Donate!
In a time when histories are being removed, hidden, and made illegal to teach in schools, your support for The People’s Graphic Design Archive is more important than ever. This is your archive and survives on your support.
Donate
Topics Add to Archive

Somalia Needs Your Hearts

Added by Behnam Raeesian 5 on Apr 24th, 2026

Date

2014

Credits

Format

““Somalia Needs Your Hearts” is a poster created in 2014 in response to ongoing humanitarian crises and food insecurity in Somalia. The work uses a simplified human figure integrated with elements of the Somali flag, where the chest becomes a site of urgency and empathy, suggesting both vulnerability and the need for global attention.

Rather than relying on graphic imagery, the poster adopts a minimal symbolic language to communicate the human cost of distant crises, reflecting a broader tendency in mid-2010s graphic design toward abstraction and universal visual cues in humanitarian messaging.

The poster was exhibited in several international poster exhibitions during the mid-2010s. It was first published online in 2015. The current version has been reconstructed in 2026 following the loss of the original files.

Tags

Poster addressing the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, 2014.
Source: Published on iroon.com (2014): https://iroon.com/irtn/album/photo/15462/
Poster addressing the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, 2014.
Installation view featuring “Somalia Needs Your Hearts,” 2014. Exhibition documentation from the artist’s personal archive. Location unspecified.
Source: Courtesy of the artist (Behnam Raeesian), personal archive.
Installation view featuring “Somalia Needs Your Hearts,” 2014. Exhibition documentation from the artist’s personal archive. Location unspecified.