Early Voting Window Painting Installations
Graphic Designer
Graphic Design • Advertisement • Experiential Marketing • Clientwork • Merchandise
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate, Google Platforms, Window Paint Markers
This Window Painting installation came to life in October of 2024, inspired by the Early Voting project from a voting class a year prior. In the voting class, we had to work on prototyping and creating a creative intervention to promote either early registration or early voting for the general election in 2024, for students on campus.
At the end of the semester, our creative ideas were presented in an expo, where potential campus clients came to hear our ideas. In spring of 2024, I was reached out from the UMich Stamps student life coordinator about making this early voting window painting installation happen. Through many changes in design, meetings, researching in supplies, the Early Voting window Installations were displayed during times in the month of October 2024.
Come up with an idea to collaborate with campus partners—including U-M Dining, Housing, and Libraries—to design a creative intervention that encouraged early registration and voting ahead of the 2024 general election. This involved researching campus touchpoints, identifying opportunities for engagement, and prototyping tailored solutions for potential implementation in Fall 2024.
The Task:
The Ideation:
This Window Painting Collaboration Allows:
Maintained engagement and interest throughout progress of painting
Participation in a fun and unique campus activity!
More confidence and awareness in basic information such as when/where to Early Vote
Students to learn more about Early Voting in Michigan as the QR code is linked to michigan.gov
Adds a collaborative component
Allows everyone to collaborate within the activity time duration, not a limited number of individuals
Fun and engaging aspect to this activity
'VOTE' would remain colored in, as it is out of reach from being colored in by participants
The Purpose of the Outlined Design:
Colored-in/Finished Design:
Bright colors allows attraction and contrast against the busyness of the other side of window
Colors are non-partisan
Hierarchy of importance is designed based on size and order of information
Website below QR code is for:
individuals who do not like scanning QR codes
individuals who don't know how to use QR codes
anyone who wishes to type the website rather than scan
Location — MoJo Dining Hall Entrance/Exit:
Due to high traffic area from 5 surrounding dormitories, and use of windows
How this works:
1.
Stand in Window Painting line, not to be confused with dining hall line!
2.
Choose a paint color or spin a wheel for a color, grab swag
Once color paint marker is picked, associate it with one section on the window and paint it in!
3.
4.
Return markers, and exit or advance to dining hall entry
At the table:
Early Voting Window Painting Swag:
Vote Early Postcards: for individuals to take home as a souvenir or reminder with Early Voting information
Window Painting Flyer: to help promote this activity around campus for students to participate/collaborate
Vote Early Pin buttons: for people to pin on their clothes, jackets, backpacks, and more!
Vote Early Stickers
Display Iterations:
Iteration 1.1: The first design iteration focused primarily on voting principles, such as reducing ambiguity, making it non-parisan, and making Early Voting attentive as well as encouraging.
Iteration 1.2: The second design iteration focused primarily on voting principles, such as reducing ambiguity, making it non-parisan, and making Early Voting attentive as well as encouraging.
Iteration 2: This iteration focused on which information should be displayed from the general Early Voting topic, and where they would be placed on the design. Focusing on placement and hierarchy is crucial for emphasizing importance of Early Voting information.
Iteration 3: This iteration focused on solidifying the design of the buildings where individuals could early vote. Including the two places and the hours of operation would help individuals be more comfortable and aware of where to Early Vote on campus.
Iteration 4: After receiving feedback on the previous two iterations, it was recommended that I show how to send an Early Voting ballot into a Tabulator machine. This graphic would help guide students into showing how easy and simple the Early Voting process is: filling out the ballot and entering it into the machine. The QR code linked to the michigan.gov Early Voting page was also added if individuals had wanted to learn information about Early Voting in general.
Paint-by-Number Inspiration: After the first several iterations, I realized that our generation has a short attention span. Implementing a collaborative aspect, inspired by Disney Epcot's Paint by Number mural, allowed the window painting design to maintain interest and attraction from students.
Color-in Postcard Inspiration: Because of the collaboration addition, I had wanted to create postcards that included the outline of the design, so that students would be able to have the design and information with them, and have them be creative with it themselves!
Iteration 5: The voting tabulator seemed very confusing and unrelated to the topic of Early Voting after looking at the drafted design with the tabulator. After adding the collaborative aspect to the design, I stuck with the theme of displaying basic information about when and where individuals can early vote.
Final iteration design: Since it was a collaborative activity and I had intended for many students to want to collaborate, I added more areas and shapes to allow more areas to be colored in. This design was effective as it was simple, bright, and encapsulated basic information of Early Voting on campus.
Final iteration design outline: Since the final design in the previous slide was the final, colored in design, I had to create an outlined design that would serve as the template to the start of this activity. Within a shape of a color, are sections that are split up so that enough students can color in. Each student would potentially be assigned one section to color in once they have picked a color.
Final Postcard: The postcard that participants can take home as a souvenir and as a reminder about where and when to Vote Early.
Final Iteration (displayed on window): The finalized, colored-in completed design as displayed on several dining hall windows, and the activity's table setup in front of the window.
After presenting our ideation at the semester expo, I was invited to create an interactive display at the Michigan Art & Architecture Building on North Campus. During the planning stage for the interactive display, I was also asked to design a second, non-interactive display for another building on Michigan’s central campus.
The Implementation:
Updated Mockup Designs for Window Installations:
UMich Stamps Installation Design (Interactive)
UMSI Engagement Center Installation Design (not interactive)
This Window Painting Collaboration Allows:
Location was not ideal for those who do not have a dining plan
Removed spinner, felt it might drag and add more time for students, which isn't beneficial when rushing to class
The UMSI location window painting has very low traffic, pivoted to make uninteractive but viewable from campus
No supervisors with table, had to put up signs about what not to do when window painting
