Maxistentialism

After returning to Goucher College from the Obama campaign, I was elected Vice President for Student Action in a campus-wide midterm election.

Strategy

Many of the lessons I learned while working on the Obama campaign were applicable to the school election.

I branded my campaign with a logo, recognizable colors, and a distinctive typeface that reflected my message. I made bold design choices early on, such as using a logo without my name on it.

I tried to do the most difficult work first… I spelled out my message and printed posters and booklets before other candidates had sent in their letters of intent. This left the majority of my time free to “touch” voters by contacting them online and in person.

 

I was able to define a coherent message for my campaign and reinforce that message with my branding on everything I produced. I was the only candidate to submit a letter of intent on letterhead.

This also forced my opponents to spend campaign time responding to my messaging and issues rather than outlining their own agenda. While I was speaking person-to-person with students, my opponents were scrambling to respond to my posters with their own posters. Posters don’t vote.

Design Challenges

Everything I produced for my campaign had to compete for students’ attention in an environment that is extremely familiar.

I approached this design problem by creating contextual campaign advertisements that stood out because of their relation to their space.

One particularly successful advertisement responded to a new college procedure. Over winter break, transparent folders were attached to the back of every dorm room door, and students were given a booklet of “Campus Emergency Procedures” to place into this folder.

In response, I produced a poster fitted for the envelope. The poster, “Emergency Procedures for a Questionable Search and Seizure,” was popular with students, brought my branding into people’s rooms, and drew attention to my central campaign issue.

 

I also created and handed out hundreds of eight page full-color booklets which I produced for free in the CTLT. These booklets gave students an opportunity to read about my ideas in greater depth and literally share those ideas with their friends by passing around their booklet.

Awards

I was selected as the First Place entry in the 2009 Goucher College Digital Arts Contest for this campaign, and received very positive feedback from the panel of judges from the Baltimore Professional Association for Design:

“Great use of color and type. Easy to read and draws positive, curious attention. Based on your explanation of your campaign, it is obvious you have a clear understanding of your goals and how to achieve them with design. Well done.”

“This is a really outstanding portfolio for a student campaign! I like it because it is fun, verbal, and visually well-integrated. It shows a lot of creativity and imagination, and I would love to see more of the student’s work like this”

“Great Job! Great Placement and Choice of Fonts!”

“this student clearly understands that outstanding design includes strategic thinking AND good typography and composition. Bravo”

“the site provides a portfolio of experience with good design ideas. the site itself is clean and comfortable to work with.”

Gallery