AIGA 's Get Out the Vote

AIGA has invited designers from across the United States to create nonpartisan posters and YouTube submissions that inspire the American public to participate in the electoral process and vote for a presidential candidate in the 2008 general election. an AIGA Design for Democracy initiative since the 2000 election, enables designers to engage in the public arena by contributing to a coordinated voter mobilization campaign. By motivating eligible citizens to register and turn out on election day, Get Out the Vote fulfills an ongoing AIGA objective of demonstrating the value of design to the public, public officials and business by providing a clear call to action for an activity that is important to everyone.

Eight of the submitted posters will be selected to be professionally printed and distributed nationally. In addition, AIGA has commissioned sixteen AIGA Medalists to design posters that will be printed and distributed nationally as well. There will be sets of 24 (11" x 17") professionally printed posters made available to each AIGA chapter. Plus, any of the submitted posters are available as online PDFs for anyone to download, print and post independently.

The Walker Art Center will be showing all of the Get Out the Vote posters via video projection in the Bazinet Garden Lobby from August 19 through September 7, covering both the DNC and RNC events. In conjunction with the Republican National Convention, AIGA would like the professionally printed posters to be displayed in public spaces in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. Other possible venues are: the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Weisman Museum, the MCAD Gallery and/or the atrium at Target headquarters. Other suggestions?

This could be a starting point for a poster hanging effort throughout the metropolitan area in September and October. AIGA could have events where volunteers were given posters to distribute in their communities. (Note: there are anti-posting ordinances is both Minneapolis and St. Paul, so the volunteers would have to ask private business owners if they could hang the posters in their store windows.) This could be a great opportunity to show the concern of designers in persuading people to participate in the voting process. This is just one suggestion for rallying the design community to participate in the Get Out the Vote effort. AIGA is open to other programming and event suggestions.

For more information, contact:
Kolean Pitner
kpitner@comcast.net