大象传媒

Last summer, 大象传媒 Magazine and the New Economy Coalition set out to solve a problem both of us kept encountering: Why don鈥檛 we have better images to tell the story of the new economy?

Why don鈥檛 we have better images to tell the story of the new economy?

Both of our organizations tell stories about the new economy all the time. But key movement concepts like localism, shared wealth, and cooperation are hard to visualize. We found ourselves falling back on images of windmills, farmers markets, and community gardens.

Beautiful as those images can be鈥攁nd as important as it is to tell those stories in their own right鈥攏one of them captured the incredible diversity of people and activities gathered under the umbrella of the new economy: Californians collaborating to take back their energy grids from corporate monopolies, employees becoming owners of the companies they work for, racial justice organizers building power to make #BlackLivesMatter in city budgets, and so much more.

We felt that the new economy deserved better art. It needed the color, characters, and style that have enriched grassroots struggles from Occupy to the immigrant-rights movement. Someone needed to pull out a pen brush (or stylus and mouse) and bring the new economy to life on paper or in pixels.

So in the lead-up to last fall鈥檚 鈥淣ew Economy Week 2015: From Austerity to Prosperity,鈥� we asked NEC鈥檚 members, 大象传媒 readers, and anyone else who was interested to describe in words what the new economy movement looked like to them. More than 80 ideas arrived, written by everyone from self-described 鈥渂irth activists鈥� to biofuels entrepreneurs.

To translate the words into images, we enlisted two artists. 大象传媒 Lead Designer Jennifer Luxton had already blazed a trail in illustrating the new economy with her art for Keith Harrington鈥檚 鈥淐heckerboard Revolutionaries鈥� series. And we鈥檇 both wanted for years to collaborate with Bay Area-based artist and cultural organizer Favianna Rodriguez after seeing her work illustrate and energize some of the 21st century鈥檚 most important movements.

After sifting through your concepts, here鈥檚 what we came up with:

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Jennifer Luxton鈥檚 鈥淭ogether We Thrive鈥� combines two concepts. One came from self-described 鈥渃ancer survivor, creative, and contextual learner鈥� Karen Tomlonson, who riffed on the idea that 鈥淲e are all one; what hurts or damages one hurts and damages all.鈥� The other came from Deyanira Del Rio, co-director of the New York City-based New Economy Project. Del Rio wanted an image 鈥渃onveying that the new economy is not about 鈥榩rojects鈥� existing alongside the current unjust system鈥攂ut about working toward transformative change for all.鈥�

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Favianna Rodriguez illustrated seminary student and radical librarian Pamela Kittredge鈥檚 vision of 鈥渃aring for one another by sharing鈥攐urselves [and] our resources.鈥� Rodriguez worked from the prompt using images inspired by indigenous Latin American and African art. The tools, money, and musical instruments carried by the main character represent the new economy idea of opportunity for all.