Visual Design, Decolonising Design
Redesigning the book cover of ‘Men Explain Things To Me’ by Rebecca Solnit with the lens of decolonising design
We were tasked with redesigning a book cover to bring a decolonial lens to an existing work. We could select a book whose content needs to be decolonized or a book whose content already demonstrates a decolonial agenda. I chose the latter and decided to go with the book ‘Men Explain Things to Me’ by Rebecca Sonit.
“Most women fight wars on two fronts, one for whatever the putative topic is and one simply for the right to speak, to have ideas, to be acknowledged to be in possession of facts and truths, to have value, to be a human being. Things have certainly gotten better, but this war won’t end in my lifetime. I’m still fighting it, for myself certainly, but also for all those younger women who have something to say, in the hope that they will get to say it.”
- Rebecca Solnit
The idea behind the design was to portray the universality of ‘Me’ in ‘Men Explain Things to “Me”’. The ‘Me’ can be any woman or any person who identifies as female all over the world. Thus, the design has vectors of women of different color, race, religion, age etc.
