Amplifier is a nonprofit media lab with a mission to amplify the most important moments of our times, by any medium necessary. They build visual campaigns to support various movements, promote critical thinking, build compassion, and provide pathways for direct action to shed light on some of humanity’s most important issues.

Amplifier works with artists and social movements to create over 1000 posters available for free download on their website. In doing so, they have made it easier for social movement campaigns to get a national footing. One group Amplifier has worked with recently is We the People, a nonpartisan campaign dedicated to igniting a national dialogue about American identity and values through public art and story sharing.

To create imagery for this campaign, Amplifier worked with artist Shepard Fairey, most famously known for his “Hope” election poster for Barack Obama. Fairey creates posters that represent inclusion in America. In the We the People campaign, Fairey’s posters represent three unique individuals who all represent different stories of what it means to be American: Maribel Valdez Gonzalez, Ridwan Adhami, and 12-year-old Menelik.

Amplifier also worked with Fairey, as well as several other artists, on Reframe, a campaign to “reframe” the issues that have divided us as a nation and to start conversations that can restore our faith in each other, renew our hope, and repair our country.

To boost their campaigns to another level, Amplifier also created the first-ever activist-driven augmented reality app that transforms 2D images into literal calls for action. By scanning an Amplifier image, like the We the People or Reframe posters, with their app, you can hear messages straight from the movement leaders and see animations that bring the images to life.

You can learn more about Amplifier and their app on their website.

The GVSU Art Museum has Amplifier posters in its collection and on display throughout GVSU campuses. Download their app and scan the poster to bring them to life.

Explore more Amplifier posters in the collection