Create! Don’t Hate

Gun violence, homophobia, racial discrimination and intolerance of many kinds – all of these are unfortunately as much a part of the fabric of American society as our beloved democracy. In addition, a fundamentalist, conservative strain of government has over the past decade threatened to make these problems worse through regressive legislation and pro-gun advocacy, among other things.

Campaign for Tolerance” is a nationwide, ongoing project that engages the creative community in becoming pro-active for social change. Design projects (whether posters, billboards or newspapers) provide a vehicle in which designers can voice their social concerns, engage younger people in a social dialog, and create messages that positively impact their communities.

The designs all work because they are provocative and thought-provoking. Some have even caused considerable controversy. In this way, we know the messages are being noticed and having an impact, positively affecting the community dialog that is so important with regard to all social change.

The “Create! Don’t Hate. Campaign for Tolerance” was initiated in 2000 and continues to the present. A variety of media – from billboards to newspapers, from bus advertisements to magazines – are created by designers across the country, all toward the point of raising awareness of issues of intolerance, and hopefully offering some solutions. Because literally scores of designers have participated since its inception, working alongside additional scores of young students as mentors; and because literally hundreds of thousands of citizens have seen this variety of media and been impacted by it, the project continues to resonate and improve the life of the American people.