Plan Mesoamerica
A collaborative poster project of The Beehive Design Collective
http://www.beehivecollective.org
A collaborative poster project of The Beehive Design Collective
http://www.beehivecollective.org
The Beehive’s mission:
To cross-pollinate the grassroots, by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images that can be used as educational and organizing tools.
What is Project Mesoamerica
Formerly known as Plan Puebla Panama, this project aims to transform the region from Southern Mexico to Panama into a mega-industrial manufacturing and transportation corridor. The region forms a strategic, narrow isthmus connecting North and South America and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Project Mesoamerica quite literally seeks to pave the way for Free Trade. The project encompasses a slew of infrastructure projects including superhighways, hydro-electric dams, mines, mega-resorts, and factory zones.
Formerly known as Plan Puebla Panama, this project aims to transform the region from Southern Mexico to Panama into a mega-industrial manufacturing and transportation corridor. The region forms a strategic, narrow isthmus connecting North and South America and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Project Mesoamerica quite literally seeks to pave the way for Free Trade. The project encompasses a slew of infrastructure projects including superhighways, hydro-electric dams, mines, mega-resorts, and factory zones.
My role in the project
This graphic project was a huge collaboration involving many people over the span of eight years. I came onto the poster project in 2010 to work in a very specific style that was needed for the piece. When I came on board the piece was entirely penciled in and everything had been outlined with the thinnest of pens. I penciled and inked all of the shading that is done to make it look like the style of an old map.
This graphic project was a huge collaboration involving many people over the span of eight years. I came onto the poster project in 2010 to work in a very specific style that was needed for the piece. When I came on board the piece was entirely penciled in and everything had been outlined with the thinnest of pens. I penciled and inked all of the shading that is done to make it look like the style of an old map.
The Hive's Collaborative Design Process
These graphics were designed using an intensive process of first hand investigation and collective storytelling. The Beehive documented many examples of alternatives to industrial development plans... Like the stunning diversity of the ecosystems of Mesoamerica, we witnessed equally diverse strategies for building economic, social and political autonomy. The ants, a powerful metaphor for solidarity and organizing in numbers, join hundreds of other species under the canopy of the ceiba tree.
To inform the initial design of the illustration, a swarm of Bees from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. journeyed from Puebla, Mexico, to Panama for over five months in 2004. During the following years, consultation with affected communities continued, as we updated and added to the stories and information at hemispheric convergences such as the Social Forum of the Americas in 2008. The Beehive gathered first hand stories from more than 75 grassroots groups and countless individuals. Our consultations took a variety of forms, from community-wide round table discussions, to interviews and informal conversations, to discussions over e-mail and reading peoples reports on the effects of Plan Puebla Panama and Project Mesoamerica. This intensive and collaborative design process is essential to the Beehive’s goal of coordinating our graphics campaigns in the most accurate and respectful way.
These graphics were designed using an intensive process of first hand investigation and collective storytelling. The Beehive documented many examples of alternatives to industrial development plans... Like the stunning diversity of the ecosystems of Mesoamerica, we witnessed equally diverse strategies for building economic, social and political autonomy. The ants, a powerful metaphor for solidarity and organizing in numbers, join hundreds of other species under the canopy of the ceiba tree.
To inform the initial design of the illustration, a swarm of Bees from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. journeyed from Puebla, Mexico, to Panama for over five months in 2004. During the following years, consultation with affected communities continued, as we updated and added to the stories and information at hemispheric convergences such as the Social Forum of the Americas in 2008. The Beehive gathered first hand stories from more than 75 grassroots groups and countless individuals. Our consultations took a variety of forms, from community-wide round table discussions, to interviews and informal conversations, to discussions over e-mail and reading peoples reports on the effects of Plan Puebla Panama and Project Mesoamerica. This intensive and collaborative design process is essential to the Beehive’s goal of coordinating our graphics campaigns in the most accurate and respectful way.
