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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Designing woman of WAR prefers pages to plastic
A LOGO created by Honolulu graphic designer Carole Goodson in about 1973 has been published in a 2005 book co-authored by Milton Glaser, a man she calls "a god in graphic design."
The book is "The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics" and sells for $50. The other author is Mirko Ilic, masters-degree program instructor at the New York School of Visual Arts.
Goodson submitted the logo in response to a call for entries she received in 2004, because she saw and loved the title of the book.
She thought: "That's right up my alley. I'm always dissenting."
The logo came in response to a series of rapes on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus; through her volunteering at the nearby YWCA health clinic; and the women's movement of the time.
"Dorothy Babineau ... she was one of the movers and shakers in this and she was furious that women couldn't walk around (campus safely)," Goodson said.
Babineau, Goodson and several other women banded together around the cause.
"We called ourselves Women Against Rape -- and we realized after the fact that it spelled "war."
They decided to make T-shirts and march and protest. Goodson, who worked with Clarence Lee, was tapped to create the logo.
It was made into transfers and ironed on to white shirts. When they marched, "you could see us coming from a mile away," she said.
The group was active for about six months. Between its efforts and others, university officials set up a system where women could call security for nighttime, cross-campus escort. "I hate to take credit for it. Everyone was working toward the same goal," Goodson said.
She was thrilled to have her design selected -- and was honored by the authors' words: "This clever acronym for a grassroots women's group which mobilized in response to an increase in violence against women is immediate and powerful."
Goodson feels it was a "privilege to be part of a time in history when women were empowered ... we didn't have to accept the status quo; we could fight back. Indeed, sisterhood was powerful."
Goodson co-founded Goodson + Yu Design Ltd. with her husband Roger in 1978. More recently, neither of them were planning to enter any more competitions.
"I have more pieces of paper and Plexiglas stuck in koa and God knows what to last me a lifetime," she said. Awards are for the young who are trying to get established, she opined. "But this appealed to me because I'm still a radical, even though I'm part of the corporate structure at this point."
Now 62 -- and it drives her mother crazy that she divulges her age -- she has lived in Hawaii since about 1970, having moved here "to be a hippie."
She collected unemployment and grew organic bell peppers in Pupukea for health-food restaurants, but after awhile she had to get a job and moved into town.
Though a kamaaina, she identifies herself as a New Yorker "through and through" and you believe her, because of her direct manner of speaking. Oh, and there's the accent.
See the
Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com