Shape

What I Discovered
Washington D.C. was a really interesting experience from the perspective of my IP project. At museums like Ford's Theater, the Newseum, and the National Portrait Gallery, I was able to see a variety of successful—and unsuccessful—ways to convey a space visually and then Monday I visited the Kelsey Museum with a class.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a camera because I thought a lot of museums would forbid it, but I can at least talk a bit about it. Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated, had a lot of really interesting and engaging information—particularly for a history dork like myself. Yet, it was entirely overwhelming, there weren't any levels of access. You weren't certain where to start first.

Similarly, the Kelsey Museum here in Ann Arbor had great academic information about their pieces, but a total lack of consistent color palette made it impossible to tell where one section, say Greek, Roman, Far East, Pre-Historic, began and where another started.

Both made me consider both levels of access and entry points a lot more, combined with consistency of material (e.g., printed maps, labels, and walls at least have some similarity). I'm not sure it directly relates to the logo I'm working with now, but it certainly will be influential in working with the larger visual system I hope to create later.

I'm going to shift gears a bit and talk about this survey I created for the group and talk about the results. I used a website called eSurvey, which was great because it's free and allowed me to ask as many questions as I wanted. The downside is it doesn't allow me to export information into a PDF unless I pay, so I just took some screenshots of questions I found notable. It wasn't mandatory, but it looks like the response rate I got was around 70% of known active members in the group—pretty high by survey standards.





So what are we looking at when we think of the group? A small advantage of women over men, something that has become typical at most Universities, but there is a skew toward older, heavily involved students. A huge part of the group is networking, over 90% of them are involved in at least some other student organization. There's probably a cross-pollination of interest. They also skew toward older, more advanced students. The vast majority are juniors and seniors or beyond.

What about where they live? We can see from above a lot live off-campus now, but what about where they came from?


No surprise here, most students spend at least a year in the dorm, some two.


This breakdown is more interesting. You're see a lot of South Quad and East Quad members, most East Quad members are probably from the Residential College. I'm surprised Markley had a high percentage (comparatively), but it also is one of the larger housing complexes.


Here, too, is a selection of majors. History, public policy, urban planning. Very humanities driven. There's a few interesting ones in there, geology, civil engineering, mathematics.


Where do people usually go to class? It seems like we're all doomed to exist in Angell/Mason Hall unless you're doomed to be on North Campus.

I'm not completely sure this information will be entirely useful, but it helped to give me a better idea of who I'm working with. Certainly, when I get to the point of discussing strategy—how The Roosevelt Institute should advertise and where—this will be influential in the decision making process. You can see either where the group comes from and focus there, or work on areas where we have little coverage.

Speaking of which, continuing the imagery from around campus. I took some snaps from the Dude the other day, one side was the school sponsored bulletin board:





It's quite different from what you see in the Architecture Corner, smaller format, not as design conscious. Not everything is color. Across from it is the student bulletin board:


How can you separate yourself from that? Yikes.

So, looping back; work on the logo. It felt like last week I was getting a lot of great comments about the direction I was heading and was trying to get a variety of feedback before I moved forward, so these past few days I went back to sketching.

I've started working with trace a lot, which is something that had been suggested to me a lot by Jan-Henrik and Hannah in previous years, but I've tried taking more to heart. I like it because I can quickly spit stuff out, I also find that tracing a decent idea I have and reworking it is a bit easier.







Anyhow, I'm trying to dump the letter for a little while and take it in some more abstract directions. I was playing around here with lines and points, notions of connectivity. It's actually making me think a lot about Malevich and Russian Suprematism, here's a bit of that work:




And also the sort of ideas around the Bauhaus. Taking really rational, geometric forms, and combining them to do radical, new things. It's really intriguing. I'd like to try and find a book or two about Suprematism. I'll be the first to admit my basis in art history is a bit shaky.

I'm not certain the visual direction I'm taking this week is really working per se, but it's making me think about an abstract concept (connections, pragmatism) in rather… Well, abstract and new ways. This common point, overlap, or divergence of ideas is key though. Visualizing it has become such a task though.

