"Get out the vote" campaign livens the Center for The Arts

By Sedonia Martin on November 7, 2016

Students from the Department of Art + Design, Art History, Art Education in the College of Fine Arts and Communication have been busy this semester creating "Get Out the Vote" posters for the 2016 Presidential election. The posters, on view in the Center for the Arts, have been created by students in a variety of design classes including, Typography I & II, Graphic Design I & II, Social Issues, BFA Project, Portfolio, and Package Design.

“In response to the College of Fine Arts and Communication’s theme of 'Politics and Change,' the graphic design faculty decided to curate a poster show with work for the 2016 AIGA 'Get Out the Vote' poster campaign,” according to Kimberly Hopkins, lecturer-graphic design who along with James Cosper, visiting lecturer-graphic design coordinated the exhibition. “The exhibition was designed to grow in stages over a period of two to three months, allowing time for faculty to incorporate the poster as an assignment into their classes.”

Thirty-six posters curated from the 2016 AIGA "Get Out the Vote" campaign were on display as the fall semester started. At the end of September the student work was curated, and then added to the show in two stages during October. Additional AIGA prints will be incorporated into the show through the end of November.

“We are grateful to AIGA for creating the campaign, to our faculty and colleagues for their time, guidance, and resources, and to our students for their excellent submissions,” Hopkins said.

“There is an interesting response [from the students], Cosper said. “Some students are politically active and others are cynical about the election process, particularly against the two-party system. From a teaching standpoint, the project is a good way to try and move past initial reactions and look at the reasons for voting in the U.S. governmental system.” 

According to Hopkins, “All graphic design begins with good research. This project gave students the opportunity to study the U.S. voting system, what factors lead to low voter turnout, and how our system compares to other country’s voting processes. Cosper added, "From a design standpoint, the initial reveal of the posters from the professional designers was a great opportunity to talk about fresh designs in our classes.”

AIGA is the professional organization for design in the United States, who have hosted the campaign during presidential elections since 2000. According to their website, “The campaign is part of Design for Democracy, an AIGA initiative to increase civic participation through design.” 

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 posters are on view on the first and the third floors in the Center for the Arts through the end of November.