News & Events
City Tech Advertising Design Students Champion Voter Turnout
Some of the 18 different posters produced by City Tech advertising design students that appear in store windows throughout Downtown Brooklyn.
Students in Professor Cynthia MacGrath’s advertising design class at City Tech have joined the likes of rap star Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and fashion, music industry and other celebrities to launch their own campaign to promote a record turnout among both younger and older voters when we go to the polls on November 2.
The students produced a series of 18 striking, four-color posters every bit as professional and eye-catching as those produced by the national “Rock the Vote” campaign. The posters are “non-issue oriented,” designed not to sway voters one way or another but simply to increase the number of people who get out and vote on Election Day.
“The students were really fired up by this assignment,” says MacGrath. “Their age group is one that hasn’t demonstrated a particularly big interest in the political process in recent elections, but something seems different this year, if my students are any indication. They were very excited about doing everything they could to encourage people -- especially their classmates and others in their own age group -- to express their opinion at the ballot box in 2004. They produced some very impressive posters, and I’m very proud of them and of the quality of the work they’ve done.”
Eighteen posters were mass-produced last week and posted throughout the City Tech campus, where they’re getting a lot of attention. That’s when the idea came up to distribute them to stores, restaurants and other concerns in the Downtown Brooklyn area.
A call to Manny Cabrero at Downtown Brooklyn’s MetroTech
Business Improvement District was enthusiastically received. Cabrero,
director of commercial/retail development for the BID, volunteered
to help get the posters into local store windows within a day or
so of delivery. The BID also works closely with businesses throughout
the nearby Fulton Mall commercial district.
“
With the race running neck-in-neck and memories of how a few
hundred votes in Florida decided the 2000 presidential election,
doing everything possible to get more people to the polls is
on the mark,” says MetroTech BID director Michael Weiss. “I
commend the enthusiasm the City Tech students have brought to
this effort and the BID is pleased to assist them in every way
it can.”
At the college, Professor Joel Mason, chair of the Department of Advertising Design & Graphic Arts, reports that the department has been working its printers full time since the offer of help came from the BID. “The students’ posters certainly draw attention and people all over the community are going to notice them for sure.”
Russell K. Hotzler, City Tech’s new president who came to the college in August, is among those to commend what the students are doing. “City Tech has a long history of community mindedness, and these students have really stepped up to the plate in what pollsters predict is likely to be a close election. Their effort reflects a spirit of commitment to the democratic process from which we can all take comfort.”
More of the posters are being printed for distribution to all City University of New York campuses during the final week before Election Day. A larger than usual turnout by college students could make a difference in places nationwide where the race is too close to call. Across the 19-campus CUNY system, hundreds of students also participated in an intensive “Voter Registration” effort this fall that signed up nearly 550 new voters at City Tech alone.
“There are all kinds of issues important to young people in this year’s election,” says Daniel Fictum, City Tech’s director of student life. “One concern among students here at the College is the talk about starting up the draft again. While both major presidential candidates say they wouldn’t do it, the idea is one that is making some young people wonder. Students are also interested in questions surrounding future funding for educational grants and student loans.”
The City Tech students’ poster campaign won’t affect the voter turnout nationwide, but it may help make a difference locally. “They had the right spirit and the right idea,” adds MacGrath, “and they’ve done a wonderful thing.”
