Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest

Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest was an exhibition at the Letterform Archive co-curated by Silas Munro and Stephen Coles that showcased over 100 protest graphics and objects spanning from the 1800s to present day. Randa Hadi of Polymode led the design of the exhibition space. Munro authored the accompanying book, also designed by his studio Polymode. Chris Hamamoto, Minkyoung Kim, and Jon Sueda designed the Online Exhibition.

The design system is themed around the call-and-response action of protest movements. The cover directly pulls from a blue-and-purple 1970 Power to the People poster that features an uplifted fist and angled type set sideways. The typography features two fairly neutral, geometric sans serifs that complement and echo the predominant use of sans serifs in protest graphics, yet remain distinct and contemporary in application.

The book title and headings are set in Tré Seals’s display sans serif VTC We, based on exclamatory italic sans serifs seen across women’s suffrage to queer liberation and civil rights graphics. Set at an angle in all-caps exclamation, the type appears to shout, sending out a call and inviting a response. The vocals are amplified in the angled walls of the exhibition. As seen in the pull quotes and body copy, the supporting type is set in the Going to Work style of Polymode, part of the studio’s house type family that explores the mutability of personal identity.