Two Stories

Story One

Despite being one of the most, if not the most, influential nation in the world, United States citizens have an abysmal record on past voter turnouts. In the 1996 presidential election, just under 65% of eligible voters in the U.S. turned out to vote compared to 88% of New Zealanders, 76% of Spaniards, 86% of Swedes, 79% of French, 82% of Italians and 78% of Germans. That’s just a sampling too. In fact, out of the world’s 20 largest democratic nations, only the Japanese and the Swiss ranked lower in voter turnouts.

I want my story to visually show the viewer how much bigger the amount of voters are in other countries, perhaps by showing size comparisons in the shapes of the country. It’s no secret that the choices made by the U.S. influences the world in a huge way and our votes greatly affect those choices. Still, way too many people don’t care and maybe by seeing how so many citizens of other nations without the influence of the U.S. vote, they’ll get a sense of perspective and go out to vote.

Story Two

Though there is a large amount of younger voters that are simply apathetic to the whole political system, there is a large amount that are at least slightly aware of what’s going on with the government and many aren’t happy. Young people are often notorious about being very “against the system,” yet also notorious about never showing up to the polls. Only 58% even register and many less even show up.

On the other side of the spectrum, 79% of senior citizens register to vote. Overall, 70% of all those over 45 years of age actually show up. I want to visually show that because of youth stubbornness to vote, it’s the seniors and older people of the nation that are constantly choosing the futures of young people election after election. This trend will never change until youth voters can band together and work to make whatever change they wish to see the United States. I want to portray America’s youth as complaining about the current status of the country, yet choose to stay home on Election Day. On the other side, I want to show older voters voting and actually making things happen.

Project Brief in My Own Words

The Get Out the Vote project is meant to teach how to effectively create an informational visual image. It must easily and effectively help the viewer understand the facts being shown to them. In this particular situation, that information must be relevant to the upcoming presidential election. The goal is to use a motion graphic to visually show election related facts and data that in turn convinces the viewer to go out, register and vote. The information given in the graphic must be easy for the demographic to understand.

Who Is...

Richard Saul Wurman
Richard Saul Wurman is a designer famous for his information design, or as he likes to call it "information architecture." He created that word back in 1976 as a way to differentiate the work he created in comparison to other branches of design like interior and industrial design. He chose the word "architecture" as he felt it "was a clearer word that had to do with systems that worked and performed." He also felt like the art of displaying information was a form of architecture because the process of accurately creating visual information from data precisely needed a series of systems and systematic design. It takes a whole different kind of thinking from traditional graphic design. Though both have the main focus of visually communicating a message, Wurman's information architecture takes an insane amount of precision, concentration and accuracy to be legitimate.

To sum up his whole theory on information design, he states "The only way to communicate is to understand what it is like not to understand. It is at that moment that you can make something understandable."

http://www.informationdesign.org/special/wurman_interview.htm


Nigel Holmes

Nigel Holmes is an explanation designer from England. He began is career as a freelance designer and eventually got a job as a graphic artist for Time magazine and specialized in his explanation graphics. After 16 years at Time, Holmes again became a freelance graphic artist as well as a lecturer and an author of books on the various areas of informational design. He later started his own company and has since created images for clients such as Nike, Apple, Sony and Visa, as well as with publications like Harper's and The New York Times.


www.nigelholmes.com


Edward Tufte

Called the "Leonardo di Vinci of data" by the New York Times, Edward Tufte really is a renaissance man of the informational design and data analysis world. Currently a professor at Yale, Tufte began his career at Princeton as a political economy and data analysis instructor. It was there that he developed his work and understanding of compiling data into effective visual information. He created the word "chartjunk" to describe useless and ineffective displays of quantitative information. He argues that every element and drop of ink used in a graphic must be in someway informative. It otherwise distorts the actual data that it is meant to display. Viewers trying to interpret huge amounts of statistics and numerical data can be either confusing or simply boring and Tufte is very serious about creating captivating images.


www.edwardtufte.com

Get Out the Vote

So I'm personally pretty stoked about the two Get Out the Vote projects. Still, although I think that being non-partisan is super important, especially for the simple message of "go out and vote," I think it would have been really fun for at least one the posters to be based on our personal political leanings. That way we'd all kind of be forced into really learning the issues through our research and I personally think one of the biggest motivators for apathetic voters to get out and vote is to see their friends truly interested and passionate about the process. It's a chain reaction. I was a political science major for a semester and definitely a politics nerd so maybe it's just me. Either way, maybe I'll make a third one for fun.