For my protest pack I have decided to focus on the government’s treatment of university students during the pandemic. 

While researching protest art, I came across some posters I liked from the 1968 student protests in Paris, and decided to look into this more. 

Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting 7 weeks and consisting of demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of the events, now known as May 68, the economy of France came to a halt. Political leaders feared civil war or revolution, and the national government briefly ceased to function after president Charles de Gaulle secretly fled from France to Germany at one point. The protests spurred movements worldwide, with songs, imaginative graffiti, posters and slogans.

The unrest began with a series of student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and traditional institutions. The student occupations and general strikes across France were met with forceful confrontation by university administrators and police. The de Gaulle administration’s attempts to quell those strikes by police action only inflamed the situation further, leading to street battles with the police in the Latin Quarter, Paris.

Although the events turned violent, they also had artistic and festive aspects with passionate debates and expression through music and art. The atelier was a group of Marxist artists and art students who occupied the École des Beaux-Arts during uprising in May 1968. Using a silk-screen printing press they produced thousands of posters at a time. 

While I currently don’t have access to equipment to create fast paced prints like screen printing, I think lino prints will be a good alternative and a little easier to do from home. Since the protest pack would obviously be used by university students, I want to create items that students can easily have on hand such as stickers for laptops, bookmarks, badges, tote bags, and also posters that could be placed round a university campus. 

After carving my piece of lino and attempting some prints, I quickly realised it wasn’t going to work. I think because I was using a large piece of Lino without a proper Lino print press I just couldn’t get the clean print that I was hoping for. I won’t be continuing with the prints, but I still want to keep the inspiration from the May 68 prints such as the simple yet bold imagery and typography. I am going to go back and clean up my digital sketches as I think they could work really well as designs.

I am much happier with the result of these than the prints. These are the main designs that will be used for larger products eg posters, tote bags and prints. I will then create new designs for smaller products such as stickers, badges and bookmarks.

Please ignore the poor quality and website logo everywhere, I currently don’t have access to a laptop or photoshop to make better mockups

Killing Floor by Lee Child
​Illustrated by Oliver Barrett

The Folio Book of Horror Stories
​Illustrated by Corey Brickley

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
​Illustrated by Marie Alice Harel

A Hero Born by Jin Yong
​Illustrated by Ye Luying

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux 
​Illustrated by Taylor Dolan

notes: unique book illustrations, engaging compositions, uses a range of materials in her work, bold colour palettes, usually contrasting colours, 

Emulsion paint and ink

Pen and ink

Screenprint

Emulsion paint and ink

Emulsion paint and ink scanned