Yes, Virginia WAS a swing state!

A few friends of mine reminded me that I had presaged the reality of Virginia going blue four years ago, when I made the 8 Percent Virginia voter registration campaign. The campaign was basically just a mini-website with the headline "Yes, Virginia IS a Swing State", banner ads of the same, and a poster (shown left) which was available as a downloadable PDF. I also had a limited number of posters silkscreend and eventually offset printed a larger quantity which I gave away for free. They turned up all over my hometown of Richmond and got a good response online and in the press. Sadly Virginia still went red in 2004 by the same 8% margin, but it would be nice to imagine the posters put the seeds of hope out there. And it is certainly nice to know that Virginia could eventually fulfill my hopes!





[Day of Defeat in game posters created by a fan of the campaign]

And in other news...

No this is not a parody article from The Onion. This story is actually featured on the homepage of my local newspaper.

And it's started already...

Spotted this on Cafe Press while looking for a graphic for my last post. Amazing...

Yes We Did!

Now back to work...

VOTE (for Obama) TODAY!

Don't forget to vote today (if you're voting for Obama that is).

Image: Obama O's from AirBed & Breakfast

via A Million Monkeys Typing

Stephen Speilberg and Friends on Voting

And the get out the vote videos just keep coming. This one by Stephen Spielberg and MySpace is theoretically non-partisan which makes it less appealing to me (You really don't care how people vote, just that they do? I think not.)


If you missed the register to vote version (that this one references) you can see it HERE.


From 5 More Friends
Thanks Julien!

Attention California Voters: NO on 8 & YES on 2

My friend Jess at Roughstock Studios has made a lovely poster to remind California voters to vote NO on the anti-gay marriage Prop 8. Download a printable version on her site HERE.















And The Humane Society with Freerange Studios encourage California voters to vote YES on Prop 2 via this entertaining video...

Election Tasks

Several groups are asking you to do a bit more on election day...

The independent Video The Vote and YouTube/PBS's Video Your Vote both want to make sure that you have fair and equal access to voting in your community. To that end they're asking folks to document the process in video and then share it on their sites. Both sites currently contains a large number of videos about the run up to the election and is sure to be a good post-election resource. Take part HERE or HERE.

And The New York Times has partnered with the AIGA to encourage citizen journalism in their Polling Place Photo Project. Get involved on their site HERE.

Errol Morris's Obama Interviews

Documentarian Erol Morris created a series of People in The Middle for Obama shorts for People for the American Way...



Visit the People in the Middle for Obama site to all of see the individual interviews.

via Boing Boing

Vote Wassup '08

The popular commercial from 1999/2000 gets an excellent modern day update (by the original performers) with a political twist...



from 60 Frames
via Boing Boing

An Unreal Candidate

Hunter Branson wants your vote for the presidential election this year. Never heard of him? That's because he was the invention of students at the Creative Circus in Atlanta, Georgia. Led by teacher Berwyn Hung, the students hired a fellow student to play the part of Hunter Branson, a fictional candidate, for whom they then crafted a platform, party, website, merchandise, etc. The results (including rallies) were believable enough to get donations (to charities, rather than the campaign) and postitive feedback from people who discovered the website during the primaries earlier this year.

Hunter Branson 2008 website

Yes We Carve!

Yes We Carve is definitely one of the more entertaining side-effects of having our elections so close to Halloween. The group encourages folks to show their support by carving Obama themed pumpkins! They even have an appropriately modified "O" logo. The site features daily images as well as free stencils, contests, and more. This video shows a selection of the submissions...

Happy Days Are Here Again

Ron Howard (and friends) are willing to go to great lengths to get you to vote for Obama this year...



from Funny or Die!

via BoingBoing

It's not my fault!

The folks at MoveOn.org have created a great little customizable parody news video to remind you that your vote is important this election. Here are a few screen shots from the one I got from them.

Make one for your friends HERE.

30 More Resons

If you didn't already have enough reasons to vote for a change in the coming election, 30 Reasons is providing a daily additional one from October 7th to November 4th. Each day a new downloadable poster by a different graphic designer (many of them by familiar names like Milton Glaser and Chaz Maviyane-Davies) is posted. You can even sign up to be notified as new ones are added. Check them out HERE.

Thanks Mica!

Michael Moore's new film is FREE

Michael Moore is releasing his next movie "Slacker Uprising" as a free download starting on September 23rd. The film, is based on his 2004 get out the vote college campus tour. Sign up to download online HERE.

Voting By Design

The New York Times has posted an interactive graphic on how election ballots could be improved with better graphic design. The suggestions were provided by the AIGA based on the United States Election Assistance Commission's recently released ballot design guidelines. See the before and after images HERE.

Thanks Jeff!

CNN agrees to make debate footage accessible.

CNN has agreed to make footage from the upcoming presidential debates available to the public without restrictions (read: copyrights). CNN's notice about this appears here.