As a parent, I’ve had a very hard time finding progressive children’s books for my toddler. Innosanto Nagara felt the same way, so he and the Design Action Collective decided to do something about it. They are designing a picture book for radical tots — a full-fledged, pro-social and environmental justice ABC book. I've backed this on Kickstarter and you should too!

Update: September 13, 2012. The book is funded and in production! You can order it now at aisforactivist.com

It’s amazing waking up in Brooklyn to see the euphoric tweets and pictures coming out of Libya as people vote in their first free election for more than 50 years.

A few recent picks:

I now feel that the 70 days I spent in prison didn't go to waste ‪#LYelect ‬ ‫#ليبيا‬ ‫#تنتخب‬

One young man at station said he didny sleep all night, can't wait to vote, been at stn since 5am! #Libya #LYElect #Benghazi

93y old lady voting for first time in her life ‪#Gheryan‬ ‪#LyElect‬ ‪#Libya‬ pic.twitter.com/3QyyMVwg

You wouldn't know it, but this man told me after his vote "inside I feel like I am flying" pic.twitter.com/mKk2Sfn4

The purple is election ink, a semi-permanent dye applied to voters’ fingers to prevent double voting. Those inky fingers are something special today.

Design students at the University of Québec started the École de la Montagne Rouge to produce visual materials supporting the 2012 student protests across Québec.

They’ve posted a lovely collection of poster designs, many in the spirit of Grapus and the Atélier Populaire. Here are some of my favorites below, linking to the larger versions.

The red square is the symbol of the Maple Spring and via Just Seeds I found Seeing Red Montréal, an ongoing documentation of red squares painted, stickered, and postered on the streets of Montreal.

Olympic pictograms have been used since the 1936 Berlin games to create a visual system of signs for navigating (and decorating) the games and host cities across language barriers. See this writeup or animated appraisal for a visual tour of pictograms through the years.

This year’s London games use two sets of pictograms: simple silhouettes for utilitarian communication and a more exuberant version for decorative applications.

In 2004 VirusFonts reinterpreted the Olympic pictogram in a series of satirical icons to puncture the heroism and reflect the bribery, political manipulation, drugs and greed behind the Athens Olympics. Last week they released a new set to reflect on the controversies and accusations leveled at the 2012 London games. The pictograms riff on the iconic style developed by Otl Aicher for the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Below, the full set of 2012 Olympukes:

Olympukes 2012 is available for download as a font and is free for personal, non-commercial use.