Boston

Northeastern University
September 29 – December 15
2011

Washington

National Press Club
January 16 – February 10
2012

St. Paul

Goldstein Museum of Design
September 28 – December 30
2012

New York

AIGA National Design Center
March 4 – April 5
2013

Initiated in 2006 by Winterhouse Institute, the Polling Place Photo Project encouraged voters to capture and share photos of the voting experience in America. It began as a partnership with aiga during the mid-term elections in October 2006. The project was expanded in 2008 and became an official part of the online election coverage of The New York Times. Importantly, photos were contributed under a Creative Commons License — an example of public participation in documenting their own voting experiences during an American democratic election.

Website

Winterhouse Institute

American design firm
Founded 1998

William Drenttel
American, b. 1953
Jessica Helfand
American, b. 1960
Teddy Blanks
American, b. 1984

Polling Place Photo Project
Citizen Journalism Exhibition
2009
Inkjet prints
60 x 27.5 in. ea.
(original sizes 330 x 153 in.)

Winterhouse Institute

American design firm
Founded 1998

William Drenttel
American, b. 1953
Jessica Helfand
American, b. 1960, producers
Andrew Sloat
American, b. 1977, director

Polling Place Photo Project
Citizen Journalism Exhibition
2009
Video
4:38

Timothy Goodman

American, b. 1980

OH...
2008 Photograph of marker on
post-its/inkjet print
24 x 11.5 in.

Andrew Sloat

American, b. 1977

Article II (for BHO)
2009

Video
2:30

Seth Labenz American, b. 1982
Roy Rub Israeli, b. 1979

The idea of “Hope” has taken on new meaning since its branding inception by the 2008 Obama campaign. Approaching the 2012 election there is a chance to sensibly reflect upon our past aspirations and consider what we have accomplished since 2008. A question to consider is how our hopes have changed, be it for the better or for the worse.

The helium-filled hope balloons are to be grouped and released to the ceiling for the opening of the We the Designers exhibition.

Throughout the duration of the show each balloon will move about, directed and controlled by the nature of the gallery environment and the natural properties of the balloons themselves. By the show’s end, each balloon will have changed and most certainly moved away from the highest point in the gallery. Some might be stretched and flaccid, others lodged under the lounge furniture, some perhaps popped by passersby. The cycle of the balloons’ collective experience will directly correlate to the diminishment of our hopes since 2008.

Topos Graphics

American design firm
Founded 2005

Hope
2011 Silkscreened Jumbo Latex Balloons installation 36 in. dia. ea.

This cover illustration for The Washington Post’s Outlook section accompanied a pair of opinion pieces on the results of the 2010 mid-term election. The articles by Republican pollster Frank Luntz and former Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle each recommend ways for a polarized Congress to come together to address our country’s urgent problems. Art Director Kristin Lenz worked the “don’t be mad” fold-in concept into the layout as the two editorials are pulled together when the page is folded. For an added bonus, the "OUTLOOK" masthead folds to
become “OK.”

Post Typography

American design firm
Founded 2007

Divided Washington
2010 Offset printing 12.625 x 22 in. ea.

Milton Glaser

American, b. 1929

CrackPot Party
2011 Giclee Print 17 x 22 in.

Milton Glaser

American, b. 1929

Republicant
2011 Giclee Print 17 x 22 in.

Timothy Goodman

American, b. 1980

Untitled
2011 Photo montage and vector/inkjet print 22 x 22 in.

Thomas Starr

American, b. 1948

Exploded View
2011 Sewn nylon flags 60 x 96 in. ea.

2

Matt Dorfman

American, b. 1977

Need New Target
2011 Acrylic, 9mm handgun on rifle target 25 x 38 in.

Alicia Yin Cheng

American, b. 1970

Sarah Gephart

American, b. 1970

A year in Iraq and Afghanistan
2009, 2010, 2011 Vector Illustration 12 x 22 in. ea.

Chaz Maviyane-Davies

American, b. Zimbabwe 1952

Blockaid
2011
Inkjet print 23.4 x 33.1 in.

Mirko Ilic

American, b. Bosnia 1956

Daniel Young

American, b. 1941

Nuclear Energy
2010 Silkscreen print Glow in the dark ink 22.25 x 30.25 in.

Dylan Lathrop

American, b. 1986

Energy
2011 Inkjet print 60 x 39 in.
(original size 17 x 11 in.)

Piece: If Not Now Then When is space that that uses pie-charts, graphic elements and any media necessary to visually focus and amplify the predicament of oligarchy in America.

Garland Kirkpatrick

American, b. 1960

Piece: If Not Now Then When
2011 Newsprint, Edition of 250 22.75 x 34 in.

Violence, images of violence and violent language are the backdrop to our daily lives. From the media’s coverage of war, terrorism and tragedy to the entertainment industry to the pervasive video game culture, we are bombarded with the visual residue of hatred, fear, destruction and intolerance. Like wallpaper, these graphic images are occasionally noticed and denounced but mostly they blend into the background, creating a multi-layered context for our comings and goings. This collection of targets was culled from myriad sources including online police training organizations and sporting goods stores. The range, from the highly representational targets (for example, Saddam Hussein or the “generic Arab male terrorist”) to the totally abstract (the classic black concentric circles with the red bullseye) seems a useful metaphor to portray our collective discussion about violence — who or what are we comfortable targeting (killing) and how much of that act/choice are we willing to watch.

