Jacob Heaton
My design practise is concerned with the link between political symbolism, state power, and methods of communicating complex, interwoven, and often overlooked histories. I also hold a deep interest in theoretical underpinnings of contemporary and historical graphic design practise, and how such histories are linked with larger political trends and forces during a given timeframe.
Grey Area
Grey Area is a research-based design project which graphically maps the existing grey area between war and peace, recontextualizing existing diagrams to create new ones which communicate the complexity of the subject matter.
Monopoly on Violence
Monopoly on Violence considers Max Weber’s ideas surrounding the sovereignty of the nation state and explores both paths necessary to seizing political power – between violent, insurrectionary means and peaceful, democratic means, and the common, yet unexpected ground that exists between both methods.
Scarves of the New World
A set of five scarves, semiotically based on symbols and colours used by various national liberation movements across the world. The project considered the use of scarves within the context of protest, and attempts to resolve the contradiction between the need for personal concealment at a protest versus the need to express one’s own beliefs and political stances.
Posters of the Palestinian Left
A book based on my dissertation, focusing on the graphic design of the Palestinian left between 1967–1992, specifically the work of Swiss poster designer and internationalist Marc Rudin.
