SCOPE
“Design has a strong connection to national identity and emerges as a key during landmark moments in history...” says, Jilly Traganou, architect and associate professor in spatial design studies at Parsons School of Design,“because of this change the [US] has to show itself in the international light. How are you going to show yourself? What do you want to become? That is why design is used: a rebranding to reconfigure the future through the present.” Traganou underscores one of the most important aspects of design: it’s ability to reach into the future and bring it back to us. Like many nations before it, including its past-self, the United States is reaching into that future to undergo a political reconstruction. And, as it has always been, design is being brought in to draft the blueprint of America’s new frontier.
A changing nation is a tough schematic to follow. However, the first step to design for such a shifting American electorate is to understand the underlying cause. Put simply, the US is seeing a decline in the voting power of baby boomers and a steady increase in that of generation Y [18]. This imbalance becomes palpable when one looks at the generational representation of Congress. The congressional membership itself is only comprised of 2% millennials, whilst baby boomers make up a large 63%[20]. Also, these generations’ opinions on America couldn’t be more divided. For example, when you compare their thoughts on American exceptionalism: 50% of baby boomers compared to 34% of millennials think America is the greatest country in the world [8].
In light of this demographic split, politicians have had to decide which political tactic, or which variation on a political theme, in best applied to persuade each generation given the socio- politico-economic climate. Focusing our attention on the past two presidencies, that being Obama and Trump, we are struck by two noticeable tactics. On one hand, Trump gives us a form of national populism, and Obama on the other presents us with a collectivist corporate liberalism[22,23]. These representations of national populism and corporate liberalism act as the current containers in which politicised design maneuvers. It is within these frames that design is reshaping the American identity. To do this design is utilised within the political spectacle, meaning through various forms of media: music, posters, merchandise, speeches, rhetorical arguments on TV, ‘leaked’ journalism, creepy physical posturing during debates, or guns and cowboy dress. All of these are formed through design. And, more importantly, design is also more than this, meaning it’s visual or auditory representations. Design is, above all else, the processes in which these objects and intangible forces of persuasion are interlinked. Their designed interactions. Without this understanding of nuanced design and political strategy, how are we to know the tactics of those in power or those who seek power, and how they intend to influence our behavior and ultimately drive our decisions?
#MAGA: A POPULIST DESIGN APPROACH
Design within populism historically leans towards the unethical, even more so when it dives into the darker depths of itself, demagogism: the act of gaining political sway through the eliciting of emotions and prejudices. Although both sides of the aisle within American politics have used this tactic, the latest branding of Trump’s campaign, Make America Great Again (MAGA), should have us pause to consider the slogan’s relationship to design, and how it stands out as the quintessential populist aesthetic of America’s current political reconstruction. “Design within the frame of power becomes a kind of a smokescreen,” says, Traganou “Very often it absorbs so much of the conversation it makes people less aware of the more important politics...It attracts people to talk about the smoke and not the other things.”[1].
The populist design approach used by Trump in the US was deployed to capture the declining and aging white baby boomers fearful and anxious of its shifting electorate, its new modes of work, and its alternative politics [25]. It is no surprise that this voting block, a group heavily won over by Trump in 2016, feels they are being left behind. To this group of voters, Trump acts as a beacon of hope, a leader, a conqueror of those who seek to allow the
unraveling of the American Dream. This fixation on bombastic autocrats is nothing new. If we look to history and to the political spectacle we can see how design has played a role in hiding the everyday traits and aspirations of those in power for centuries, if not millennia. From prehistoric to medieval times (and even to our present) humans constructed scepters to signify their authority as leaders and diviners of supernatural abilities[16]. A modern-day totem of power, or political spectacle, in the US, will present itself differently: a consumerist and/or secular construction. The Obama campaign’s visual identity, for example, showcases an expression of American authenticity, authority, and vision through its considered form. The effort and money spent by the Obama campaign on its design strategy to reach a younger audience (an approximate $3.36 million to Blue State Digital alone for it’s visual identity) made logical sense if you are to consider how Gen Y believes innovation and productivity are interlinked with the application of good design[20,21]. But, how might a similar modern-day form of design look when applied within a populist context?
“Design within the frame of power becomes a kind of smokescreen.”