I will say, I'm learning a great deal about my own creative process—something that has been an unexpected consequence of this project—and my ability to work through my own ideas.

What Next
This weekend I'm going to Detroit to attend a conference for The Roosevelt Institute. My reasoning is two-fold. Part is that, I really do think the group does great work and I want to stay in tune with them over the year still. Though my project may have zoomed out a bit and is gearing more toward a legacy production, working with them is really informative, it lets me know what their needs air, their expectations, their budget, the realities they work in. That's not to say I should or by any means have to heed those concerns, but it's good to keep in mind.

The second is that people from the national organization will be coming into town. Luckily, a few of them are former U of M students that I vaguely know, so there is potential to float the idea of my project in the hopes for a broader adoption. In my mind, the more eyes from the group I can get to see the work, the better.

That's kind of long term though, keeping with the next few weeks, I want to keep working on this logo, getting more advice, and working again. If I've allowed myself the luxury of time, then it's important I do it right.

I also want to connect with Hannah and Dwayne again to talk about what comprise visual identities. I can look through a lot of books and make a lot of judgements about what does, but I have firsthand resources who've done that kind of work I should take advantage of. The outcome will probably be some combination of the groups needs and what commonly comprises identity.

Unfortunately, I ran into a kind of crazy week this between an exam I have tomorrow (which I should be currently studying for) and work to make-up after traveling to D.C., but I'm trying to clear more things out of the way so I can focus better.

How I Spent My Time
I spent a few more hours with a roll of trace plotting out ideas, I went to the Dude to take some images of bulletin boards, I compiled demographic information, I started looking a bit more into Russian Suprematism, and spent time in D.C. looking at visual systems of museums.

Overlap

Discovery
This past week and a half may not have been exactly enjoyable, but necessary. I'll say this, I'm glad it happened in November and not March though.

I took a step back and realized for two months I jumped feet first into my project, but didn't give myself any time to breathe. Working with an organization is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it gives you drive and focus, but on the other I felt subject to their deadline whims. It didn't allow me enough time to think about my design work or get substantive critique from other people. I felt overwhelmed and it threw me off track.

As Hannah pointed out, I'd been operating as an in-house designer for them. Meeting their needs from day-to-day. What I want to be is their "high price consultant," someone who is able to work elaborately and freely over the course of the year to create a compelling visual system and present it to be adopted for the following year, a legacy work.

I think initially I had reservations about this. My design work could be enlightening, but if it only existed in the confines of my studio space and the Art School, it didn't really have an impact. That's probably why I was compelled to try and hit the ground running. However, I'd rather do a few things over the course of this year well than a gamut of poor work I'm not happy with.

So what does that mean for December?

Well, it's not so much that I'm changing my project, more than I'm reframing it. I first approached it head on, and it didn't work. Now, my goal is to approach it free of the group. I'll still work with them over the year to retain a sense of who they are and the needs they encounter, I may even pluck an event or two of theirs to incorporate into my project. Ultimately, this will give me more time to get the feedback I need to create a thoughtful project.

From here to December then is the development of a system. What that entails, I'm not entirely sure. Certainly, fantastic keywords, a logo and colors that emphasize what the group does are a component. I'll have to break down what the group needs regularly and compare it with other successful visual identities. It will mean some more focused research, as previous design standards manuals dealt mainly with logo usage.

Earlier in the semester, Jesse Kidwell gave me a few original Paul Rand design manuals about the IBM logo that were quite helpful. I contacted him again a few days ago to see if he has anything else that may be of use and he's bringing a few things in. I'm also going to try and contact Annette Haines. She gave me a lot of information and book recommendations for creating a survey to study the group's demographics. Further, I should use some of the in school resources that have worked on identity projects, Dwayne, Hannah and Frank. Looking toward next semester, I can refine this information further and then use it to create advertisements for the group itself—free of events and speakers—then produce a design standards manual for them to hold on to and utilize in the future.

I had a meeting with Dwayne Overmyer on Tuesday this week as well to talk about the logo and get some feedback. We also talked a bit about strategy. Posters are obviously a big part of the student group, so how—as part of my visual identity—can I create a consistent visual image with changing content (i.e., take the masthead off the New York Times and the Detroit Free Press and from across the room you can still tell which one is which).

