30 Designed Reasons to Vote Obama
As the USA presidential elections get closer and closer, we can all witness an almost frightening hustle and bustle going on around us. Every minute of each day, hundreds of web posts, articles, statistical analysis and other types of information are being poured in our heads with the one and only intention – to gain some precious votes. It is reasonable to believe that this information overload is surely confusing and that we might appreciate it much more if it was handed out in a different way.
This is where designers step in, reunited under the initiative called 30 reasons – an email and internet poster campaign due to last 30 days (with more or less 10 days left to go). The campaign isn’t an un-biased source of information, but gives an intimate interpretation of why we all hope the Americans might re-elect Mr. Obama. It is well known that, by the very nature of the profession they serve, graphic designers are left-wing oriented. A socio-democratic political orientation stands at the very foundation of their work, coherently based on Modernist ideals of democracy and equal distribution of means and resources.
30 posters shown on the initiative’s website don’t try to make a rational political evaluation of pros and cons for voting a candidate, but let us peak inside an intimate designer’s world. More importantly it also shows how this profession, often seen as extremely frivolous, might actually serve quite urgent causes in our society. Hence, the works promote Obama’s attention for women and gay rights, social service and health care, education and social equality. While we aren’t going to judge graphic quality of these works, we completely agree with the founders of the project who believe that “designers have the duty to stand up, speak out and help promote social justice”.
