Student-Faculty Solidarity, 2022
The branding of this incendiary identity was born from the heart of the student labor solidarity movement in my sophomore year at The New School. The point during one of the longest part-time faculty strikes in the history of the United States: the New School Part-Time Faculty Strike of 2022.
The New School’s brand of red is awfully similar, but the core identity of Student-Faculty-Solidarity works best in the mode of parody, mimicry, and alteration. The beige of this identity indicates the old philosophy that has haunted the progressive university since its founding: that this school was founded on standing in solidarity with teachers.
After a year of consistent on-campus student organizing around contract labor visibility on campus, part-time faculty with ACT-UAW Local 7902 had voted to authorize a strike. Although we had built out a brand for the better part of the year, we now needed to prepare materials that could reach 10,000 students throughout what would come to be a 31-day long strike.
Martin by Tré Seals at Vocal Type was the perfect fit for this project. The typeface was originally derived from signs on the picket line when Black sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike in 1968. Against the backdrop of blue of various UAW units on campus, the red was a fitting contrast and served as a unique identifier of students’ participation.
Social posts, carousel graphics, and infographics were also created to support the digital campaign on Instagram, reaching almost 4,000 followers over the course of the year before and during the strike.
A brand system, comprised of a custom logomark, accented lines, and hand-drawn graphics were used to compliment the spirit of the thick letterforms taken from Martin. The handwritten elements echo the history of printing as a radical medium.
Finally, on the first night of the picket line, hundreds of students showed up to rally outside in the cold. Spirits were high as we passed out signs and distributed our zines. The atmosphere was defiant, the sound of brass bellowing, and our message could be seen on Fifth Avenue late into the night.