VOTE
-
Design + Animation | Kendall Gathas
Music + Sound Design | Kendall Gathas, Kelly Warner
-
Category | Motion Design
Medium | 2D Animation, Stop Motion
Produced At | Ringling College of Art and Design
The Challenge
With 18 to 25 year-olds voting less than other age groups, how could I grab the attention of young, doom-scrolling adults and convince them to register and vote?
The animation should be short and looping for social media. While it needs to be informational, the tone may vary so long as it truly motivates the audience to take action.
The Solution
Growing up with a mother who never liked complaining, I was inspired by George Carlin’s “If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain.”
My blunt message resonates with students like myself who grew up on a platform where it’s easy to be opinionated but need that kick in the butt to put our money where our mouth is.
“If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain.”
george carlin
Research
All in To Vote
As a basis for understanding current outreach on this topic, I looked to Civic Nation's "ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge”, which encourages students to not only vote but also be consistently informed and engaged.
Their branding primarily used clean and simple typography over toned live footage with very few illustrations.
audience
College students have been over 10% less likely to vote than older generations. The same is predicted for the 2024 national election.
Most young adults claim they don’t vote because the process seems complicated, yet they’re very vocal online. There, I found a different angle to target.
visual development
direction 01 | Punk Politics in Print
A simplified punk style from a movement routed in rule-breaking matches the brisk tone while appealing to a youthful sense of rebellion. My goal was to boldly overwrite headlines in a way that likens voting to rewriting history.
Because newspapers are outdated to younger generations, this direction needed revamping.
direction 02 | Punk politics ONLINE
Red and blue combine in a bright purple to signal that no matter your political affiliation, you really should vote before complaining.
The speech bubbles were a more appropriate visual, since they can represent verbal or online comments.
ANIMATION
FIRST PASS
In this pass, the red and blue could use more brightness for readability. The shape animation of the speech bubbles should be more collage-like to match the design, and the overall animation needs more build from nothing to overwhelming. Finally, the style calls for bolder sound design.
SECOND PASS
The animation still needs more build. While the sound design better immerses the audience, the animation and audio aren’t entirely in sync.
Most young adults claim they don’t vote because the process seems complicated, yet they’re very vocal online. There I found a different angle to target.
Behind the scenes
Hands-on
To create the paper tear transition, I painted one side of a paper black, leaving the underside white to use as an alpha matte in After Effects.
The stars and a few textures were also hand-made and altered in After Effects.
Animating Printed Ink
I wanted the text animation to feel like the ink was being printed on to maintain the tactile feel from my punk design.
By altering a fractal noise effect’s timing, contrast, and texture type in After Effects and using it as a blur map for the text, the final had that gritty look and printed ink motion.
Final Deliverable
MOCKUP
This project reminded me of the importance of deeper research in understanding and truly speaking to an audience. Looking into voting statistics, college student habits, and even attention spans guided me towards a more effective answer to the problem.