For example, below is the 'Architecture Corner' of the School of Art & Design. Every work here is made by someone very conscious of design and visual choices. You notice mainly large format work, multiple colors, suggestive typography with a smaller use of imagery.











Yet, next week when I go to the School of Public Health, East Quad and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy to take similar pictures of their bulletin boards, I'm willing to bet I will not find the same visual litmus. In evaluating what is currently in these places, I can make decisions about what format and color schemes can then help the group to separate itself.

So let's back up to the work I'm doing now a bit. I'm still dealing with this logo. I got some interesting and fresh comments last Thursday and I, as said, setup a meeting with Dwayne and we talked for about an hour. He pointed out it seemed like I tried a few approaches already.

1. Facial recognition (The Roosevelt's image)
2. Historical (the glasses, the bull moose imagery)
3. Letterform (the R)

He said he felt some of my decisions were successful, basically eliminating the first two, and said the letterform seemed to be half-working. He suggested maybe I back up a bit and consider what forms can be representative of this group. So I backed up a bit and started to explore what images currently existed for 'think-tank' groups.









Some are better than others. I was sitting after studio hours with Anna talking and she pointed out a lot of these advocacy organizations blobs of multi-colored people dancing in circles, the world, or images of a brain, but that imagery wasn't successful, it felt very generic.

There was a moment I was going to use an exercise from the Karl Gerstner book Designing Programmes, which you run through a series of options and see if any have an effect you're looking for.



Just before I started, I remember Dwayne mentioned looking over the groups mission statement. He actually joked a bit about how everyone seemed to have one, and some of them say very little, but sometimes there are good bits on information inside them. So I printed out a copy and started highlighting.


I got hooked on this idea of pragmatism and conversation. I kept seeing it throughout the mission statement and in being familiar with The Roosevelt Institute. I was browsing the website ffffound when I came across this posting.


At first, I had to laugh because I thought it was funny, but later in the day I started thinking more and more about this Venn Diagram shape and my keywords.




Connection… Pragmatism? There's a relationship between these words. Pragmatism is a compromise, it's the space between two (or more) ideologies. In a Venn Diagram, A+B=C, and that's where groups like The Roosevelt Institute operate—in this space formed between. Through research, it finds the good parts of multiple ideologies and drives to create something new.

I also started to think of what shape could be indicative of a larger whole that the individuals comprise. In geometry, more complex shapes are built up of smaller triangles. So, a square is actually two triangles joined. A pentagon is three triangles. Could two shapes overlap to focus on an individual triangle?

I then started moving back toward the letterform, introducing something Dwayne and I talked about briefly. I focused on the R because it is, arguably, the most important part of The Roosevelt Institute. Roosevelt is somewhat descriptive, whereas Institute is a generic term. However, I could introduce the letterform I to create more variability of shape, but just visually make it secondary with a foreground-background relationship. Between this and the shapes, I sat around for about four hours with a roll of trace trying to come up with new combinations.

It reminded me a bit of a suggestion by Amanda last week, that when working with a letterform, I may need to draw or alter them myself to find exactly what I'm looking for.





I feel like I travelled down the path of a letterform and it sort of worked on its own, I moved down a path of shape and it also sort of worked. Perhaps the combination of the two is what can create something really interesting. Maybe at the intersection of these two letterforms, I can create a recognizable shape as well.

I'm kind of eager to get feedback on these ideas, it feels like this could be something much larger. What if there was an entire system devoted to this visual overlap that identified the group? I think it could be quite unique. There are a lot of ideas swirling in my head right now on this topic, but I can't quite pin them down.

What Next
This coming weekend I'm going to Washington D.C. with Hannah's Designing Exhibitions class. Part of me was torn about this, because I felt like this weekend I really needed to work on things for IP. However, while the trip is informative for her class, I think it might actually be more so for my IP project. We're visiting museums, which are huge systems of information tied together by consistency, visual style, and an objective. It may not be the paper replication of what I'm doing, but it will be a great visual sample.

