab, or the traditional muslim attire. Even though many Americans see the hijab as a symbol of oppression, it is in reality a symbol of a woman’s piety, or her devotion to God and of the respect towards herself and her own body. The anchoring text then, is ironic in the sense that it both affirms and denies this modesty - in relation to life and to the voting booth. 

My second poster is much more esoteric in the sense that only a person who understands what the Dome of the Rock is would get the meaning. The building in red is a very sacred Mosque in Jerusalem, and serves to many Muslims as an allegory for their religion, and ethnic culture. It is also a symbol of the struggle in the middle east for land that two very different religions feel is rightfully theirs. In using it as an allegory for these issues I’ve anchored it with the text “Your Ballot. Their Blood.” to further drive home to an arab who recognizes this image, the power that they have to change the situation as members of a representative government.

My third poster is intended for both audiences, because it explores this issue in contemporary culture of racial discrimination based on the supposed ethnicity of those who caused September 11th. To most americans at first glance, one would think that a woman in a hijab is far from a patriot, but the exact antithesis, a terrorist. Upon close inspection, though, one realizes that she’s wearing an “I voted” sticker. This contrasting image / text relationship, I hope, makes many close minded Americans feel guilty for their initial reaction to the image. 

Overall, I’ve realized through this project the power that tropes can instill in my work. I’ve also learned how appropriately design fits into the political spectrum, and how interested I am in using design to tackle larger social and political issues.