Studio Rokit loves working with clients that are trying to change the world or at least make it a better place. So we’re delighted to be working with indexoncensorship.org – designing the look and feel for their Freedom of Expression Awards 2014.
Working in a creative industry, in a modern and generally democratic country and never having to fear for out safety is something that is easy to take for granted so it’s nice to be reminded by indexoncensorship.org and their Freedom of Expression Awards 2014, that the world is a big place and from country to country, things can be very different.
We rarely worry about what we say or how we say them in the UK. Our society has grown up in such a way that we value individual expression, dissent is part of the artistic, intellectual and political landscape. Ideas, politics and conversations surrounding sexual identity in the UK are now broader and more mainstream than ever and the individual on all levels is more accepted than ever in our past.
But look around the world or perhaps just watch, read or listen to the news and you quickly realise that things are very different outside our borders. People risk their lives every day to raise issues we take for granted. One of the higher profile issues of recent times was one girls mission to take on the Taliban and demand equality in her own country and allow girls to have an education. Malala Yousafzai wasn’t looking to overthrow a government or destabilise a region. All she wanted was a fair crack of the whip. An education that was a good as the boys got in her area of the world. Something that we take for granted. She paid a heavy price for her views, expressing them made her a target of an assassination attempt. A 12 year old girl had the guts to say what she thought was right and important even though the risks were high. indexoncensorship.org were the first international organisation to recognise her efforts.
Malala’s story is not unique though. Many of the winners and shortlisted individuals that appear on the indexoncensorship.org Freedom of Expression Award list have similar stories, stories where they’ve risked a lot for something that we take for granted. If you’ve got 5 minutes take a look at their site and remind yourself what it means to live in a country where you can say what you want, how you want and when you want.
#indexawards2014
[…] our work with 38 Degrees and Index On Censorship, our recent work designing the Compassonline.org.uk Conference 2013 identify and support materials […]