AIGA partners with NYTimes.com to present the Polling Place Photo Project

NEW YORK, January 10, 2008. NYTimes.com announced today its launch of the Polling Place Photo Project, a nationwide experiment that encourages voters to submit photographs of every polling location in America during the 2008 primaries and general election. By documenting local voting experiences, online users can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.

The Polling Place Photo Project is a program of The New York Times and AIGA, the professional association for design. The project was created by William Drenttel of Design Observer before the midterm elections in November 2006.

“This is a great opportunity for Times readers to work directly with us in capturing the presidential voting experience,” said Jim Roberts, editor of digital news at The New York Times. “We’ve encouraged voters in New Hampshire to help document their historic primary. But in the weeks and months ahead, we hope to hear from readers from Florida to Michigan to California and points in between.”

“The election process in America is complicated—state-by-state, primary-by-primary,” said William Drenttel.“Photographs offer us a chance to capture something of the energy and richness of the voting experience, and to document how voting happens at polling places across the country.”

AIGA and its strategic initiative Design for Democracy have made ballot and election design reform a goal since 2000, shortly after ballot design flaws were exposed in South Florida. “Designers are also citizens who realize that the very heart of the great experiment that the country’s founders envisioned was an informed citizenry, able to communicate its will both clearly and effectively,” said Richard Grefé, executive director of AIGA. Grefé added that “ultimately, we want to show both The New York Times and the broader public that we see the prosaic as well as the patriotic clearly and that design counts everywhere.”

To submit photos go to: http://pollingplaces.nytimes.com/

About AIGA
AIGA, the professional association for design, is the oldest and largest membership association for design professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing. AIGA’s mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force.

Founded in 1914, AIGA is the pre-eminent professional association for communication designers, broadly defined. In the past decade, designers have increasingly been involved in creating value for clients (whether public or business) through applying design thinking to complex problems, even when the outcomes may be more strategic, multi-dimensional and conceptual than what most would consider traditional communication design. AIGA now represents more than 22,000 designers of all disciplines through national activities and local programs developed by 59 chapters and 200 student groups.

AIGA supports the interests of professionals, educators and students who are engaged in the process of designing. The association is committed to stimulating thinking about design, demonstrating the value of design and empowering success for designers throughout the arc of their careers.

About NYTimes.com
NYTimes.com continues to reach a large, educated and affluent audience. It is the most visited newspaper site in the United States with an audience of 18.9 million unique users (November 2007— Nielsen Online).

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2006 revenues of $3.3 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 30 websites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.