A healthy and sustainable future ... a cleaner planet ... sensible leaders and good ideas ... community involvement ... education, a minimum wage increase, alternative energy, women and entrepreneurs ... initiatives that benefit other people ... post-secondary education, GMO labeling, marijuana decriminalization, equality ... the politicians that'll represent our best interest, because I'm tired of the ones that won’t ... things that matter ... all the voters everywhere ... and the list goes on.
Three powerful, little words
The “I Voted Today” project is an Action Backed collaboration. We brought in Uphill Downhill to do the animation and have been sharing far and wide to get people excited about voting in the upcoming midterms. We just published the story behind the project on Medium.
Philosophically, with our design and development work, we want to move forward issues and causes important to the world changes out there. We want to create small, design-centric projects that are engaging and concise. No bloated features that are hardly ever used. No forced conformity. No huge amounts of text, text and more text. No “old Internet” distraction, clutter or unrelated sliding messages.
We believe in focused design, beautiful content, fast performance and connected experiences meant to build momentum. This was the driving force behind the creation of “I Voted Today.” After launch, we can confidently say this project represents those views. Now let’s break things down.
(Your Thing) Speak
I like rubbing elbows with people who aren’t designers. I attended a TED Active conference a few years back and that’s what I enjoyed most. Writers, activists, advocates, technologists, entertainers, organizers, etc. All people who did creative, progressive things that had nothing to do with type, colors, brands, Adobe or Dribbble. I learned so much while at the same time sharing a lot about what a designer like myself does. But after a long week, last Friday I met a fellow designer for a drink to discuss a potential project. He’s also independent. Aside from the specific work possibility, we talked process, cost, collaboration, animation, 3-year plans, Adobe and Dribbble. A great conversation highly beneficial on both sides because we both “design speak.” Totally refreshing. A charge that shook out some of the cobwebs. Whatever it is you speak, make sure you have someone to speak it with.
Now on Shopify
It’s safe to say we have big plans for Action Backed. Where it’s going and what it could become. One small piece of its offering, aside from client work and collaborative projects, is a set of designed products. Tight and focused, from shirts to prints. We assume it will grow in the months to come, but for now it’s solely a home for “I Voted Today” swag. Stickers, buttons, Ts, voting kits and yard signs for sponsors. All run on Shopify, which is really an amazing tool. Head on over and get ready for election day.
The art of tumbling your way to the polls.
Action Backed worked with Yosi Sergant and the TaskForce team on an updated site design for the #GoVote project for 2014
When you first land on the site, the art hits you. A beautiful, full-width image not only sets the tone but can be easily swapped out to keep the site feeling fresh. We launched with Lisa Congdon’s colorful triangles as they capture a certain feeling at the heart of the project. There’s a beauty to the #GoVote message that transcends a typical piece of voting communication. DIY lettering for the roll-up-your-sleeves nature of participatory democracy. A vibrant patchwork for the multicultural, full color worldview of America. From there, three columns of cascading visuals take you down the page.
I Voted Today
With each vote we take, we show our friends, our community and the world what we care about. We vote every day. With our dollars, our clicks and our voices. And come election day, we hit the polls.
I’m very excited to announce the launch of a new collaboration. Cody Peterson and myself have teamed up to create a new Action Backed project—a modernized take on an American democracy classic. We’ve invested our time and dollars in the campaign design, website, application and a variety of swag to get people excited about voting this November. We also worked with Caleb and Daphne from Uphill Downhill on an animation, which is the piece we’re most proud of. They’ve been wonderful partners and went way above and beyond to deliver one hell of a video.
To help us spread the word, please visit I Voted Today.
Go. Vote. Please.
Decisions, decisions. It’s the midterm elections in 3 weeks. The sort of elections no one seems to give a shit about. Some people are too preoccupied with the Walking Dead (myself included) or college football season. There’s Halloween coming up, then Thanksgiving. Ebola, ISIS or new John Oliver episodes. America is a funny place. I love it and I don’t in the same sentence. Climate change? Climate change denial? At least can we agree that voting is really important and we should be falling all over ourselves to make sure as many people in this country can vote as possible? We say we want people to vote, right? Then why don’t we act like it? America, so full of contradictions. Let’s pretend we’re going to try and appeal to our better selves on this. Let’s get excited about democracy not Congress. Our country as a whole not the other side we don’t like. And the sacred right to vote, not the belittling of people who disagree with us. I’ll try really hard to do this as well. And let’s get out the vote!
