With vintage-style fonts and an anti-Trump message, this collective turns historic buildings into protest zones
Plus: How Elon Musk’s work for DOGE has tanked Tesla’s brand value
Scheduling note: I’ll be off the rest of the week visiting family. See you next week!
With vintage-style fonts and an anti-Trump message, this collective turns historic buildings into protest zones
The steeple of Boston’s Old North Church has a historic claim to fame. In 1775, Paul Revere arranged for lanterns to be displayed as a signal to colonists that communicated British troop movements, and the route of an impending invasion: one lantern if by land, two if by sea. Now, 250 years later, the church is once again a messenger for a dire moment in American history.
April 18 marked 250 years since Revere’s ride the night before the Battles of Lexington and Concord outside Boston that set off the Revolutionary War. To mark the occasion, a Boston art collective called Silence Dogood, its name a tip of the hat to one of Benjamin Franklin’s pseudonyms, used the occasion to project far less veiled messages in vintage-style typefaces onto the Old North Church’s steeple.
“The Revolution Started Here and It Never Left,” “Let the Warning Ride Forth Once More: Tyranny Is at Our Door,” and “One if by Land, Two if by D.C.” were digs at President Donald Trump and statements of identity about Boston as the birthplace of the American Revolution.
“Two-hundred fifty years later, tyranny has returned,” the group said in a statement. “Let Boston once more be the beacon in the country’s hour of darkness and relight the rallying signal to protect our liberty.”
Silence Dogood started last month with a projection at the Old State House responding to border czar Tom Homan’s comments about “bringing hell” to the city. The visual protests have grown “in a very organic way” since, an organizer tells Fast Company. The group is finding ways to both react to events as they unfold in real time and mark the anniversary of the Revolutionary War with messages about the Trump administration’s abuses of power.
Projections were a staple of protest against Trump in his first term; activists and artists projected critical messages onto Trump’s hotels in cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Silence Dogood has taken that concept and adopted it for Boston, and for the nation’s semiquincentennial, with thoughtful font and location choices. That the White House touted Trump a king only bolsters the group’s message.
The projections were written in a handful of fonts, including some the group has customized. One was chosen as an homage to colonial-era pamphlets like Thomas Paine’s 1776 “Common Sense,” which gives their projections a sense of historic context, paired with a more blocky font used in all-caps.
As a medium, projection allows the collective to make large statements directly on the places where history happened, and messages can be quickly designed and executed. Since launching, they’ve projected onto the facades of other historic buildings, including Faneuil Hall and Old South Meeting House. The group uses a Reon solar-powered mobile electric generator, 1,600-lumen Epson projectors, and a computer using the projection mapping software MadMapper.
By bringing their projections to historic sites and using fonts and anniversaries to tie history to the modern day, Silence Dogood has tapped into a potent medium that brings timely messages to timeless locations with only the power of type and light.
Previously in Yello:
How Elon Musk’s work for DOGE has tanked Tesla’s brand value
Elon Musk’s foray into government has proven disastrous for his business life.
Since taking up work for Trumps’ so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Musk’s electric car company Tesla has seen sales slide and has become a target for protests. Now some believe that damage could be terminal and that Musk poses a risk to companies outside of his own.
The Reputation Risk Index looks at reputational threats facing companies and organizations. It recently found that being associated with Musk posed the second biggest threat to companies, between the harmful or deceptive use of artificial intelligence and backtracking on DEI. The index, which is based on a survey with 117 public affairs leaders and former heads of state, found it’s not just being associated with Musk that’s risky, but being singled out and publicly criticized by him.
“With his controversial omnipresence in the media landscape, 28% of the council identified this association as a top reputational risk, highlighting Musk’s impact on businesses that extend well past his own,” Global Risk Advisory Council chair Isabel Casillas Guzman said in the report.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives predicted in a note Sunday that even if Musk were to quit DOGE and get back to his car company “there will be permanent brand damage.” And if Musk stays in government, brand damage could grow for Tesla, he said, calling it a “code red situation” for the company.
Musk “needs to leave the government, take a major step back on DOGE, and get back to being CEO of Tesla full-time,” Ives wrote. Tesla missed Wall Street expectations in its earnings call Tuesday and reported a year-over-year sales decline of 9%.
Musk’s hard turn to DOGE has shown that mixing business with politics can backfire, especially for a public CEO of a company that relies on customers who in large part don’t share his views. If Musk wasn’t planning on leaving his post as a “special government employee” after the 130-day limit comes up, he might find a more persuasive business reason that it’s time to get back to his day job.
Have you seen this?
The Democrats’ X account is starting to get spicy. It’s about time. As Democratic leadership ramps up its pushback against Trump, the party’s social media strategy is hinting at an escalation to match the moment. [Fast Company]
Photos reveal construction progress on granite-wrapped Obama Presidential Center museum. Designed to resemble “four hands coming together,” the building topped out in June 2024 and is currently receiving its outermost shell, as seen in images shared by the Obama Foundation. [Dezeen]
Veep’s fateful Pope meeting. Vice President J.D. Vance was among Pope Francis’ final visitors on Sunday before his passing, and the Veep got some Easter goodies for the kids. Meanwhile back in Washington, POTUS and FLOTUS hosted a White House Easter event with corporate sponsors. [Whig]
History of political design
"The Papal Visit 2015, America Welcomes Pope Francis" pinback button (2015). During his visit to the U.S. in 2015, Pope Francis, who died the day after Easter at the age of 88, met with then-President Barack Obama, became the first pope to address a joint session of Congress, and met with the Little Sisters of the Poor in Washington, D.C. “The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States,” he said in his address to Congress. “The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.” RIP 🕊️
Portions of this newsletter were first published in Fast Company.
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