The AIGANY Cause/Effect conference is underway today, with the morning sessions off to a very strong start. Introductions by coordinators Emma Presler and Mike Essl were followed by a full-on historical tour of propaganda by Steve Heller. Arguing that the term was not always pejorative, Heller traced propaganda through magazines, posters, words, icons, photography, graffiti, ad hoc demonstration placards, and guerrilla re-purposing. Lots of the images will be found in his books and on his SVA podcasts, but this is a PowerPoint deck you'll definitely want to get ahold of.

Seymour Chwast then boarded the tour bus, showing the audience an assortment of his political posters and illustrations, beginning with the observation, "The 60's was a great time in addition to sex and drugs...people bought posters."

Mark Randall then took to the stage with an overview of core-fave Urban Forest Project, revealing that some of the posters had to be edited (Seymour Chwast's being one of them!), and showing delight that other cities across the US have picked up the initiative.

Alissa Walker is beside me live-blogging the event, so check out her posts at Unbeige.