In the coming week, I want to get some good feedback about this overlap idea and see where it is pushing my logo. I'd also like to try and make a transition to think about color, but not before I get the form working. It's important that the logo work in black and white—especially for an underfunded student group—and that the statement is enhanced by color, not entirely reliant upon it.

I'm also going to travel to a couple of different parts of campus to take photographs of their department bulletin boards to compare them. I'll also finally post up the demographic information up here I collected in the first two months. I was hoping to design it, but I just don't have time. It doesn't matter if it looks pretty, the content is useful, so I'll just take some screenshots of the eSurvey website and post them.

Beyond that, picking up some research on design guidelines and taking photographs in D.C. is important. It will expand my visual precedence for this kind of work.

How I Spent My Time
I'm actually a bit miffed, I felt like I had a lot more visually for spending four hours with a roll of trace, but I'm actually excited about what I'm generating. Meetings with Hannah and Dwayne helped the macro and micro visions of my projects respectively. I sat down and tried to have a conversation again with my keywords, to see what directions it could take me. I've also been walking into more people's studios and asking for them to look at work. Anna and Jesse have both been really good sounding boards.

Reconsideration

In truth, I feel quite frustrated right now, like I'm banging my head against a wall without resolution.

I had a meeting with Hannah Tuesday that didn't go anything like I was anticipating, it felt like a rude awakening—yet at the same time it's really just my fault. Somehow, against even my own better senses, I started making things inside my own little world and not showing them to others when I had an opportunity to.

I don't know if I simply felt that time in class was for explicitly talking about our project. Whatever it was, I feel quite stupid, it wasn't my intention to divorce my project of other people's comments and critique. It didn't seem like I was being scolded for not work, but doing something worse, not showing it.

Today in class, I spent time with Erika, Amanda, and Anna going over what I was doing, it was both useful and eye-opening. Admittedly, it was also disheartening, as I found I'd made progress but not in a particularly useful direction. I basically assembled all the scraps of paper and iterations of the logo I'd made, then printed anything off I may have never had and brought it in.

We talked about a sampling of logos student groups already have:





Discovery
I then opened up about some ideas I'd had along the way.





On the one hand, it was nice to hear I wasn't entirely lost. Some of the ideas I'd gone through and sort of dismissed people in my group voiced similar reservations either to the idea or the way in which I explored them. It was also of interest to hear people's interpretation of the images.

Of particular note, Anna pointed out she liked the concept of glasses, because it mimicked the idea of reading and research, that the logo was action oriented. Reality is, I'd not even considered that, I was trying to draw an allusion to Franklin Roosevelt and rejected it because I felt it wasn't firm enough.

Her comment got me thinking about where I ended up, that thinking of a visual image for the research, writing, and publication is really hard. So we moved on to where I was now, and talked about some of the problems with the logo itself and its usage.




They seemed to have a general feeling of 'seal' or 'officiality' that I had intended, but not necessarily in the right manner. Amanda said it felt like a political party, which was not my intention. In fact, that's the reason I'd been pushing away from the moose imagery. The Roosevelt Institute doesn't have political allegiance, it advocates for logical decisions based off research. There was also mention of it seeming similar to Jimmy John's logo, but I think it's more apparent that a circular format with ringed text is pretty common.

Positively, I gleaned from the conversation that the logo did feel authoritative—albeit maybe unimaginatively—and I wasn't totally misguided in my use of it on a poster or flyer, which comments on seemed to be positive but we didn't get to spend a ton of time talking about them specifically.

So maybe I should point back to an earlier blog post. What happens when I drop off this excess? Do I really need to say University of Michigan? Do people care when it's established? Does it even need to say the name? Maybe I was too caught up pursuing a particular aesthetic, than deciding based off a reasoned approach (oh, sweet irony).

So I'm back here:


There is something that draws me to this character. Of the dozens I went through, I think it's fitting to the group because it's bold, robust, unique, and maybe even slightly aggressive. I looked at keywords I'd developed earlier for the group, "student investigate, pragmatic, reasoned," and I do see some correlation between the two. It is a unique group, and students do need to be outgoing and a bit aggressive to initiate projects and get their policies implemented.

