In 2002, the American Civil Liberties Union needed a new identity, or “iconic depiction” as it were. Unsurprisingly, they’d never used a consistant mark since their inception. What they ultimately chose, unfortunately, was a photograph- cropped like my illustration shown in the upper right hand side of this page.
The ACLU claims to support liberals like me. They just don’t actually pay us for the work we do.
Exploratory fee: $1,500............ Paid.
Usage fee: $9,000............. Past Due.
Lower left “!” mark designed by Nicholas Blechman. CDs: Sylvia Harris, Fo Wilson, along with 15 other exploratory illustrators.
------fast forward 2005------
new design firm/ same client:
“We have a logo project for the ACLU. Interested?”
Sure, but I’m pretty sure they hate me. One of their lawyers..
“Well, they’ve seen your work and they really like it”
They do? OK. Let’s give this another try then.
We did some work for a worthy initiative and tried to make
it stick. Yet, in the end, they decided drop the entire
project. What happened? It was summed up something like:
“The ACLU is a fairly difficult client. We do work
with them because we support them. Rarely does that beaurocracy
come together around one purpose.” (paraphrased)
No shit.
Perhaps they liked me because I’m difficult… and stupid
enough to give them another try.