Future:Media:Change

For a brand new social entrepreneurial outfit TANO design is already producing iconic designs. A quick look at their sleek site gives you the feeling of a fine balance between history and innovation, art and revolution.

In a similar way to Shepard Fairey’s iconic Obama image and Jim Fitzpatrick’s high-contrast drawing of Che Guevara, TANO’s designs are also centered around what its founder and designer Eddie Mandhry calls ‘iconic personalities’.

“I get inspiration for the graphics from political and social movements past and present,” Eddie explains, “The selection of the iconic personalities is an organic process based on my familiarity with the individuals – some well known historical figures, others are unsung or forgotten heroes past and present.”

A feature in many of Eddie’s designs is a striking pair of red RayBans.

“The red glasses, aside from being cool, are metaphorical. Glasses often serve to enhance vision or shield our eyes from harmful rays. In my designs, aside from being aesthetically striking, the red glasses are a play on the visionary nature, and the world view held by the individuals depicted.”

The TANO icon-stable includes personalities associated with liberation movements around the world like Franz Fanon, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kiy, Akinwande Oluwole “Wole” Soyinka, Miriam Makeba and Edward Saaid, as well as gentlemen better known for their oppressive behavior such as Kenya’s Daniel Arap Moi and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Eddie, who was born and raised in Kenya to Ethiopian and Omani parentage, continues:

“our products fundamentally speak to the universality of human rights and the individual and collective responsibility we have to defend those rights. In addition to educating the public, I hope to provide a platform for building political consciousness and activism as well as advancing social dialogue.
Subsequent designs (such as the Democracy Radio series of posters which features Moi and Mugabe – see right) seek to push the political envelope and challenge us to think about matters like global poverty, racism, corruption, authoritarianism, economic greed, environmental degradation etc.”

A New York based human rights educator working with youth in some of the most under-served public schools in NY, Eddie started TANO Design out of a desire to fuse and operationalize his passion for art, culture and design with a sense of social and political agency:

“Everyone who purchases a TANO Design product supports a carefully selected grassroots organizations working tirelessly for social justice in often volatile environments.  This season we’re supporting the South Kivu Women’s Media Association AFEM/SK  in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

AFEM/SK, founded by Ms. Namegabe, is as collective of Congolese women journalists reporting on gender, good governance and sexual violence in Kalehe, Uvira and Walunga territories, all of which are in war torn Eastern DRC.

The designs are available on posters, t-shirts and customized at reasonable prices. Go check it out and help change the world design by design.