Occupy Design is a grassroots project connecting designers with on-the-ground demonstrators in the Occupy Together movement. The project’s goal is to create freely available visual tools around a common graphic language to unite the 99%. The project places an emphasis on producing infographics and icons to improve the communication of the movement’s messages and the data surrounding them across the world.

The site includes a showcase of existing designs, a how-to guide for demonstrators, a graphic toolkit for designers, and a platform for the community to suggest ideas for designs. The project was created in less than 24 hours October 14-15 weekend by a team of designers, programmers, artists, and demonstrators in San Francisco as part of three concurrent creative hackathons across the country to support Occupy Together.

As part of their planning process, team members spoke with demonstrators from Occupy San Francisco, who gave pointed insight into their on-the-ground needs, and reiterated the value of well-designed, universal signage. The project focuses on three main areas – infographic protest signs to bring data visualization to the street; logistical signs to streamline occupations; and a set of custom-designed, open-source visual icons around social justice themes. The focus on infographics stemmed from the desire to bring graphic representation of statistical evidence to the forefront of the movement on the ground – rather than being limited to independent computer screens.

We are also inspired by The Noun Project, which collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way. We custom-design many of our icons, and also pull in relevant imagery from many sources, including The Noun Project.

OccupyDesign is an independent, unaffiliated, and nonpartisan grassroots initiative.

Read team member bios.