Ephemeral Graphic Traces

Siân Cook examines locally produced AIDS ephemera—including leaflets, t-shirts, pins, and packets—to trace situated histories of making in the UK and consider how locally embedded cultural work connects to broader social movements.

This post is part of ‘Art, Visual Culture & HIV/AIDS: Local, Regional & Transnational Perspectives’ a guest-edited portfolio by Theo Gordon that collects writings from the ‘Art, Visual Culture & HIV/AIDS: Local, Regional and Transnational Perspectives’ conference hosted by the History of Art Department at the University of York in June of 2025.  Read more about the portfolio here.

Each country and community has a different AIDS experience, which is reflected through the imagery produced or adapted for small, localised campaigns and communications, including flyers, fundraising leaflets, condom packaging, t-shirts, badges, and so on, the whole host of material that makes up the epidemic’s ‘visual ephemera’.

‘Ephemera’ has been defined as “something of no lasting significance”, but the opposite can be true if we make the effort to preserve and examine these materials in depth.¹ A more helpful definition is “items that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness”, acknowledging the original purpose and intention as significant.²

The archivist Lucy Brownson observes that ephemeral materials often challenge conventional archival practices due to their transient and ambiguous status:

Despite persistent professional anxieties and archival omissions, ephemeral archives often constitute a powerful source for counter-histories of a given institution, community, movement, or era. Such materials are imbued with the specific social and emotional textures of their creators’ lives and accordingly, they require a level of familiarity with their context in order to produce useful, meaningful layers of interpretation.³

Brownson’s insight applies just as much to graphic print ephemera as personal papers. It is crucially important that the wealth of visual materials originally produced around HIV and AIDS, made to inform and encourage behaviour change, to campaign and raise funds, and to show solidarity, are included as part of the epidemic’s visual culture legacy. Such materials had a variety of makers, whether produced by volunteers, professional designers, activists and artists, or as often, a combination of these. Works of art may be preserved in collections and catalogues, and more familiar mass media campaigns may be discussed in cultural studies seminars, but often overlooked ephemeral graphic traces can be used to unlock new stories in different ways. For example, artefacts prompt memories and act as discussion points, adding value to the gathering of oral histories and providing details of historical context for critical analysis.

Many items were created to respond to a very specific time, place or behaviour. These intentionally ephemeral materials could be highly localised or burn bright for a limited period around a particular collective or community. The following examples are all taken from the collection of a UK HIV and AIDS graphic archive, and together show the different histories and textures of experience that emerge when ephemera is given the attention and analysis it deserves. The items in the archive were never intended to endure. Like much graphic design, they were created to serve a specific purpose at a particular moment. Yet this transience does not diminish their value as cultural artefacts. On the contrary, they merit preservation alongside artworks precisely because they inadvertently capture and embody distinct moments in the narrative of AIDS.

"Design ephemera is seen as worthy of retention either because of its documentary value or because of its ability to illustrate some aspect of contemporary design, or the uses to which design is put in everyday life."

– Criteria for Ephemera Collections, Victoria and Albert Museum⁴

"Ephemera are printed artifacts, usually less substantial than books, which, though intended for specific limited purposes or events, are kept by libraries and archives because they contain continuing research value, notably for the study of popular culture."

– Timothy Young, ‘Evidence: toward a library definition of ephemera’ (2003)⁷

The design references a style of pop constructivism that had become the visual language of left culture during the 80s in the UK. Soviet communist propaganda art had been adopted as an aesthetic reference point by style magazines such as The Face and anti-racist demonstration graphics.⁸ The pop group, Communards, used stylised heads – united and facing forward into the future – as their band logo. Their profiles sported the signature ‘buzz-cut’ of lead singer Jimmy Somerville, part of the ‘queer uniform’ (for both men and women) of the time, aligning with his public persona as an openly gay, socialist, and politically active artist.⁹ The heads in the NGMHP design were deliberately androgynous and the text acknowledges lesbians as an equal part of the ‘family’ united in HIV and AIDS activism. Another pop group with strong gay cultural associations was Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who re-released and remixed a number of their earlier singles in 1993, repackaged in a strong red and black constructivist style and also featuring a dynamic asymmetric star as a recurring image.¹⁰ The NGMHP card design alludes to the sense of resistance and strength through the comradeship forged by a volunteer army. Other organisations such as Gay Men Fighting AIDS¹¹ had an influence on regional activist groups such as NGMHP in referencing the military tropes used within gay culture to illustrate their literal battle for survival, expressed with pride in promoting “the safest weapons, condoms & lube”.¹² These types of ephemera were tapping into the gay community’s popular cultural icons and archetypes to create contemporary communications that their audiences would recognise and identify with. 

“It’s nice to know why something was made, by whom and for what purpose – we can’t fully understand the thing without such knowledge – but we’re free to use things (and ideas) differently. We decide what’s significant and how; we decide what it all means”.

