Earlier this year we launched ‘Icon’, a project designed to inspire an iconic poster which would become synonymous with the campaign for an independent Scotland.
Barack Obama’s ‘Hope’ poster is a great example of how a set of ideas can be distilled into a piece of visual art. The difficulty in trying to replicate this for the independence campaign is that we are offering a very different kind of hope. The Obama image was dependent on an image of the candidate because, for right or wrong, the hope offered was dependent on the election of an individual.
The hope offered by the Yes campaign is not dependent on any individual, but instead is based on a belief of the collective power of ordinary people to forge a better society.
We still hope that an iconic image, or a series of iconic images, will come to the fore between now and the referendum. But we know that any such image could not be centred on any politician. We are not offered hope in any particular individual; we are offered hope in ourselves.
You can spread the message of Yes
For that reason we will be launching a series of posters featuring ordinary people and their reasons for supporting independence. We have set ourselves the ambitious target of 10,000 posters across Scotland which will showcase the diverse and grassroots nature of the national movement. These will be displayed in pubs, in cafes, in shop windows and on university campuses; everywhere where Scots will see them.
If you wish to take part, please submit a photo of yourself and one sentence explaining why you support independence, along with your name and occupation to iam@nationalcollective.com or use the hashtag #iamnationalcollective on twitter. As well as distributing the posters ourselves, we will make them available for download on our website.
If you’re already involved with another organisation, such as Women For Independence or Radical Independence, don’t worry – We’re always keen to work together! If you want to be featured on our posters, we will include the logo of your organisation (although we might draw the line at Better Together…).
This is the story of Scottish Independence. We are National Collective.