Lilly Traganou, Design Professor, Parsons School of Design
Traganou sheds some light on MAGA’s design approach: “Trump's hat is the typical anti- signifier. [Meaning,] it can be whatever people want it to mean - whatever it means to ‘Make America Great Again’.”[1] The very purpose of this design is to act as a mirror onto the electorate - a receptacle for dreams and opinions to be launched beyond the factual of the everyday. “It’s just a hat, a regular hat, that says this very generic term that can mean so many things to so many different people...” says, Traganou. Because of the design’s simplicity - the hat, #MAGA, “Yes We Can”, “I’m With Her” - is able to guide the varying emotions of the electorate to the ballot box. MAGA’s design was so effective at stoking these emotions that during the 2016 campaign neo-fascists took to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia resulting in death and injury [17]. Again, this was the point of the MAGA cap design. It was meant to mean many things to many people, and what was neo-fascist rhetoric to some was general conservatism to others, and the hat rallied them under a single banner - or cap, rather. As Traganou suggests, the hat is not a representation of a single note but many variations on a tune glued together into the generic emotional baiting of American voters[1]. To reiterate, this is where the unethical purpose of design for populism stems from. Its aesthetic construction is represented by a smokescreen - a spectacle that aims to excite, spread, and confuse through its designed genericness - whilst more pertinent politics are being plotted beyond the prevue of American voters.
INNOVATION POLITICS: A CORPORATE DESIGN APPROACH
Beyond the cool application of hot-headed populist tactics, there is another strategy persuading voters through the fusion of corporate work and American liberalism. Similar to Trump’s populist strategy this corporate design approach requires an understanding of design beyond its simple physical constructions. The process of corporate design tactics doesn’t rely as heavily on the perception crafting and manipulation that populism does because it doesn’t have to. Most of the heavy lifting to convince potential voters of its ability to create innovation has already been put in the works by the private sector. The corporate approach to canvassing, similar to the populist approach to generic design, attaches itself to generic modes of work found within corporate organisations, its lexicon of innovation, and its relationship to millennial consumerism.
If Obama’s post-administration favorability is any indication of millennials’ political appetite then it would be wise to look to the actions of his campaign to modernise party approaches to canvassing and governing. Obama in both his 2008 and 2012 campaigns used forms of grassroots collectivism with generic populist rhetoric and a corporate marketing strategy. This combination of tactics gave him the advantage over his opponents to clinch the presidential nomination twice. Whether his campaign’s promises matched the policy he put out in the world it doesn’t seem to affect his popularity as a good 46% of millennials believe he made significant progress "toward solving the major problems facing the country”[23].
This difficult task to emulate Obama’s success hasn’t deterred the efforts of Suraj Patel, Congressional candidate for New York’s 12th district and NYU business ethics professor, whose campaign is looking to disrupt the politics-as-usual within Washington with corporate methods. “It becomes so uninspiring that all it translates into uninspiring policy,” Patel says about the Democratic party’s outdated approach to engaging voters. “And so, we like to just approach this whole thing. We stand by that the process is as important as substance...” To Patel, this process is about bringing new people once marginalised by the system into politics, and reinvent it in a way that delivers the policies of the emerging US electorate, mainly millennials.
“What we are really targeting here is an audience that’s been previously excluded in politics,” says, Patel who’s strategy also takes inspiration from digitally vertical brands like Casper and Glossier to reach out to unengaged citizens[2].“These brands have been able to connect with new customers, and go directly to those consumers to build loyalty, build community, almost to [the point of] being radically transparent and make communication a two-way street with
the brand or product.” says Patel “That’s exactly what we going to emulate with this campaign.” The congressional candidate makes no secret of his desire to apply the design success of businesses. Especially business’ ability to scale impact, and connect with their customers to his vision of canvassing. The idea of Patel’s campaign is to break down the barriers between the public and the political process through methods of this corporate familiarity. “I kind of think that the analogy can go even further.” he says, “Those brands that have been able to be nimble, fun, and creative become able to overtake, or in their growth state, do better than legacy corporations.” Patel is inferring, of course, to legacy politics and overtaking it with a better alternative: better design.
However, this change won’t occur overnight, if it ever does. And, clarity on how corporate design can achieve this success can’t be simply gleaned by comparing generational differences alone. But, more-so, by inspecting the logistics of corporate design that pervades the technologies used by almost every Gen Yer. 94% of 18-29-year-olds are known to own smartphones and on average they check them about 150 times per day[12,24]. This generation checks their smartphones so often that Simon Sinek, a well-known author, and marketing consultant, suggest that Gen Y has succumbed to an epidemic of digital addiction that permeates their ives[13]. Digital businesses are pushing their influence even further into gen y’s life by embedding their digital experiences into physical forms of commerce. Whether this digital frontierism is from Uber, Amazon, Tesla, or Google Fiber, there are numerous Silicon Valley companies looking to upend areas of responsibility traditionally held by the state and its employees.