On the other hand, perhaps I should learn to kill my dears. Print the letterform 24x36, hang it on my wall and try something completely new again. I'm in murky territory. I've done few logotypes before and advertising for any entire group is a very new experience, I'm finding this all to be much more work than I'd expected, made complicated by the fact I'd not talked with people. Still, I feel an overriding visual simplicity will be helpful. The challenge is always that, when things are simple, every little move must be perfect.

What Next
Unfortunately, I've put myself in a hole. I really do need to get this done soon, but at the same time I shouldn't be rushing the foundation of my project. I need to seek as much input as possible, about both what I've done, what I'm thinking, and remember to continue getting critiqued. As far as my timeline:

1. Finish development of logotype through critique

2. Create poster for regional conference on November 13–14

3. Make flyer for a writing workshop October 27

4. Begin sketches and critique for book jacket of regional publication. This book is a heavy recruitment tool for the group

5. Finalize collected demographic information

6. Use research demographics to create two advertisements for the group that aren’t advertising a particular event, but the group as a whole

7. Write grant proposal

I think it would also help if I didn't think of the project so personally, I'd be more willing to have comments.

How I Spent My Time
Over the weekend I ended up working on both a poster and flyer design (pictured above). Certainly, I spent time reeling from my meeting Tuesday. It took me a few days to lick my wounds, swallow my pride, and try to look at things objectively. I also started looking into how much funding I think I may need for printed materials, which was a convenient segway to class Thursday morning. I also finished A Type Primer by John Kane, which was a great read.

Discovery
It's strange how time apart from work can be productive. There was a funny McSweeney's list that got sent to me I felt explained it perfectly. I went into fall break knowing that I had to come up with two firm design ideas, and did very little constructive work toward them, but came back Wednesday and suddenly I had a few ideas bouncing around.

In truth, I'm trying not to get hung up on what I present in December. I've found thinking about it distracts me from work I've planned to do week-to-week. I've finalized t-shirts and a logo design. I've researched as much demographic information as I can. This weekend I know I need to create a flyer for a writing workshop and poster for the regional event. I'd like to possibly explore hand letter pressed invitations to events.

Beyond that, I need to work on being less reactive. Design work is what I consider 'long-term.' Events and flyers will come up through the course of the year, but being proactive entails planning advertisement and interaction that isn't simply for events The Roosevelt Institute puts on. This is really what I'd like to do before December, have a few solid works in place around campus and photographic evidence of them to generate thought and discussion.

Thursday night, I was at a dinner where Jan-Henrik was present. It was nice to chat with someone new about my project. In discussion and one-on-one meetings, there's a lot of push-back for ideas. Not necessarily because they are bad, but to try and refine them. I'm not sure if this is true for others, but it can create an anxiety that I'm constantly on the wrong path, spinning my wheels in place. It makes me hesitant to move forward.

Yet, Jan excitedly talked about my project, said the group sounded really interesting and that I was pursuing a worthwhile cause. It's rejuvenating mentally to find outright support.

What Next
I have to settle with the fact I am one person, not everything I want to do I can do, so I need to find my focus. I don't care how I hone my thoughts, through coffee, sleep deprivation, or a crippling—but creatively fruitive—drug addiction. I need to finish a poster and flyer for this weekend. I'll stick with that for now.

How I Spent My Time
In honesty, I spent most of fall break sitting around eating a bag of Almond Joys guiltily. This week I regained productivity with sketches. I'm also in the midst of a couple design books, one is A Type Primer by John Kane, the other is Modern Typography by Robin Kinross.

A Brief Update

Discovery
I'm making this short, as I'm leaving town to spend time away from this as much as possible. That's not to say I'm fed up or frustrated with my project. Quite the opposite, I actually feel like I've found direction, but time away for me is just as useful as time working.


I think it's fair to say, less was discovered this week and more was resolved.

What Next
It's simple, I need to make.

1. A large format poster for the regional conference based on the theme of unemployment

2. Some hand-letterpressed invitations or informational guides for the regional conference

3. Spray-chalk stencil

4. Investigate guerilla insertion of advertisements into the Daily.

How I Spent My Time
I spent a lot of time finishing my proposal. I wanted it to be clear for my own sake, not just because that's what we were asked. I spent time pitching the logo idea to the group. I got in contact with Mollie Bates, who is sending me some of her work via snail mail.

