AIGA Gets the Vote Out
by Adrian Hanft, (7 comments)
It is nice to see in the midst of the brutal presidential campaign that not everyone is taking a swing at the candidate they don’t endorse. The AIGA has a poster initiative where AIGA members can submit posters that encourage people to get out and vote. The design of the first batch of posters is alright, but they did do a pretty good job of not endorsing a candidate. The part that I find interesting is that at the bottom of each poster is the tag line, “Good design makes choices clear.” Does this strike anyone else as odd? I am not sure what that means. Are we supposed to vote for the candidate who has the better design? Or does it mean that without design, we couldn’t tell the difference between the candidates? Regardless of what they meant by the slogan, it does raise an important question. What role does design play in an election?
If anything, I would say that design makes the choice of a candidate more difficult rather than clearer. From a design standpoint, the television ads on both sides are extremely well done. A well designed attack ad can have a huge impact on an election. Does that qualify as “good design?” Our opinion of the candidates can’t help but be shaped by the design used in their campaign. One could argue that the voters barely can see the real candidate behind the smoke and mirrors that design can give to a campaign. Whether it is the backdrop of a speach, the ads, or the slogan on the side of a candidates bus, design is everywhere in the campaign. Then there is the design of the ballot itself. Obviously, the role of design in a democracy is complex, but so is deciding who to vote for. Hopefully, the power of design can encourage many more people to vote.
Comments (7)
Bennett said:
Did you see AIGA Nebraska’s Poster. It made the home page of the national AIGA website for the first few days and it is also one of three selected to be in the current issue of STEP Inside Design. Unlike some of the other ones I have seen, this one did remain non-partisan. Way to go AIGA Nebraska (Nate, Donovan, Drew and Tom). Did I leave anyone out. I forgot, nice legs Tanya. If you follow the link it is the poster on the very bottom, far left. http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/getoutthevote?1=1&StartRow=1&SearchNum=50
Posted on September 6, 2004
Tom said:
Having worked on the Nebraska poster (thanks for the HiFive, Bennett! You forgot Heidi, though!), I actually know the answer to this one! Yay, I’m not stupid for once!!
One of AIGA’s national initiatives has been to work with Washington to convince Election Boards to consult designers when “designing” such important pieces. Having succeeded in getting designers hired as consultants to the Election Board in several states, this campaign is a continuation of that process. The “Good Design Makes Choices Clear” gets it druthers from, at least in part, the atrocious butterfly ballots in Florida four years ago, where the poor design led some folks to vote for the wrong candidate.
Interesting to hear your other interpretations of the line. I’m not sure if they intended it to mean all those things, but what a wonderful happenstance that it sparks discussion about its meaning!
Posted on September 7, 2004
kadavy said:
Funny, there was someone at work who was puzzled by that line on the poster, too.
The other day, I was walking through my neighborhood, and people had signs in their lawns for candidates running for some obscure office that I don’t remember (I’m not very politically informed). There were two candidates that I saw: one had the standard red, white, and blue sign, and the other, a plain, solid green sign. I thought to myself that since I didn’t have the “time” (actually, embarassingly, the ambition) to research both of these candidates, I would have to judge from the signs that the one with the green sign is probably a more progressive thinker and is more in tune with environmental issues. So, I made a mental note of the candidate for voting day, but now that I think of it, I don’t remember the guy’s name.
What does that say about design? People can make snap judgements, I guess, and design can form those. Though I made the effort to pull mine into my conscious mind, someone may make the same decision on a subconscious level, or they’re just too proud to admit they are that impressionable. Hopefully the designer of that guy’s sign did a good job of expressing the candidates values with the design.
Posted on September 7, 2004
Adrian Hanft said:
Kadavy, now you are really hitting on an interesting point. It is scary to realize that design alone can have the power to sway an uninformed voter. Maybe we shouldn’t be encouraging everyone to vote. Especially if we are encouraging a vote based on nothing more than design. An uninformed vote can be a dangerous thing. Maybe low poll turnout isn’t such a bad thing. The people who know and care about what is going on are the people who are making the decisions. Better yet, maybe we should be encouraging people to get involved in knowing the issues. Once you understand and are interested in the issues, voting will come naturally. But what do I know, this will be the first year I have voted.
Posted on September 8, 2004
Kyle said:
Adrian, good point about knowing the issues first, then voting. However, how could any non-government agency/business/organization afford to encourage the learning of issues without being supported/funded by someone with a strongly biased opinion?
About 6 weeks before any election, California mails a newsprint publication discussing each candidate and their platform, plus any initiatives and measures. Each part has an inital “for” statement, then an “against” statement from the opponent, and rebuttal from the sponsor. Since it is published and approved by some government agency, it all seems fair. Do other states publish anything like this?
Posted on September 9, 2004
Bennett said:
I agree with Kyle. The only thing you can do is encourage everyone to vote and for everyone to know the issues. If you start to encourage a certain portion of the population to vote that gets very dangerous. The next step in this line of thought is having every voter take an IQ test before you are allowed to vote. We all know that the literacy tests of old were not a good idea.
Now I’m going off the topic a little bit. If anyone is trying to find the AIGA Nebraska poster, don’t follow my instructions on my previous comment. Apparently the are constantly shifting. Every time I go to the AIGA Posters page it is in the second set of posters. Just look for a layout that is dominated by a nice pair of legs. http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/getoutthevote?1=1&StartRow=1&SearchNum=50
Posted on September 10, 2004
Adrian said:
I agree with Adrian.
Kyle and Bennett, I don’t see a problem with being funded by someone with strong political opinions if they are committed to a goal of encouraging voting or understanding the issues rather than spreading their beliefs. I am sure the AIGA is funded by people with strong opinions. Besides, nobody is completely unbiased. When your goal is not to upset anyone, you are going to end up producing those newsprint things Kyle was talking about. They probably serve a purpose, but how many people have really gotten excited about politics by reading them? Their is nothing motivational about them. I also don’t see the problem with encouraging a certain part of the population to vote. A good example of this is probably MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign. The “vote for something” commercials are engaging without endorsing any particular issue. Encouraging the huge numbers of youth to vote is not trying to stifle the vote of everyone else.
Posted on September 10, 2004