ABOUT

May 25 2020. Minneapolis. The murder of a black man by a white police officer. The catalyst for a wave of on-going national - and international - protests against police brutality and racism. A pivotal moment, forever set in history.

The Black Lives Matter movement spread quickly around the globe, impacting each of us in some way. As the protests began, at Vault49 we all felt passionately about using our voices to be part of the movement.

“It’s uncommon for Black men and women to be founders of a global design agency. Previously I kept a low profile because that is my nature, but I want to say it out loud: Vault49 is co-founded by a Black Man.” - John Glasgow, Co-Founder of Vault49.

Vault49 started as a street art collective between John and fellow Co-Founder Jonathan Kenyon in 2002. Back then, they spent their evenings flypostering the streets of London to make it more beautiful.

When the BLM protests started in New York in 2020, John galvanized the team and launched a campaign to help shine a light on the injustices and police brutality towards black men and women. Going back to the agency’s roots, we came together to collaborate on a series of bold typographic posters that communicated powerful statements to catch people’s attention at the protests.

The 1950s and 1960s are associated with the civil rights movement in the US. It was an era of activism, a time of social and political change, and much of the iconic imagery we connect with these movements shows protesters marching in the streets - in Selma, for example, and during the Stonewall uprising.

Our creative inspiration came from looking back at those significant moments in time. Powerful messages of protest, pasted up on handmade placards and posters, really stood out. The combination of a bold and simple typeface with contrasting paper stock was the key to amplifying such powerful words. Deliberately bold and uncomplicated, the emphasis was placed on being clear and legible; easily read and understood by the masses. It was the impact of repetition - seeing them in their hundreds - that made them so compelling, and so memorable.

These insights shaped how we approached the creation of our posters, building on the idea by choosing strikingly-colored paper stock to give our messages as much disruptive standout as possible. In one of the quickest turnarounds ever, we printed thousands of posters by hand using the in-house screenprinting facilities in our New York studio.

Handing the posters out around the city to help amplify the protest messages, we also got to work posting them up on the boarded-up storefronts on Fifth Avenue, and around SoHo and Brooklyn, to create as much disruption and noise as possible.

Our messages spread far and wide, with the posters even appearing in the opening credits of an HBO show about the effects of police brutality on the black community.

Since the initial protests, John and the team have continued to design, print and share new runs of the posters around NYC to keep pushing the narrative. Watch this space for more.

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At Vault49, we represent the diversity of the world we live in and the freedom of the one we want to be.

We have a woman at the head of every department because they were the best candidates for the job, and there is a 50/50 gender balance across our team.

We blend immigrants throughout our studios. This fusion allows us to draw on diverse thinking, experience, and a broader design sensibility that, in turn, helps us understand how we impact people around us.

We are accepting of all genders and sexual preferences.

Up until that moment in 2020 we spent 18 years acting as if being a diverse company wasn’t an achievement. Leading quietly by example. Show, don’t tell.

2022 marks our 20th anniversary. It is time to raise our voice.