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Jonathan Barnbrook says last week's high court ruling was 'depressing' but the idea of what St Paul's protesters are doing is now in the mainstream 'and we can't go back'
The graphic designer behind the Occupy London logo has spoken out about the high court judgment ordering the eviction of the St Paul's protesters last week, calling the ruling "depressing but not unexpected".
Jonathan Barnbrook, who has worked with David Bowie and Damien Hirst and gave Occupy their logo for free, said: "I do think that even if they are evicted the idea of what they are doing is now in the mainstream and we can't go back. Occupy London has become a channel for the voice of people who feel that they are not being represented by the government. This financial crisis has affected everybody, and the City, being accountable to only itself, has got off lightly. This was a direct action of people who were prepared to sacrifice the comfort of a roof over their heads to represent us all."
Last Wednesday Mr Justice Lindblom ruled that the protesters – who object to the banking bailout and government response to the financial crisis – had to leave the area around St Paul's Cathedral in central London that they have occupied since October.
He gave them until Friday 27 January at 4pm to appeal to the court of appeal. So far Tammy Samede, the lead defendant in the case, has done so; George Barda and Daniel Ashman, the two "litigants in person", have yet to do so but have indicated that they plan to, a spokesman for Occupy London said today.
Barnbrook became involved with the Occupy campaigners when they were forced to stop using their previous logo (see left), based on the London Underground sign, by Transport for London, and held an open competition to find a new one.
Barnbrook's design beat 17 others to be chosen as the new Occupy London logo after a vote among the protesters. He said he was "honoured" they chose his logo.
The London-based designer said he had wanted to avoid the typical imagery of leftwing movements, such as the clenched fist, because he felt that the Occupy movement involved people from all parts of the political spectrum.
Instead he used the Os in the words Occupy London as symbols for location, with the L in the graphical part of the logo transformed into an arrow, indicating the journey a protester has to make to occupy a public space. It was a reasonably conventional idea, he said, but that was right for something meant to be understood as widely as possible.
The Occupiers are also using Barnbrook's font Bastard for the logo of their newspaper the Occupied Times (left).
As he wrote on his blog, Barnbrook thought that was "a rather apt choice of typeface, considering the ideology of the typeface: the reinterpretation of blackletter semiotics [such fonts are often associated with the Nazis] and insinuation that multinational corporations are akin to the new fascists".
One of the reasons Barnbrook wanted to be involved with Occupy London was because he felt that designers were often bracketed with the worst of the capitalist system, and he wanted to show that that did not have to be the case.
He is sympathetic to Occupy London's aims, feeling that the protesters are playing an important role pointing out the flaws in the economic system since the financial crisis of 2008.
He told the Guardian: "It's clear that we have to look at a new way of constructing our society, and I do believe the Occupiers are the start of that. The market economy has limped along for a number of years, bringing unfairness to all but a few. The people who called for the free market to rule all have been discredited. People like Matt Ridley come to mind – he was chairman of Northern Rock when the government saved it from collapse. He had previously been against regulation by government in all its forms.
"The problem is until now people have lacked the imagination or will to change the situation but desperation is making people act now. For me as a designer it gives me hope because we have been complicit in the feeding frenzy of the money-making; now as part of the Occupy movement, there are designers working without ego, just with a belief in what the movement is doing."
Of the court case, he said: "The strangest thing was the position of the church. They talked very publicly about supporting the movement but gave evidence for the Corporation of London, so really there has to be some consistency in their view here."
Barnbrook said that throughout history society did not change until an idea gained "mainstream political currency". "I do believe that Occupy London and the other movements around the world are the part of what will be a fundamental shift in society."
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