Lee Purvey '14 Discusses Justseeds, a Nationwide Cooperative Focusing on Social Justice Issues Through Graphic Design

Justseeds began in 1998 as the distribution mechanism of founder Josh MacPhee's art practice. Mr. MacPhee, 40, the son of two teachers, grew up in a small town outside Boston, close to the city's "do-it-yourself, punk rock scene," in which he became very involved as a teenager. Always artistically inclined, although never formally trained, he began doing design work for his friends' record covers, T-shirts and tattoos. Through the punk scene, he also became involved in political activism, creating art for various movements and campaigns throughout much of his 20s.

"After doing this for years, I sort of ended up amassing all of the remnants of that work -- little piles of posters and T-shirts -- and I wanted a way to get that out into the world," Mr. MacPhee said.

He started Justseeds, sending out a printed catalog advertising his work, then, a few years later, made the transition to a rudimentary Web store. Over time, other artists began to ask to distribute their work through his site, leading Mr. MacPhee to eventually question, "Why am I being the middleman to broker all of this? We should just do this together."

So, in 2007, Mr. MacPhee, through the connections he had made in the artist-activist world, transformed Justseeds from a personal distribution business into a cooperatively owned collective of artists.

Justseeds operates on a fairly simple model. Artists create work, ranging from screen prints to books to bandanas, which are sold through the website, justseeds.org. Profits from these sales are split 50-50 between the artist and the organization, which uses the proceeds for basic maintenance and to fund Justseeds group projects.