The Power is in
Our Hands

Graphic Design + Illustration
Project Overview
Zumiez teamed up with Amplifier, a nonprofit design lab that focuses on the most important movements of our times, for their campaign: Stand Up & Vote, Your Art is Your Voice. It was an open call for artists to submit work to share what mattered to each artist and their community. Winners would have an opportunity for their art to be shared across all Zumiez locations in addition to having their work projected in major cities across the nation.
Isn’t it amazing that one little writing instrument contains so much power and influence? This simple tool represents your voice. It represents change if you choose to use it. And like with most things that wield so much power, use it wisely because your mark can impact and affect so many. Vote and make a difference!

This piece was the first of my “VOTE Series” that I had created in hopes of getting those who haven’t voted before to make their voices heard by doing so. After seeing Zumiez’s open call, I felt this piece was appropriate for submission. Simple in its layout, this design features a hand proudly holding up a pen. Surrounding the pen reads the text, "The Power is in Our Hands. Vote." It adopts a muted red, white, and blue color palette which represents our nation's colors. In addition to that, the main text is on a vertical axis which follows the the length of the pen and "Vote" is paired with a red star that is intentionally horizontal. This subtly represents our nation's flag. With a flat and darker background color, it allows the warm colors of the hand and text to really stand out to help capture one's attention immediately.

This design was chosen as a winner for Zumiez x Amplifler’s Stand Up & Vote, Your Art is Your Voice campaign. It was distributed as a poster to every one of Zumiez's 600 stores across the country. The art was also digitally projected onto buildings in Seattle, New York, and Washington DC on National Vote Early Day.

This design is an official American Graphic Design award winner from Graphic Design USA.
Below are some initial sketch ideas for this poster design along with examples of text layout exploration. You’ll notice in the sketches that there are three (top right, along with bottom left and right) different executions of the same idea. The final piece eventually evolved to be an amalgam of these ideas with more emphasis on the hand and pen along with a change in verbiage.
Photo Credits:
Seattle: @wiseknave • New York: @the.illuminator • Washington DC: @bellvisuals
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