Design ativista: um mecanismo para democratizar o acesso à informação

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the relationships between design, activism and politics, pointing to concepts and ideas already consolidated in the literature and attempting to know the role of activist design in the practices of visual communication in graphic productions of movements and activist organizations. Therefore, the theoretical basis was built from a literature review that focused on understanding the term design activism and its contextualization in the Brazilian socio-cultural scenario. To examine the participation and influence of design activism in the national public discussion, the issue of abortion rights in Brazil was chosen as a case study. From the analysis of graphic materials made available digitally by different institutions, with data and information about the abortion possibilities in the country, it was possible to identify situations of activist design. It was concluded that design and activism have many intersections in the creative and imagetic fields and that, therefore, they can benefit from the correlation of their practices. It was also possible to evaluate the potentiality of graphic productions found in the online platforms of ONGs, activists and feminist movements, which highlighted and positioned themselves more successfully when supported by graphic design tools.