About Polling Place Photo Project
Photographs of polling places, and the information that accompanies them, is a visual record of how voting happens in America: where it occurs, what the process looks like, how people act, and, ultimately, how the voting experience can be designed to be easier, less confusing and more rewarding.
The Polling Place Photo Project began in November 2006 before the mid-term elections. For the 2008 election cycle, the project was supported by The New York Times as a part of its political coverage.
SUPPORTING PARTNERS
AIGA, the professional association for design, is the oldest and largest membership association for design professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing. Its mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force. AIGA has supported the Polling Place Photo Project since 2006.
Winterhouse Institute, founded by William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, develops and supports political and social advocacy. William Drenttel initiated the Polling Place Photo Project in November 2006.
Design Observer is the largest blog about design and visual culture and is edited and authored by Michael Bierut, William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand. The site has supported Polling Place Photo Project since its inception.
Established in 1998, AIGA Design for Democracy applies design tools and thinking to increase civic participation by making interactions between the U.S. government and its citizens more understandable, efficient and trustworthy. Independent, pragmatic and committed to the public good, Design for Democracy collaborates with researchers, designers and policy-makers, from professional, governmental and academic communities, in service of public sector clients on a nonprofit basis. Design for Democracy has focused on election design since the 2000 presidential election, publishing both national ballot design guidelines on behalf of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and Marcia Lausen' Design for Democracy: Ballot and Election Design (jointly with University of Chicago Press) in 2007.
Thirdwave is AIGA's development partner and responsible for supporting the technology of the Polling Place Photo Project, as well as countless other AIGA online initiatives. Additional design and programming support provided by Betsy Vardell of Ruby Studio.
This project was originally conceived in consultation with Jay Rosen, the media critic and author of PressThink. We also thank the many professionals at The New York Times who supported this project during the 2008 election cycle.
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About the Project
The Polling Place Photo Project is a program of AIGA, the professional association for design, and Winterhouse Institute. William Drenttel of Design Observer initiated the project in 2006. Thirdwave is AIGA's development partner and responsible for supporting the technology of the Polling Place Photo Project. The About page details the many participants who have contributed to this project.
In the spirit of public access and broad dissemination, this was an open-source project. All photographs are contributed under an "Attribution No Derivatives" Creative Commons license. It is understood that all photographs may be shared with other sites, including designobserver.com, pollingplacephotoproject.org, aiga.org, and designfordemocracy.org. Further, photographs may be distributed to other sites, commercial and non-commercial, which share the goal of encouraging voter participation in America. Photographs may be used by any news media, including online blogs, that credit the project and the photographer under the terms of the Creative Commons license. Photographs will not be sold individually for personal profit by any participant. It is our goal that these photographs be used, researched and broadly disseminated, and all contributors willingly (and cheerfully) acknowledge that their photographs are a part of this public initiative.