LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER
Scott Treleaven
The rough edged look of the poster is an intentional strategy: I always find that the trace of an actual hand-drawn element in posters or signage makes a message far more immediate and intimate. I wanted to come up with something simple, striking, and evocative of the kind of imagery that's always caught my attention (HomoCult, Gran Fury, Queer Action Figures, etc). The pos/neg imagery was an obvious choice for me as all of my current work deals with ideas of interconnectivity, continuity, and perception. As constructs, the symbols are only useful as visual shorthand and they deliberately fall apart, or vanish, at the edge of the page. As for the text - the message is simple. It's a broad-based but heartfelt slogan meant to imply a number of issues around health, awareness, community, charity, and solidarity. Queers, especially younger ones, seem to be fatigued when it comes to AIDS awareness, and I think this is largely due to the awful, exclusionary push towards "normalizing" queer culture. The message, to look after each other, is always worth reiterating. We’ve always watched out for one another when no one else would. And this message is becoming more important than ever.