For this Poster Monday spot we have a poster from Jon Briggs from USA, a Southern California native, born in the San Diego area and graduated college with a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Art and Design (Graphic Design concentration) from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Jon is a freelance graphic designer, donut fiend, and caffeine junkie has well-rounded experience performing design work in studio, agency, and corporate in-house environments, as well as for freelance clients. He is a member of the local San Diego chapter of AIGA and love old Hitchcock movies as well as new modern architecture, award-winning visual communications for a diverse range of industries such as sports, entertainment, biotechnology, performing arts, higher education, cause-related campaigns, and consumer products. His work has appeared in “See America” by Chronicle Books (2016), Logo Lounge 6, Logo Lounge Master Library 3, American Design Awards, Trademarks USA, All New American Logo Book, New Typographic Logo Book, and PRINT Magazine’s Regional Design Annuals.

The idea that the poster “Citizens United/Get the Money Out” represents was fueled by a pretty extreme disappointment in the American political system in general, and more specifically, the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Citizens United v. FEC) a landmark case dealing with the regulation of political campaign spending by corporations. In essence Citizens United established a legal basis for the ludicrous idea that “corporations are people” and opened the door for billionaires and special interests to spend unlimited, untraceable money in America’s elections. Now, there’s no accountability or transparency at all… not a good thing any way you look at it. “By the time I designed this poster in 2015 it had become painfully obvious that money, corruption, and outright greed seemed to rule the day in America’s political system… and it’s only gotten worse” says Jon. The project was part of the “Power to the Poster” campaign by Creative Action Network that hoped poster designs could be catalysts for change while adding to the dialogue of what is next for America and the world. Hopefully, if nothing else, it raised awareness of the issue and helped people to be more informed citizens.

“I wanted to express the idea that the founding fathers of the United States would be shocked, if not downright horrified, at the idea that corporate money could have so much more influence in political elections than the actual citizenry. I chose to incorporate an engraving of Benjamin Franklin (from the U.S. $100 bill) basically staring out at us as if to say “Really? WTF is going on here?!….” “In the last 5 years or so I’ve been designing and illustrating posters for things I feel passionately about such as the arts, politics, the environment, climate change, etc.”
If you would like to follow Jon’s work visit his web page. And remember to submit your posters to be featured in our coming editions of Poster Monday.