Graphic Arts Insurgency

In May 1970 the CED Ad-Hoc Faculty-Student Peace Committee resolved to “reconstitute the University as a center for organizing against the war in Southeast Asia.” Dean William Wheaton endorsed the use of Wurster Hall’s first floor as “headquarters for anti-war related activities.” Gorilla Graphics, a student collective, turned classrooms and hallways into a round-the-clock propaganda factory, screen-printing designs onto cardboard, paper, and clothing. At a donation of one cent per poster and one dollar to screen any image onto a garment supplied by the customer, Gorilla Graphics raised as much as $500 dollars daily – corrected for inflation, over $3000 today – conveying the scale and popularity of the CED’s graphic arts insurgency.

 

Faculty members Marc Treib, Anthony Dubovsky and friends created the Kamakazi Design Studio, an enterprise with a consciously misspelled name that combined protest with ironic humor. Its posters ranged from Diazo prints (typically used for the reproduction of architectural drawings) to slick, offset lithographs contracted to commercial presses.