NMDP Externship Assignment 2

If people with disabilities voted at the same rate as people without disabilities who have the same demographic characteristics, there would be about 2.35 million more voters (Study done by Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse, Rutgers University). That is a huge number of voters that could be contributing their voice and vote during this upcoming election. I was inspired to focus this project on the population that live with disabilities. When coming up with the design I wanted to make a design that is purposeful and was clear with the message. While doing research I became aware of some of the barriers that voters with disabilities have to face when voting. Whether it be the lack of resources, information, difficulty with the the ballot system provided or the feeling that their vote and voice doesn't matter. Having all of those physical and social barriers is very discouraging for someone who is living with disabilities. 

I wanted to go about this project in a respectful manner as someone who is able bodied. I wanted to design this project with the intent of bringing awareness to a problem that is occuring within our voting system and to encourage those who are disabled to vote. The variation in the letter forms and their size emphasizes the diversity of disabilities both physical and mental. I was inspired by letterpressed poster design variation in letterforms and the imperfections that occurr when screenprinting a poster. Also wanted to be aware of the color palette that I was using to make sure that those living with color blindless would be able to read BREAK. In the additional information that is included in this poster I wanted to make a statement towards this group of the voter population.