My Yard Our Message

In 2008, the Walker Art Center and The UnConvention, a nonpartisan group seeking to foster the free exchange of ideas surrounding that year's political conventions, came together to sponsor My Yard Our Message. This contest took the election-year concept of yard signs and spun it to allow artists, designers and anyone else to submit their designs for yard signs around the theme of "what it means to actively participate in a democracy." From there, and in true democratic fashion, the public voted on submissions. The top 50 chosen were available to order as a full-sized political yard signs and were printed and placed in the neighborhoods throughout Minneapolis/St. Paul, where the 2008 Republican National Convention was held. I submitted five designs, and art directed five others with copy written by Scott Eaton, a copywriter friend. Of our 10 total signs, seven earned a spot in the coveted top 50 (the top seven depicted to the right). For perspective, there were roughly 300 final submissions and more than 24,000 votes cast.