And the Winner is…
As stated on the C77 Blog (1 Hour Design Challenge: Voting Booth Winners! - Core77)
Our esteemed judges on this this challenge were William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand of Winterhouse, creators of The Polling Place Photo Project (now a New York Times project) and founding editors of Design Observer. Here are their overall impressions:
Voting is a serious civic activity–perhaps the most important citizen engagement in a democracy. The challenge of one-hour solutions for voting booths might seem to run contrary to the scope and complexity of the enterprise, but we are nonetheless impressed with the range of solutions offered here. Some are serious, some are playful, and some are politically ironic. A carnival ride where you see the future implications of your vote? A monkey with a tamborine superimposed between the candidates? Throwing rocks at the portraits of the candidates you least like? We are amused. We are going to (generally) error, though, on the side of serious proposals, these being serious times. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all who took the time to participate.
And now for the winners…
First Place:“Vote with Style” Voting Tree, by vinishree
Judges’ Comments: The idea of conflating the act of voting with a sculptural gesture is a novel idea. This proposal also seemed to balance the public/private balance of voting in a graceful manner: by invoking the nature of a tree, albeit an artificial one with paper leaves, the notion of public participation feels less like a rally and more like a kind of grounded act. There’s also something nice about voting outside, in a park or park-like environment. Together, these references–that you’re contributing to a larger environmental awareness, that your vote adds to others and collectively bespeaks a kind of united public activism–lends a tone of noble, yet natural gravitas to the idea of voting as a conduit to establishing a kind of anchored, responsible, human national governance. And that’s a good thing.
Second Place: Portable Voting Booth, by firenzee
Judge’s Comments: If gestures of permanence represent voting as a grounded activity, then the portable voting experience is, arguably, a misguided notion. However, it acknowledges the fleeting, nomadic nature of contemporary life, and in this respect, the portable voting booth–that includes collabsible walls and a handle for easy carrying–seems a plausible proposal. Lightweight construction and red-blue bipartisan color codes make it an instantly recognizable form, and represent a strategy for bringing the voting to the people–as opposed to getting people to the polls–which may well be worth considering in future elections.
Third place: Bipartisan Shape Sorters, by njessee