Armed By Design

Armed by Design reflects on the intersection of graphic design and political solidarity work in revolutionary Cuba through the lens of the production of OSPAAAL, the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.Based in Havana, OSPAAAL produced nearly five hundred posters, magazines, and books beginning in the late '60s, with most of their work ceasing by the late 1980s. OSPAAAL developed out of the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana, a meeting of delegates representing national liberation movements and leftist political parties almost exclusively from the Global South. Although the conference was international, the ensuing cultural production was almost entirely created by Cubans. OSPAAAL was and remained a political organization focused on fighting U.S. imperialism and supporting liberation movements around the world until it folded in 2019. OSPAAAL became propagandists for these movements, supporting them through poster production, regularly produced publications, and a series of books featuring the writings of the intellectual leadership of these movements.Armed By Design brings together a cross-section of artists and thinkers from around the world whose work has been impacted by the legacy of OSPAAAL. These contributions reflect on impacts of OSPAAAL's work on regional movements including in the Arab world and Korea, design iconography, the evolution of tricontinentalism, our present-day relationship to OSPAAAL posters as a commodity, and authorship and reproduction.This full-color multi-lingual edition includes ten international contemporary political poster-makers, artists, and designers commissioned to produce OSPAAAL-inspired prints in solidarity with today's movements. Artists involved include: Friends of Ibn Firnas (USA), Yuko Tonohira (Japan/USA), Ganzeer (Egypt/USA), Un Mundo Feliz (Spain), Steven Rodriguez (USA), Dignidad Rebelde, Tomie Arai (USA), Sublevarte Colectivo (Mexico), Jamaa Al-Yad (Lebanon/Worldwide), and A3CB (Japan).