2020 marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote in 1920. It was the first legislation for women’s voting rights. Not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 were voting rights of all women protected and enforced.

The Get Out the Vote: Empowering the Women’s Vote poster campaign, in partnership with the League of Women Voters, invites AIGA members to design nonpartisan and apolitical (without political content or bias) posters to commemorate the beginning of 100 years of women’s voting rights. A core group of invited women of design submitted the first 63 posters, to launch the initiative with inspirational work. This campaign aspires to not only support voter participation, but to also serve as a backdrop for dialogue and examination of the history of voting rights and women’s fight for equality.

Please review this introduction and submission checklist before proceeding to contribute.

Not an AIGA member? Join or renew your membership before you begin!

Purpose

This civic engagement initiative wields the power of design to motivate the American public to register and turn out to vote in the 2020 general election, as well as local elections to come. The core of the campaign is an online gallery of original, nonpartisan and apolitical (without political content or bias) posters generated by AIGA members for printing and public distribution. It is vital to the spirit, impact, and accessibility of this campaign that posters are nonpartisan and in window card format (portrait, 11x17 inches).

Instructions

1. Download the .zip file containing the Illustrator template for your poster.
2. Design your poster, leaving the branded band embedded at the bottom.
3. Provide your information (name, city, state) for design credit in the branded band where indicated. The text is set in Roboto, which is included in the .zip file.
4. Once you’ve completed your poster, consult the checklist below to ensure your submission meets all of the requirements.
5. Prepare a thumbnail image (based on social square graphic) at 300x300 pixels at 72 ppi in RGB max size 50k, saved as JPG or JPEG for the gallery overview.
6. All messaging must be nonpartisan and apolitical (without political content or bias). View our nonpartisan guidelines.

Submission checklist

• Message MUST be nonpartisan and apolitical (without political content or bias)
• Poster is saved as a press quality PDF without security restrictions
• CMYK. No bleed. No crop marks.
• AIGA Get Out the Vote branded band appears at bottom of poster
• Credit has been provided where indicated in the band
• Poster is 11x17 inches (portrait)
• Max size 25 MB
• All images are 300 dpi at full size
• All type has been converted to outline
• Any foreign language copy included in your design is translated into English in the submission description (max 250 words)

When you upload your poster, you will have the option to include an artist statement (max 250 words) in the submission description field as well as link to your social media accounts. The artist statement must also be nonpartisan.

If your poster meets all of the above requirements, you are ready to submit through this entry form. After your submission is uploaded, it will be reviewed to ensure it adheres to the submission requirements and, upon approval, uploaded to the online gallery.

Why must my Submission be Nonpartisan?

AIGA is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit organization. This means we can’t endorse or donate to candidates or use materials that reflect a preference or distaste for a specific political party or candidate. View our nonpartisan guidelines.

Tips for effective nonpartisan design (added October 3, 2020)

• By staying neutral you can be a trusted messenger and your real message—the importance of voting—will come through loud and clear without ulterior motives.
• As artists creating general use content, it's best to avoid injecting hot-button issues into nonpartisan, election-related communications. Instead, stick to shared values like an inclusive democracy, healthy communities, or a brighter future.
• People of younger age, people of lower income, and BIPOC populations do not turn out to vote at the same rate as other populations. You can focus your message on reaching these people.
• If you aren’t registered you can’t vote! 36% of eligible voters forgot or missed registration deadline. Be the reminder they need so their voice can count.

Rights and reproduction

By submitting a poster, you certify that you created or have ownership of the work—including the right to distribute stock images and fonts used in your design. You retain the copyright and agree to distribute under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. You grant to AIGA the right to use accepted work for reproduction in posters for the Get Out the Vote initiative; in publications; in exhibitions; on its websites; and for educational and AIGA-related noncommercial promotional purposes.

Posters are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License:

Terms and Conditions

• You certify that the work in this submission form does not infringe on any copyrights or trademarks.
• You understand that infringement always triggers disqualification and removal of content, even if it's discovered after the work has been published.
• You expressly agree that AIGA shall not be liable and you agree to release and indemnify AIGA for any expenses related to any disputes or errors concerning artistic conception, ownership, or any other matters relating to the ownership and rights granted herein as they relate to any of the accepted works.
• You certify that you have read AIGA’s nonpartisan guidelines. You understand that it is vital to the spirit, impact, and accessibility of this campaign that poster are nonpartisan and that AIGA cannot approve submissions that reflect a preference or distaste for a specific political party or candidate, AIGA must remain neutral. (added October 28, 2020)
• You understand that AIGA may remove partisan content or general use content that injects hot-button issues into nonpartisan communications, even if it's discovered after the work has been published. (added October 28, 2020)
• You understand AIGA members must follow our Code of Conduct. (added November 2, 2020)

Resources

• AIGA Design for Democracy: Recordings from webinar series
• Nonprofit VOTE: Nonprofits Countdown to the Election Calendar
• Census.gov: Voting and Registration

For more information about Get Out the Vote, visit: aiga.org/vote