Everything but an X Campaign
Spoil the ballot
The challenge was to identify a personal or social problem, whereby we had to apply our skill set and the design thinking process in order to solve it.
The problem:
There’s a high percentage of people that don’t vote in South Africa. In 2014 approximately 25 million people registered to vote but only 18 million people made their mark. The 18-29 age group represent about 34% of all potential voters. Stats show that there’s a huge decline in voting participation especially among people between the ages of 18-29.
The Question:
“How might I encourage the youth of South Africa between the ages of 18-29 to vote?”
Our Solution:
Drawing inspiration from the Punk subculture, we created a #everythingbutanX/ Everything But An X campaign. This campaign targets the youth of South Africa, to encourage them to rather spoil the ballot instead of not voting at all. Our campaign consists of posters, stickers, large grungy ballots and an App and social media linked with the hash tags: #everythingbutanX and #spoiltheballot. We are treating this campaign more like an “underground” movement, as we are not happy with the current politicians of South Africa and we want to cast a protest vote to show our revolution.
How the Everything But An X campaign developed, is that when a vote is cast the person puts an X in the appropriate box for their choice of political party. Anything another than an X is considered a spoiled ballot, therefore destroying that vote. This is exactly what we are encouraging the youth to do, to put anything another than an X on the ballot paper. By doing so we are casting voting in a different light and creating a revolution, which will hopefully restore some faith lost in the political system.
Logo design
Our slogan along with the App and social media #.
Poster design
Sticker design
Zine design - it is a mass manufactured, self-produced publication that can reach our target market easily. Based on the fact that it is cheap and a quick way to spread our message, we can create awareness about our campaign and still inform people easily.
A deconstructed voting ballot.
Screenshots of a potential App.
Facebook and Twitter presence.
The Vine used to promote our campaign.