I also got in contact with someone who knows the treasurer of American Apparel who can get us shirts at $3.65—nearly 60% off what other places were quoting. After finding that out, I called Adrian's, a local t-shirt printery, and worked out a deal it looks like.

T-Shirt

Discovery
T-shirt design is actually something I try to avoid. It's a very difficult process, as everyone has their druthers. If you try a simple, evocative design, some plead for an illustrative quality. Go too far in the creative direction, it can be unintelligible. Then of course, you have to pick colors. All a careful balance.

I started with sketches, bad first drafts mostly. I knew some people in the group had a visual preference for an image of Eleanor Roosevelt, as they wanted to move away from Franklin Roosevelt. A few drafts of it didn't seem to be working. Eleanor doesn't quite have a face that is easily recognizable, so I moved onward to another mentioned suggestion, Theodore.


Theodore Roosevelt didn't have anything to do with founding the group, but one could argue his policies embody a progressive spirit within the group. So, again, starting with the iconography of Theodore's face. Yet, I began to wonder about attaching ourselves to the imagery of someone who had nothing to do with The Roosevelt Institute.

A face is also not versatile. It's hard to put on a letterhead or publication, it scales down poorly. I began to gravitate more toward the iconography of his glasses, a shared trait between Theodore and Franklin actually. I started to use the two O's in Roosevelt as an old fashioned pair of spectacles, but, it started to feel like I was doing an optometrist's logo. Quite an esoteric reference as well.

But, what of other iconography from the time of Theodore?


The Bull Moose Party was Roosevelt's progressive third-party push to run against his former protogé Taft.


We aren't college Democrats or Republicans, we don't have the luxury—or burden—of co-opting a national image and forming an identity from that. The moose also reminds me of something from Hollister or the like. So how do we strike anew?

I began to think of what Paul Rand might say, shirts are as much for a group as they are an advertisement to others. A strong visual identity is important, yet trying to sum up what The Roosevelt Institute does in a t-shirt would be nearly possible. I became very interested in a conversation starter. Something uncomplicated, but related to the group in the way.


I began to think about the letter R, the way it could be stylized, expressive, but still simple.


Yet, thinking further, if the logo doesn't visualize what The Roosevelt Institute does, then what does the text truly add to it? Anna gave me the design guide for The Phillips Collection, a modern art museum in Washington D.C., and I thought it was interesting their choice of secondary logo had the subtext, which was reserved "For use only in special circumstances."


So what happens if I drop it from mine?


I think I'm beginning to get interested now. It's expressive, but a lack of text would make me want to ask this person what their shirt was about. Maybe combined with a more illustrative element in the background of the shirt, it could capture someone's attention enough for a short conversation.

What Next
This logotype and a shirt design in conjunction of it is going to be a continuing project with plenty of iterations. Making an image that says, "This is who we are," and binding yourself to it for at least a year is a huge step for a student group, one that should be done with careful consideration.

I'm still gathering information from the survey I handed out, but am beginning to learn some interesting information about who is in the group (92% plan on attending law school, 70% of the group is a third-year or more student).

Finally, I'm working on really nailing down my draft proposal, but after some of the meetings today I feel I'm in a comfortable spot.

How I Spent My Time
I think it can be seen from above I worked a lot on a t-shirt idea. It's become quite consumptive. I've kind of been bouncing back and forth between people in the group, and resources within IP for critique with it. Beyond that, I've been utilizing resources given to me by Anna from The Phillips Collection, and also pouring over some really wonderful original design standards manuals produced by Paul Rand for IBM (Photographed briefly in the above section).

And, of course, I formulated a draft of my proposal and a revision of it.

Draft Me A Proposal

What
I want to work with the student group The Roosevelt Institute. In doing so, I hope to involve students not typically active with student groups, increase event attendance and group membership, while promoting the purpose of The Roosevelt Institute on campus.

Why
I'm working with The Roosevelt Institute because combines a group focus on public policy and my passion for politics. By promoting The Roosevelt Institute and involving a broad range of people, I am able to also advocate issues that I feel strongly about.

