[archived from: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/mccu0154/mugwump/2006/05/what_about_cartoons_makes_peop.html]
Our third major assignment for Graphic Design I was to create a magazine spread with bold use of image and playful typography. We chose articles from Voice: AIGA Journal of Design and researched appropriate ways to support the article content with layout.
I worked with an interview by Steven Heller discussing current issues with editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson who came under fire after drawing a cartoon depicting a KKK travel guide encouraging trips to Philadelphia to see young blacks killing blacks. Much of the article also focuses on the Danish cartoons depicting Mohamed, and I was struck by the decision of many large American newspapers not the republish the images out of concern for Muslim readers. The article warns against creating boundaries of free speech and pointed out most readers went online and found the images themselves.
I included some of the Danish cartoons to illustrate the article, as well as two of Wilkinson’s works and a turn of the century anti-Catholic cartoon by Thomas Nast. I stuck with a simple color scheme of black and red to highlight the article’s controversy and relate back to the editorial page. I also incorporated silhouettes of the cartoons to break up large blocks of text and echo the forms of the images. They play on the idea of censorship and question if the cartoons would still be offensive in reduced form.
Read the original article.