Poster design by Nicholas Rock, 2008
Would you like to own designersforobama.org? What would you do with it?
Last February, in the heat of the primary campaign, Winterhouse got (very) excited about Barack Obama's candidacy, and we asked what designers could do to help his campaign. We wondered whether there wasn't some opportunity for collective action, or for a specific initiative, or for a news source about the campaign focused on design issues, or maybe even a citizen journalism project. So we rushed out and bought this historic URL — designersforobama.org. (As fortune tellers, we're one-for-one: we also bought designersfordean.org in 2003. We let it expire if anyone wants it.)
We're not going to use this URL in this election cycle, and want to offer it to an individual or group who will do something powerful or influential or collaborative with it. We will entertain serious proposals, evaluating them on their potential. Ultimately, we will also evaluate the proposer's ability to realize that potential. Can they make the project real, actually accomplish something with this URL? Read on for more details.
Proposals should be succinct, clearly outlining the idea, who is involved, and how you'd implement the project. Proposals may be emailed directly to jade@winterhouse.com. Or a short summary of a project idea may be posted on this site, but please keep them under 250 words (additional information can emailed to jade@winterhouse.com).
Readers are also welcome to enter ideas as comments — perhaps another reader will take your idea on. Social networking is encouraged, and hopefully readers will be constructive. All ideas are welcome, but obviously we will only be able to give the URL to a real person with a real email address. Student proposals are encouraged: what about getting the tens of thousands of design students to vote for Obama? Winterhouse will make the sole decision: time is important, and we are prepared to move quickly. (If you have an idea but do not want to enter this process, designersforobama.net and designersforobama.us are also still available as URLs. Go for it!)
Note: comments on this post are limited to ideas or proposals, and discussion thereof. General discussions of politics, dispersions on Obama or this URL, etc., will be removed. Constructive comments required.