How
To execute this, I will need to take two routes. The first is a research component, whereby I survey current members to find out where they are from, where they live, if they're part of other student groups, their majors, etc. Using this information, I can design flyers, posters and other media that specifically target this pre-existing, politically oriented demographic that simply does not know what The Roosevelt Institute does.

The second path is to grab the attention of people that are unlikely to come to campus events and have little interest in public policy. This group is important, because if group members and event attendees are always the same people, we merely preach to the choir. This will not be done through targeted designs, but rather unexpected intervention into everyday campus life. This will take a variety of visual forms, including installation, the creation of a viewpoint in the Michigan Daily, and projection work.

Both courses will ideally increase membership and event attendance, but more importantly brand recognition. When people talk of student organizations, The Roosevelt Institute should be among the first few mentioned. I believe this can be achieved through a consistent design and flooding the campus dialogue with Roosevelt Institute material.

If I had unlimited time and funds…
… I would hire a team of ten people to help execute my ideas, place flyers, do installation work with me and document the work. Physical size and material would no longer be a hinderance, where all items, t-shirts, and such could be produced in color. I could then take the campaign to other campuses where the Roosevelt Institute has a presence, adapt my methods, and increase national membership.

If I had no time and was without money…
… I would design a logo for the Roosevelt Institute and create design guidelines using successful commercial brands as a model.

If I were to be realistic…
… Part of my project would be this methodical branding, flyering, postering, document creation, and publication design. The other half would be a more experimental means to reach new audiences. Conceivably, given time, manpower and money, only a few of these could be put together each semester.

The end result would be a design standards publication that explains the reason for design decisions, color choices, placement and the demographic information that supports it, but also documents the more exploratory means of gaining members through installation work. Such a manual can be used by this chapter of The Roosevelt Institute in the future, and is also accessible to other chapters.

The Artist Statement

What
I felt a bit relieved after studio time this morning when we were tasked to focus the 'what and why' of our project in just a few sentences, as the past week I've devoted a great deal of time to developing an artist statement for my project. For me, this is a guiding line betwixt here and April wherein I can explore, but still keep focus.


I initially came up with:

The intent of this project is to work with the student group, the Roosevelt Institute, over the course of the year to increase membership, event attendance, and heighten the Roosevelt Institute's visibility on campus.

I was trying to dig further into the logistics of this, and I realized there's really two groups I'm trying to reach. The first is the people who are interested in topics of public policy. This is what I call 'preaching to the choir.' They already want to do work on policy topics. They are majoring in politics, or history, they are part of other campus organizations like Student Democrats or Human Rights Through Education, they just aren't aware of our organization in specific.

The second—I'd argue more difficult group—are people who are not traditionally attendees to these types of events or groups. Reaching them is more difficult and will take unorthodox methods of advertisement (e.g., guerilla advertisement, video work, flooding the Michigan Daily with editorials).

So, my statement needed revision in light of this, and also to rectify some clunky language:

The intent of this project is to work with The Roosevelt Institute—a campus student group—to increase event attendance and membership, while reaching out to students who aren't traditionally inclined to get involved.

This works better, but it's two steps forward and one back. First, I don't know what recesses of campus the uninvolved students lurk in, so their identification is crucial if I'm to reach them. Also, the statement doesn't speak to what the organization does and propagating that on campus:

The intent of this project is to work with The Roosevelt Institute—a student group focused on independent research of public policy issues—to increase event attendance and membership, while identifying and reaching out to students who are not traditionally involved.

Better, more complete, if not a bit lengthy. The portion within the em dashes feels it could be its own sentence, and in general feels a bit cold:

My intent is to work with The Roosevelt Institute, a campus student group focused on independent research of public policy issues. I hope to identify and reach out to students not traditionally involved with student groups, increase event attendance and group membership, while expanding the visibility of The Roosevelt Institute among the student body.

Closer… that last bit needs some revision. 'Visibility' doesn't speak to informing people what The Roosevelt Institute actually does:

My intent is to work with The Roosevelt Institute, a campus student group focused on independent research of public policy issues. I hope to identify and reach out to those not traditionally involved with student groups, increase event attendance and group membership, while promoting the purpose of The Roosevelt Institute to the student body.

