About the Project
The Objective
Our Approach
Creative Direction
VOTE LOCAL is a creative civic initiative developed in collaboration with the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement at North Carolina A&T State University in preparation for the 2025 municipal elections.
The project challenged the tendency to center voting only around national moments, instead drawing attention to the power and impact of local legislation that shapes everyday life.
Voting is often positioned as inaccessible or uninteresting by design.
Our goal was to reframe civic engagement as culturally relevant and community-driven, while responding to the removal of A&T’s on-campus voting site, a decision that directly threatened HBCU voter participation and demanded a visible stance.
To activate campus-wide participation, we partnered with influential student groups across A&T, including Student Government Association, Divine Nine organizations, creatives, athletes, and traditional student leaders.
Together, we created a unified call-to-action using hand-crafted cardboard signage designed to spark conversation, visibility, and urgency around local elections.
Shot at the center of campus, known as “The Stu,” the campaign met students exactly where they gather.
Drawing inspiration from street-style protest visuals, each organization was given a custom tagline that reflected its voice while maintaining a shared message.
The imagery was captured across familiar campus spaces to ensure the work felt organic, immediate, and distinctly A&T-coded.
Inspired by the Sign Guy NYC, we created call-to-action signage using locally sourced cardboard from Aldi, cutting and reworking the material to transform something ordinary into a visual statement.
The use of cardboard was intentional, grounding the campaign in authenticity and immediacy, allowing the message to feel real, accessible, and unfiltered while reinforcing the urgency and honesty behind civic engagement.
Inspired by the Sign Guy NYC, we created call-to-action signage using locally sourced cardboard from Aldi, cutting and reworking the material to transform something ordinary into a visual statement.
The use of cardboard was intentional, grounding the campaign in authenticity and immediacy, allowing the message to feel real, accessible, and unfiltered while reinforcing the urgency and honesty behind civic engagement.
Our Approach
To activate campus-wide participation, we partnered with influential student groups across A&T, including Student Government Association, Divine Nine organizations, creatives, athletes, and traditional student leaders.
Together, we created a unified call-to-action using hand-crafted cardboard signage designed to spark conversation, visibility, and urgency around local elections.
Creative Direction
Shot at the center of campus, known as “The Stu,” the campaign met students exactly where they gather.
Drawing inspiration from street-style protest visuals, each organization was given a custom tagline that reflected its voice while maintaining a shared message.
The imagery was captured across familiar campus spaces to ensure the work felt organic, immediate, and distinctly A&T-coded.
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Results
Distributed primarily through social media, the campaign reached over 200,000 views and generated 10,000+ likes through collaboration with the university’s official account.
The response positioned VOTE LOCAL as one of the most visible civic engagement efforts on campus.
10.1K+
likes across socials
200K+
views across socials
Reflections
VOTE LOCAL reinforced that civic engagement does not need to exist within traditional frameworks to be effective. By leveraging creativity, collaboration, and community networks, the project demonstrated how art and culture can be powerful tools for shifting narratives and mobilizing real change.
