Mike Lenhart (bio)

This program was not only national in scope, but also whittled-down to the local level. In San Francisco, the land of always a-many issue and local referendums, we had some of our local graphic designers come up with their own conception of what Get Out The Vote means to them. The results were quite astounding.

I guess the most ephemeral poster of all is that by Mark Fox. This was in the early stages of the "war" and when the body count was a lot lower than now. Interesting, telling, and yet sad.

Jennifer Morla's design harkened back to the '80s and was also a little Constructivist in nature.

While Neumeir's design was balanced and pretty straight-forward, Schumaker and Olsen's were a cause for pause and more thought to get their pithy messages across to the voting public.

I guess my favorite of the 2004 batch of GOTV posters was the one by Michael Schwab. Effective and clean, this design uses great usage of positive/negative space while communicating a message of head-to-head voting 'combat'. Leave it Michael's creative eye to capture the feeling.

These posters were placed all around the City during election time of that year and really dressed-up the downtown area and promoted the design community so important to the Bay Area.

The AIGA sponsors the Get Out The Vote campaign for every major Presidential election and there are always some wonderful entries. Go to this link to see more on the AIGA campaign for 2008.

Yes, it's an exciting - and tense - time of year. Let's all Get Out The Vote and do our best to keep this American right alive and well.