'Promoting the purpose' is a perfect way to put it, but it seems to me I should be able to say it all in one breath if need be:

I want to work with the student group The Roosevelt Institute. In doing so, I hope to involve students not typically active with student groups, increase event attendance and group membership, while promoting the purpose of The Roosevelt Institute on campus.

Why
An artist statement is the synthesis of our reasons why. These thoughts are what motivate us, compel us to work on projects and spur creativity. They are often this confusing mumble of thoughts which we have to break down, logically to find focus.

My reasoning is two-fold. On one hand, issues of public policy—health care, international relations, urban planning in Detroit— are of great interest to me personally. Initially, I thought focusing on one of these issues in specific would make for a good project, but I found difficulty in tying myself to just one of these issues.

I felt, then, I should advocate for a group that already does wonderful work on all these topics. This is really the other component of my motivation, to explain what the group does and differentiate it from other organizations on campus.

The Roosevelt Institute is comprised of individual policy centers (e.g., the center on health care, the center on international relations) that do independent research on topics people within the group are interested in. After analyzing a topic, students then create policy papers, which they are able to pitch to state representatives in Lansing and are also published in a national journal. People can be part of multiple centers, centers can collaborate with one another to put on events.

Each policy center has a director. All the directors meet once a week to communicate what their policy center is doing and coordinate larger events. The directors are also responsible for fielding requests from other campus groups and non-profit organizations. For example, last year The Roosevelt Institute was asked to do research for the Stop The Hike campaign, which advocated a steady tuition rate for students. This year, we're being asked to look into a variety of topics for Great Lakes Urban Exchange, a non-profit organization.

As you can see, it's quite a different group, it allows people to actually change something, not just write about it. Boiling down my reason 'why' to a few short sentences is a challenge, but if I'm made to:

I'm working with The Roosevelt Institute because combines a group focus on public policy and my passion for politics. By promoting The Roosevelt Institute and involving a broad range of people, I am able to also advocate issues that I feel strongly about.

Discovery
I've started some preliminary design work the past few days, the most important of which is a survey of current members.


I'm distributing it to the directors of each policy center this Sunday, so people within the organization should be able to fill one out over the course of the next week and return it to me by Sunday, October 11. I'm hoping the survey will give me a better grasp of what current members are like and help me target similar people that we just haven't reached.

The group also asked me to do t-shirts. I'm currently coordinating prices with a couple of companies, but the big challenge has been the design. I'm a fan of a more simplistic, text based or single image approach, but I expect there to be some resistance to that idea. Many student group t-shirts have very little hierarchy and are just smattering of sleek—or often unsleek—graphics.

The average person will see a t-shirt for less than two seconds. What will engage them enough to ask what your shirt is about? I think having something clear, quick and intelligible may be the best route for that.

Beyond all this, I'm trying to develop a plan to advertise both the regional event that will be held here in November and displaying the group outside just its events, but more on that to come.

What Next
I'll be fairly straightforward, I need to distribute the survey, compile the survey t-shirt, come up with at least two or three solid t-shirt ideas, and talk with the two Roosevelt co-presidents about this event November 13th and 14th.

How I Spent My Time
I spent a good deal of time running between libraries, trying to come up with research on survey development. A&D resource Annette Haines was very helpful in giving me direction. Two books I found useful were The Survey Handbook and also Using Web and Paper Questionnaires for Data-Based Decision Making. Afterward, I went about designing and printing it for distribution.

As for the t-shirts, it's been a lot of sketching. I used a contact of a friend of mine to get a quote on prices for shirts, my goal is to keep them under $15 a head, so they pay for themselves and The Roosevelt Institute need not toss in what little long-term funds it has. I got a quote for $608 on 75 American Apparel t-shirts, so roughly $8.10 a person. It might be hard to beat that.

On an unrelated, but somewhat relevant note, I found out yesterday I'll be having dinner with Paula Scher on October 22nd which will be an excellent opportunity to pick the mind a branding demigod, if only for a brief time.