Art and design students have been designing UMSL-themed “I Voted” stickers given to voters at the St. Louis County polling site in the Millennium Student Center since 2022. (Sticker designs courtesy of the Department of Political Science and the Department of Art and Design)
Since early voting opened on Oct. 20, voters have been turning up at the Millennium Student Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis to cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday’s midterm election.
As a memento for performing their civic duty, they’ve been able to leave with specially designed UMSL-themed “I Voted” stickers created by students in the Department of Art and Design.
“Voters from across the county love these stickers,” said Anita Manion, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Economics. “They go through them quickly at the polling place.”
Students have been designing the stickers for elections every two years since 2022 as part of a collaboration between the art and design and political science.
They built on earlier engagements between the two departments. In 2020, faculty members from each taught a course around that year’s presidential election in which students designed social media campaigns, face masks and other voter education and get out the vote materials. Teaching Professor Michael Behle and Manion also co-curated an art exhibit on the Politics of Portraiture.
The stickers have been designed by graphic design students as a class assignment. Manion and Curators’ Distinguished Professor David Kimball, the chair of the Department of Political Science and Economics, have visited the course to discuss voting and evaluate the stickers, taking feedback from students before choosing the winning designs.
“It has been really rewarding to partner with Art and Design on this project,” Manion said. “We have worked with several faculty members and a lot of students. The collaboration goes beyond the stickers. We provide information on the background of ‘I Voted’ stickers and why they are important and talk to the students about how to vote, what’s on the ballot, and why it is important that they participate.”
Danielle Ridolfi, an assistant teaching professor of art and design, was glad to get to help lead this year’s course.
“This project generated so much excitement among my students,” Ridolfi said. “For many of them, it is the first time that they’ve seen their work turned into a real, physical object outside of a classroom, and the first time that their work is viewed by anyone outside the graphic design department here at UMSL. On the day I brought the printed stickers to share with them, they absolutely lit up and were eager to take stickers to share with their families and friends who might not see them on campus.
“Seeing the work you make impacting others and serving social goals is one of the joys of being a graphic designer, and it’s a delight to be able to share that experience and joy with students so early in their graphic design education.”
The collaboration contributes to UMSL’s well-earned reputation as a voter-engaged campus. Manion also said they helped register six students in the course to vote this year as they were selecting the designs.
Members of the campus community will be able to get UMSL-themed stickers on Tuesday as the Department of Political Science celebrate Election Day with a “Party at the Polls” from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Fireside Lounge inside the MSC.
