It's the "Here our Voice" poster for Women's March on Washington.

That's what it says in the caption at Isthmus, and I can't "here" it, but I c it, and it looks just terrible:



Elsewhere, I'm seeing the poster as "Hear Our Voice," so let me move past the inane caption and look at the poster.

There's just way too much going on. Too many elements. That's a problem in itself. But look at these elements.
The central image is the raised fist. It's black, so one might think: Black Power salute. But the black upraised fist has been used — some say appropriated — in many logos, including this feminist logo:



That central image of one clenched hand is complicated by 3 more clenching hands, which I assume are intended to show solidarity with the fist, but they are grabbing around the wrist, and that grabbing looks more as though the action is impeding and constraining the fist raiser (or doing that choosing method boys used to do with a baseball bat).

The 3 additional hands are fussily individualized, presumably to express diversity. They come in 3 different shades, and the 2 darker of the 3 shades wear nail polish, and the nail polish is of 2 different colors — traditional red and quirky blue — perhaps to indicate different orientations to conventional notions of femininity.

There's also jewelry to speak of diversity: 2 bangles on the darkest hand and a ring on the white-woman hand. The ring is a bit of an arrow, and I get distracted into the question whether that's supposed to symbolize something. The Hillary logo?

Next, there's a fire (or something) behind the hand. Am I supposed to think of the fist as like the Statue of Liberty with the torch?

And then there's a bird getting scorched on top of the flame. Or is that a seal? Or a ghost? I'm guessing a white dove, wings folded, although if I were a bird on top of a flame, I'd spread my wings and get the hell out of there. But this bird — a complacent white person? — just opens its beak and emits a white ray of light.

I guess the "ray of light" represents speech. So then it's white speech, inspired by black power fisting and flame. Too complicated! Are the grasping lady hands in the lower third of the image trying to stop the black fister from scorching the bird or stop the inspiration for the bird to sing?

The busy background only makes the message more alarmingly weird. I see stars and angled stripes in beige-gray tones and that makes me think of a rejection of the American flag. Thinking of flags, and seeing that the lines burst from the circle, I'm reminded of the Japanese war flag from WWII:



The association with wartime Japan is horrible, but that Japanese flag at least stands as an example of great design, which is not what we get from the "Hear our Voice" poster.

Keep it simple. Pick one idea and present it clearly. I can't hear your visual voice if it's all muddled and chaotic.

Ironically, Trump got elected because he framed a very clear — blunt — message and threw it at us time and again. If you want to get the better of Trump, be clear. You're hitting the street today. You risk looking like the forces of chaos just when he's promising order. Your chaotic speech amplifies his.