Beehive Design Collective

Beehive Design Collective, “Mesoamérica Resiste”, 2005–2014, Digital print on fabric

Beehive Design Collective

The Beehive Design Collective is a wildly motivated, all-volunteer, activist arts collective dedicated to “cross-pollinating the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. We work as word-to-image translators of complex global stories, shared with us through conversations with affected communities.

We seek to cut out the constant queries of “who made that?” and “how much does it cost?” from our creative process. We work anonymously by crediting every graphic we make to the collective as a whole; you won’t find the names of individual artists listed anywhere. We distribute our graphics by sliding scale donations, and we try to give away roughly half of the materials we print to frontline communities, educators, and organizers actively working on the issues in the posters.

We build and disseminate these visual tools with the hope that they will self-replicate, and take on life of their own. It gives us a huge surge of energy knowing that others are taking the helm and using these graphics in their own communities. To make this abundant cross-pollination possible, all of our work is licensed under the Creative Commons (CC).

At the core of our group, there are usually 10 to 15 Bees committed to moving our work forward on an ongoing basis. We also have a strong decentralized network of part time bees whose contributions are integral to what we do. Some of us are based on the coast of eastern Maine, where we are involved in many local revitalization projects, while others are spread out across the map. Together we work to find creative ways to collaborate and make both our local and global vision of the Beehive a reality.

– Beehive Design Collective

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The Beehive Design Collective is a wildly motivated, all-volunteer, activist arts collective dedicated to “cross-pollinating the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. Through conversations with affected communities Beehive Design Collective works as word-to-image translators of complex global stories. Working anonymously, all production is credited to the collective as a whole. Graphics are distributed by accepting donations on a sliding scale, and roughly half of the materials the collective produces are given away on the frontline to communities, educators, and organizers who are actively working on the issues addressed in the posters.

By building and disseminating these visual tools, they hope that they will self-replicate and take on lives of their own. To make this abundant cross-pollination possible, all of our work is licensed under the Creative Commons (CC). Beehive Design Collective consists of a core group of 10–15 people from the coast of eastern coast of Maine along with a strong decentralized network spread out across the map, working to find creative ways to collaborate and make local and global visions of the Beehive a reality.

www.beehivecollective.org

Beehive Design Collective, “Mesoamérica Resiste”, 2005–2014, Digital print on fabric