about
The United States presidential election of 2016 has emerged as one of the most consequential political moments in modern history. Though it is challenging to capture the depth and breadth of the election results, or the events leading up to and following election day, the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, also known as the Mueller Report, helps lay the foundation.
Despite the significance of the Mueller Report, the dissemination of the report’s content and the general public’s interest in it, the length, verbiage and redactions create barriers to reading the entire document. As a result, the average American citizen may not have an informed sense of the gravity of our current political crisis, the effects on our democracy and the security of our elections. It is more important than ever for Americans to grasp what has happened.
The exhibition Ongoing Matter functions as a living showcase of current political artifacts. It documents the significance of this particular moment in time from the 2016 presidential election to the present. As graphic artists and designers, the collaborators in this project see their participation as a kind of emancipation: using the art of communication to reveal, inform and propel viewers to action, thereby preserving democracy, protecting integrity and sharing knowledge.
"From the moment we began brainstorming as a group, we were in complete agreement on one key point: more people need to read the Mueller Report."
Anne H. Berry + Sarah E. Martin
As designers who understand the power of words, we've seized the opportunity to help bridge the gap between the public's interest in the Mueller Report and the public's likelihood of reading it. Consequently, we are bringing the Mueller Report words to life in ways that are both informative and visually engaging, while remaining true to the text of the report.
Frustrated with the status quo and want to make change? Contact your congressional representative today!
We hope this series of posters provides an entry point for learning about the significance of the Mueller Report. More importantly, we want to see the project evolve and take on a life of its own, developing into a repository of design contributions from creative professionals, educators, and students who highlight content from the report.
Are you a designer and interested in designing your own Mueller Report poster or getting involved in this project? If the answer is yes then email us ASAP.
Publications
Design as Common Good
Design as Common Good
CHAPTER 55
Ongoing Matters: Government Document Design in the Public’s Interest
By Sarah Edmands Martin, Anne H. Berry, Andre Mūrniekspg.
652 – 674
2021
Synopsis
In the face of numerous global crises, including the rise of authoritarianism and targeted misinformation media campaigns, promoting information literacy, cultivating civic participation, and providing access to information is essential to the common good of communities all over the world. The repercussions of complacency and distrust of scientific expertise are being felt in real-time, even as the United States struggles to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. This paper, consequently, aims to capture design’s role as a communication conduit for the public good. Based on a current project titled Ongoing Matter: Democracy, Design, and the Mueller Report, this paper identifies strategies for increasing public engagement with and access to factually dense documents, such as government reports and records. Though focused specifically on the Mueller Report, Ongoing Matter is a case study for similar scenarios wherein information dissemination is crucial to the public interest.
AIGA Eye on Design
AIGA Eye on Design
OP-ED
Making Public Information Actually Accessible to the Public is the Responsibility of Designers
By Sarah Edmands Martin, Anne H. Berry
2021
Synopsis
Parsing dense government reports that are hundreds of pages in length, set in 12pt Times New Roman, and full of legal jargon and footnotes may be the stuff of a designer’s nightmares. Yet it’s difficult to imagine a clearer example of bureaucratic thinking, or what might be termed an “administrative aesthetic”—a favorite of lawyers, policy makers, and the committees tasked with investigating them. Take the Report on the Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election—or as is more commonly known, “the Mueller report”— released by the Department of Justice in the spring of 2019. The document first arrived to the public as a scanned PDF, impossible to ‘F search’ and heavily redacted. Elected officials on both sides of the political aisle were united in their struggle to read the document in its entirety, creating, according to reporting by Politico, “a giant literacy gap in the country when it comes to the most authoritative examination into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump obstructed that investigation.”
exhibitions
Ongoing Matter has traveled to numerous museums, galleries, AND exhibitions spaces across the United States. Members of the community engaged with the ingenuity and creativity of Ongoing Matter's designers.
The Cook Galleries
The Cook Galleries
Maxwell Hall
Indiana University
February 12 — March 12, 2021
The Galleries at CSU
The Galleries at CSU
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Cleveland State University
November 4 — December 12, 2020
Harris Art Gallery
Harris Art Gallery
University of La Verne
La Verne, CA
September 6 - October 27, 2022
A|AH|D Gallery
A|AH|D Gallery
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN
September 2022
Radial Gallery
Radial Gallery
University of Dayton
Dayton, OH
February 2022
Grunwald Gallery of Art
Grunwald Gallery of Art
Indiana University, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design
Bloomington, IN
February 2021
Krasl Art Center
Krasl Art Center
St. Joseph, MI
January 31 — March 8, 2020
awards
Graphis
Graphis
Awarded Gold, Silver, and Honorable in Graphis' international, juried design competition, the entire poster show will be published in their 2021 Poster Annual and Protest Posters 2 (forthcoming), alongside the best in the world. String to Pull received its own Silver Award.
2021
See the full
Cleveland State exhibition catalog:
