Meet the Designers Behind Birmingham’s 1963 Civil Rights Poster Series

By Michael Sznajderman Alabama News Center In a modest, windowless office in the basement of Birmingham City Hall, a pair of graphic designers are charting an artistic course through one of the most important years in the city’s history. And their work is getting noticed. Marcus Watts, 41, and Bre Rudolph, 36, the city’s graphic design team, are putting the finishing touches on the last in a series of commemorative posters that reflect on the 60th anniversary of the climactic human rights campaign that took place in Birmingham in 1963 – a movement that resulted in the dismantling of the city’s Jim Crow segregation ordinances and federal civil rights legislation that stuck a dagger in racial separation laws nationwide. Every month this year, the city has issued a new poster tied to the 1963 anniversary – each one promoting a different theme that peers back to those days, but also looks forward. Each poster vibrates with evocative scenes set amid a rainbow of bright colors and flowing fonts, provoking powerful emotions. Indeed, as people all around town learn about the posters, more and more of them are flocking to City Hall to grab the latest one before it’s gone –...