Arts have the ability to bring people together, promote positive behavioral change and foster conflict transformation through safe and creative means. One of Never Again Rwanda’s main goals, as largely expressed by its Societal Healing and Participatory Governance for Peace Program, is to promote involvement in governance, the solving of conflict through dialogue, and discussions of past trauma amongst youth. Art can act as a non-verbal language for this because through various art forms, messages can be visually communicated and thus made easy to understand and accessible to all.
As graphic designers, our role is to take messages of peace, and simplify them by incorporating them into colours, patterns, and different elements that easily transmit the intended message. Graphic design is computer-aided art, and so can be difficult to do. This is why as a graphic designer, one has to make sure they understand the concept in order to avoid misunderstanding the message and then producing a design that sends the wrong message. Designs that send the wrong message can be extremely detrimental to the intended audience and the society because they have the power to begin or escalate conflict.
Young and aspiring graphic designers should always make sure that their art is sending positive messages of peace because it is one of the most powerful tools of communication – meaning that it has just as much power to destroy, thus requiring the artist to be very responsible.