By Danielle Tarloff
Marcia Lausen spoke to Northeastern students about making voting a more user friendly process as part of the Visual Arts Department’s Visiting Artist program last Wednesday.
After a confusing ballot drove the 2000 presidential election to a recount, Lausen, founding member of Design for Democracy and a professor at University of Illinois Chicago, began to work with students and colleagues to apply graphic design to the voting process. The Ilinois-based non-profit organization works with clients in the state and in Oregon to improve how elections run.
“The mission of design for democracy is to make things better, to make the communications between our government and our citizens better in every way,” Lausen said.
In her hour-long presentation, Lausen demonstrated the significant difference that design changes can make. Her powerpoint images, which compared the original ballot to a newer, redesigned format, were stark in contrast. Such changes were not easily made, she said.
“I met something called the election code of Illinois, which is this phone book sized document that describes in detail what you cannot do in designing a ballot. So it turns out that lowercase letters are illegal in the state of Illinois,” said Lausen. “So we had to change the law, and we did, to get lowercase letters. I forgot to ask though for that grey background, and we didn’t get that. Everything had to be requested legally and petitioned for. We had to write letters and get about change.”
Ballots are not the only part of the voting process that Design for Democracy has focused on. Designs for voter education programs, as well as the selection of a polling location, have all been scrutinized. Many of these designs, including a vote logo and signs, have been implemented in the Chicago area.
Lausen also presented the way design can clarify other forms of valuable information. She displayed some of the work that her classes have been doing with emergency exit maps to make them clearer and more accessible.
“Design for Democracy has expanded even beyond the voter experience into other areas of critical civic information. Design for Democracy is making a profound contribution to the public perception of the design profession and the value of design to society,” said NU graphic design professor Tom Starr, who introduced Lausen’s presentation.
The presentation, part of the Visiting Artist program, drew about 100 students, and several minutes of question and answer followed. Students were curious about some of the other work that Lausen had mentioned, like the ongoing project with Oregon’s vote by mail system.
Some students were required to attend the event.
“I’m a graphic design major and I found out about this through my teacher and other students. I had to come for class,” said William Nielsen, a junior.
Marcia Lausen is just one of the many artists who have participated in the weekly visiting artist program.
Shane Acker, an animator in Las Angeles, will be speaking today at 6 p.m. in 200 Richards Hall. For more information on upcoming presentations, visit the Department of Visual Arts’s Web site at www.art.neu.edu.