Pamela Hovland

American, b. 1961

Black and White and Red All Over
2011 Assorted paper, wallpaper installation 108 x 132 in.

Most scenarios of, say, the year 2020 are dystopian. Nuclear-annihilation, flu pandemics, global famine, a world without oil, epic floods, and a fascist apocalypse. It wasn’t always this way though. In the last century alone, we had the Machine Age. Then the American Dream. Then the Space Age. Then the Utopia of cyberspace. Then globalism. At all times since its founding, our society has had a vision of where it wanted civilization to be in 50 years and threw all its resources into designing it. But because pundits predict the encroaching dystopia will shatter all that we understand humans and society to be, many of us have ceased dreaming. All we do, it seems, is sit and wait for the time bomb to hit zero. To reimagine our future requires a fundamental shift in how we see the world. As we know it, there are two views of the world: 1) The world as a battleground 2) The world as a commons. These views define, in distinctly different ways, our morality, our social norms, our economic agenda, our political policies, our foreign relations, our neighborly relations, and, most importantly, our vision of the future. The 55 theses outlined in this book will help the reader understand these two viewpoints and why only one offers an optimistic vision of our future.

Website

COLLINS: et al.

American design firm
Founded 2007

The Triumph of the Commons:
55 Theses for the Future

2011

Offset printed book,
Thread sewn binding - 136 pages

Edition of 2,000
4.25 x 5. 5 in.

Collaborators: Peter Bain, Chadd Johnson, Jamer Hunt, John Overmyer and 150 middle school students

What if the visual identity for a new nation was developed using the branding techniques graphic designers employ for corporations? Future Nation Brand is a speculative visual identity for an emerging nation. As new nations are born (South Sudan) and sovereign states are rebuilt from pre-existing political entities (Libya, Egypt, Tunisia) or consolidated (European Union), new designs are needed to represent their ideals and distinguish them from their previous history. How similar are the desires of corporations, candidates, and countries to be seen as unique, trusted, and valued? This national identity includes name, typography, color, national animal, national plant, emblem, and flag. Each is based on data collected from a survey of 150 middle school students.

David Comberg

American, b. 1952

Future Nation Brand
2011 Sewn nylon flags and inkjet prints 120 x 108 in.

Allan Espiritu

American, b. 1970

November Spawned a Monster 2011
2011 Digital photograph 24 x 36 in.

Christopher Brand

American, b. 1985

I.O.U.
2011 Digital Print 60 x 43 in.

Brett Yasko

American, b. 1968

Untitled
2011 16-page newspaper,
Edition of 1,000
11.375 x 8.5 in., folded

Edvin Yegir

American, b. Iran 1963

Cardinal Virtues
2011 Digital Posters 25.51 x 36.1 in. ea.

In 1970 a Japanese roboticist coined the evocative term The Uncanny Valley to describe the human reaction to a life-like robot that is perhaps too life-like. So life-like that the robot instead appears to be a human being with something wrong with them. This affect can also be seen in Hollywood cgi films like “Polar Express” where the animated Tom Hanks and supporting child actors are rendered with a creepy, humanoid efficiency. Some social scientists believe this innate perception of otherness to be at the root of reactionary tendencies regarding race and ethnicity. For this image Obama’s face was first rendered using 3-d software to create a mathematically correct likeness. That image was then flattened and combined with a film still of Gary Cooper from the movie “High Noon.” The composite image was then forced through a coarse halftone filter to provide the imprimatur of factual, newspaper photography. The resulting image appears to be an accurate likeness of Obama however something is slightly amiss. Obama has been described as being too cool, or too emotionally removed to be able to connect with average Americans. Curiously, not unlike the stereotypical lone-wolf heros of our cherished Western mythologies.

Daniel Jasper

American, b. 1961

The Uncanny Valley
2011 Collage using George Bush - era
New York Times newspaper pages,
gesso, screened prints
32 x 65 in.

A particular color incites the eye, by a specific sensation, to strive for generality. In order, then, to realize this totality, in order to satisfy itself, the eye seeks, beside any color space, a colorless space wherein to produce the missing color. Here we have the fundamental rule of all color harmony.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Obama’s election as the first black President stirred hope and fear of seemingly equal intensity. Viewed by some as a virtual second coming of Lincoln, fdr, and Kennedy, Obama was simultaneously villified as a socialist, a Muslim (pejoratively), and even likened to Adolf Hitler. These projections cannot be taken as merely a symptom of a divided nation that has lost the capacity to engage in nuanced civil discourse. Their intensity belies something more — something deeper — a struggle in the American soul to make sense of the unknown: the uncharted territory of a black president. These likenesses are lenses that comfort with the illusion that we understand Obama the man; Obama the president. Their real consequence is to foist impossible expectations from all directions, making failure — or at least disappointment — all but inevitable.

Lucinda Hitchcock

American, b. Japan 1961

Making Black
2011 Ink jet prints on archival paper 33 x 46 in. ea.

Steven McCarthy

American, b. 1958

Dad + Mom
2011
Toner on paper
26 x 26 in.

Steven McCarthy

American, b. 1958

Dad + Mom
2011
Stop motion animation
0:45

Thomas Starr

American, b. 1948

Birth Certificate
2011 Archival pigment inkjet print 8 x 10 in. (photograph attributed
to Ernest Withers, 1968)