Sam Shelton Explains Get out the Vote

September 25, 2008 Filed Under: Events , Guest Bloggers 0 Comments

In the 2004 election, approximately 57 percent of the voting age population in the U.S. actually voted. Turnout was higher for women (65%) than for men (62%). Of voters 18-29 years old, 49 percent turned-out to vote, representing only 16 percent of total votes overall.

This turn-out, or lack of, isn't surprising. Over the past several decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout, not only in the U.S., but also in most established democracies. In general, low turnout is suggested to be due to disenchantment, indifference, or contentment.

In response to this trend, in 2000, AIGA mounted a campaign to demonstrate the power of design in the public arena by asking designers to contribute to a coordinated get-out-the vote campaign for national elections. The purpose is to encourage voter turnout and, while there is no single message, the intent is a call to action, motivating people to register and turn out to vote.

Get Out the Vote is a public service initiative of AIGA Design for Democracy. Established in 1998, AIGA Design for Democracy applies design tools and thinking to increase civic participation by making interactions between the U.S. government and its citizens more understandable, efficient and trustworthy. Independent, pragmatic and committed to the public good, Design for Democracy collaborates with researchers, designers and policy makers in service of public sector clients and AIGA's goal of "demonstrating the value of design by doing valuable things."

The success of AIGA's Get Out the Vote campaign is partially due to the format: a smaller-scaled window card rather than full-size wall poster. The potential for actual posting in public places increases substantially if the designs are of a scale that can be placed in small shop windows and on public bulletin boards (places where a larger poster could not be posted). The scale also allows for printing on personal printers.

In 2004, the campaign placed more than 50,000 AIGA posters in public places in communities across the nation as well as provided an on-line gallery for any web user to download a PDF version of their favorites. In 2004, there were hundreds of thousands of downloads from the AIGA gallery. AIGA actually lost count when the demand, after an NPR broadcast mentioning the AIGA website, caused the site to crash.

For the 2008 election, to date, the online gallery has accepted more than 250 submissions. A set of 24 posters has been printed and distributed nationally, both through AIGA chapters as well as at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. The selected posters for this print campaign are comprised of 12 that AIGA commissioned and 12 others, selected from the online gallery by a design jury.

In addition, 50 posters from the online gallery appeared in two concurrent digital exhibitions: the first, at the Denver Art Museum during the Democratic National Convention and, the second, at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention. Both museums projected the set of posters for thousands of visitors, politicos and media personnel attending these venues during the month of the conventions. The posters for this exhibition include the 24 from the print campaign and 26 others, curated by Darrin Alfred, AIGA assistant curator of graphic design at the Denver Museum of Art. These posters reflect both design excellence and AIGA's diverse membership. The set of 24 in the print campaign are also currently being exhibited in the AIGA National Design Center gallery and will be up through the election.

Help spread the word and encourage others to visit AIGA's online gallery (www.aiga.org/getoutthevote), where the 50 projected posters and full suite of submissions are available for viewing, downloading and printing. Everyone can participate even more actively by posting their favorites around town, thus spreading two key messages: to get out the vote and that good design makes choices clear.

Demonstrating the strength of communication design, regardless of the production values of the print, is in the spirit of civic postings since Revolutionary times.

Together we can Get Out the Vote.

Written by: Sam Shelton | AIGA | Get Out the Vote 2008, Volunteer Chairperson