 – Chris Cardinal, ‘Ephemera in Archives’ (2016)¹³

Lack of provenance for a piece of ephemera demands closer inspection to identify the date, creator or copyright ownership. The archivist becomes a forensic detective looking for clues. Whilst frustrating, lack of provenance can also become a gift, leaving space for speculation or fictionalisation and inviting fresh creativity as to how we might use and respond to materials. Even one small item could be the starting point for an exhibition.

“If archivists regarded ephemera not as inconsequential and short-lived documents, but, for example, as commercial art, advertising or marketing tools, then the objects become more than ephemera. Rather they reflect the growing societal trends of visual awareness and the power of marketing”. 

– Jim Burant, ‘Ephemera, Archives, and Another View of History’ (1995) ¹⁵

With many AIDS service organisations (ASOs) in the UK increasingly competing for funding in the 1990s, alongside reliance on charities to continue providing vital resources for people living with HIV, formerly grassroots voluntary groups had to professionalise and find creative ways to raise awareness of their work in order to survive. Inspired by American organisations, The Food Chain has been delivering nutritious meals to people living with HIV in London since 1989, but 1996 was the last year that its funding would come from statutory sources. In 1995, The Food Chain printed a summary of their annual report onto t-shirts which could be purchased and were mailed out in foil takeaway food containers, the same as used to deliver meals to HIV positive service users. The text included personal testimonies and information about the importance of good nutrition, alongside statistics and financial facts about the organisation. The typographic layout and hierarchy were carefully considered, using the typeface Bodoni Black Italic as a main design feature.¹⁶ The t-shirt exemplifies the increasingly sophisticated and innovative methods that some ASOs were employing and demonstrates how the use of graphic design helped elevate their marketing communications.

"An item of ephemera is essentially a form of time capsule, a crystallization of another time and place”. 

– Brian Durrans, ‘A Present from the Present’ (1990)¹⁷

Gay Men Fighting AIDS’ (GMFA) ‘Out’ campaign ran from 1997 with the aim “to support and encourage HIV positive gay men who want to be open about their status to potential sexual partners.”¹⁸ This represents a very particular period in the epidemic. Anti-retroviral drug treatments were available from the UK National Health Service and proving to be effective, but evidence for low viral load reducing HIV transmission, leading to the U=U¹⁹ message, did not become available until the early 2000s. In the meantime, more HIV positive men were experiencing improved health, having sex and navigating discussions about their status. The campaign was launched with postcards and teaser adverts in the gay press introducing the ‘+ve’ logo (“Say it, hear it, it means ‘positive’”).

“We wanted the tone of the campaign to be positive – upbeat, supportive, assertive – and we chose a symbol which directly refers to the apparent irony of that word when used to indicate HIV status. The symbol also takes its cue from the success of the gay community in ‘reclaiming’ the pink triangle – originally a symbol of prejudice – as a sign of strength and pride.”²⁰

GMFA recognised that the messaging had to address several complicated issues, explaining that the intention was not to tell men that they should be open about their status, but to provide advice about ways to do so and create a more supportive atmosphere around disclosure within the gay community. A series of different executions, ads and formats were therefore employed in their attempt to ‘smash the closet of the nineties’. In a time before gay dating apps, it was felt that a discreet way of informing potential partners of HIV status might be useful. These lapel pins came mounted on a postcard bearing the message ‘It’s not a label – it’s just a badge’. Whilst the campaign served as a useful talking point, it is not clear how many badges were actually distributed or worn and the U=U slogan eventually provided an even more compelling argument against HIV stigma.

These five examples of graphic ephemera are a small representation of the thousands of items produced over the course of the AIDS epidemic in the UK, and of the innovative use of design, illustration, photography and other formats that have been employed to carry messaging about HIV prevention, support and service promotion. The reach of these individual items, compared with national campaigns, was limited, yet this is exactly why their histories are worth examining. As Simon Watney argued in 1990, “we should be very cautious of evaluating any aspect of cultural politics against over-simplified criteria of effectiveness, as if the size of the audience were always the most important factor. […] In all such matters, strategy is everything.”²¹

Small organisations trying to reach their specific audiences often used graphic design and print media in new and effective ways. In the present moment, looking back on the diverse history of HIV and AIDS as the epidemic continues to unfold, we need to create opportunities and platforms to enable cross fertilisation between visual material archives, oral histories and cultural communities, opening up a space for micro-storytelling to bear witness and make use of graphic ephemera to reveal universal truths.

Siân Cook – Graphic Designer and Senior Lecturer in Graphic and Media Design, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. A volunteer/designer with HIV and AIDS organisations for over 30 years.

UK HIV and AIDS Design Archive: http://www.hivgraphiccommunication.com

@hivgraphics