Shining light on human rights

In early November, artistic portrayals of human rights issues glowed throughout the halls of Daniel J. Curran Place during the Social Practice of Human Rights Conference. Graphic design lecturer Jeremy Yontz was inspired by Curran Place’s windows and had his students create large-scale designs highlighting relevant issues.

“The sun shines straight through those windows, and I thought this might be a cool opportunity to shed light on some of these subjects,” he said.

Each student had to select a topic, write a synopsis and fill large amounts of dimensional space. The posters took a month to complete and were installed a few days before the conference.

Graphic design senior Lucy Reed, who designed one of the posters, said, “I found immense satisfaction in working on this project because it enabled me to craft something of profound personal significance, while also sparking a conversation about an important universal human right.”

Reed's poster used family photos to raise awareness of suicide worldwide.

Yontz aimed to support the Human Rights Center while giving his students the opportunity to work with more challenging dimensions and voice their stances on pertinent issues.

“The main goal was really to let the students express themselves and contribute with their voice in a dimensional sense,” he said. “I think overall the process was very educational, and it helped them learn a lot about doing installations outside of a 2D scale. They did an amazing job.”