Sabine Krauss + Design for Democracy

Yesterday, Sabine Krauss, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, became a U.S citizen. A few hours later, she voted in this country for the first time using materials that she helped to design in 2001. 
 
17 years ago, as a UIC Graphic Design student, Sabine played an active role in an interdisciplinary professional practice course that worked in collaboration with AIGA, the professional association for design. 
 
In the Spring of 2001 — in reaction to the infamous “butterfly” ballot in Florida, which determined the outcome of a presidential election — UIC students and faculty redesigned the ballots and election administrative materials used in Chicago and Cook County. 
 
The UIC-based project became instrumental to the work of Design for Democracy, a strategic initiative of AIGA with a mission to apply design tools and thinking to increase civic participation. Design work by UIC students went on to be the basis of guidelines for federal elections distributed by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission and to be featured in the book, Design for Democracy: Ballot + Election Designwritten and designed by UIC School of Design Director, Marcia Lausen, and published in 2007 by the University of Chicago Press.