With the United States, you can see Hollywood or Silicon Valley which are not directly sponsored by the state but they are defining very much what this American identity and what ‘American Design’ would be.
Lilly Traganou, Design Professor, Parsons School of Design
The political climate in the US has always been a frontier. The US is set apart from most of the world because it is not dictated as strongly by formal historical references to political identities like, say, most European nations[1]. To extrapolate from Traganou’s point on non-state players in the formulation of American identity you only need look to Elon Musk and his ability to place engineered products, and innovation-rhetoric into a form of political spectacle. Musk’s Boring Company is currently bidding on transportation projects throughout American cities, SpaceX is launching government satellites into space, and Tesla is electrifying the country’s semi-trailer truck industry and powering homes through solar. All of these innovative
acts are shared through media to persuade people of Musk’s super-human ability to make the impossible, possible. And it’s working. In a 2015 survey by the World Economic Forum, it was revealed that Elon Musk was more admired by Gen Y than Barrack Obama and Mahatma Gandhi[11]. No wonder why politicians wish to ride on the popularity of these companies, their leaders, and the way they materialise innovative ideas.
In some ways we’re running against the establishment. An establishment that’s been at this for so long it has become so stale and stuck in its way...
Suraj Patel, Congressional Candidate for New York 12th district.
Over 62% of millennials have considered starting a business of their own, and 72% feel that startups and entrepreneurs are a necessary economic force for creating jobs and driving innovation[12]. And to put emphasis on the need for this new design-led strategy, large organisations throughout the private sector are adopting design-centric approaches to the core of their business [15]. If this corporate design methodology is the most recognisable path to innovation for this up-and-coming electorate, would it not be highly logical for politicians to adopt this method of work and aesthetic within their campaigns and future administrations? Why not adopt already proven processes of persuasion that actually yields results in an electorate fed-up with the status quo? The coming American electorate is ready for change, and all it seems to want to achieve this is an Elon Musk sponsored solar highway to drive on.
INSIGHTS & OPPORTUNITIES
The opportunities that this new electorate offers will only be available to politicians willing and able to harness the power of design and understand the unique needs of millennials, recasting what it means to be American in a new light perhaps never shown before.
Anjelica Triola, Suraj Patel’s chief creative officer, puts it appropriately: “To know what works for our generation, knowing what kind of tone, knowing that we can’t just be angry, we can’t just constantly be lobbing attacks at each other. That’s not the politics that people want participate in.” She is right in saying that politicians need to “know what works” and know “the politics that people want to participate in”. For Gen Y 71% believe that a candidate’s stance on issues matter most, 5% say party affiliation is most important[18]. This should be a worrying statistic considering that 71% of millennials believe there should be a third major
party in the US and that 26% of millennials think Democrats and Republicans are doing a good job[25]. Candidates, like companies, in this emerging electorate, appear to stand alone in how they are judged for taking on the issues they care about. Even 47% of Gen Y wants their CEOs to take stances on social issues too[26].
Triola gives her take on where political campaigns need to go when reaching out to younger voters: “People want politics to be a little bit more like the Daily Show or the Jon Oliver Show - making it smart and clever but have some humor to it. It can still have some levity, It needs to otherwise it’s too stressful and people are going to tune out.” Triola is right in the sense that politicians need to tune into to this new age of voters. Its practicality for success within this emerging electorate is paramount given the numbers. With millennials currently surpassing their peers in influence, the current sluggish approach by political parties to address this appears negligent. Given this trajectory and the reality surrounding ubiquitous technology, it would behoove politicians and organisations to embody and generate change in line with more corporate forms of millennial living, learning, and working. Corporate design methodologies and its merging with the Hollywood spectacle could be the next, if not already, the largest strategy employed by politicians and company founders to bring grandiose change to the US. Although, many may differ on the nuances of this outreach suggested by Triola the means achieve success will always lie in design’s persuasion power. As design alone has the power to corral, incite action, and produce a vision for the future that can manifest within the present. And, if we are to learn anything about future this one thing is clear: design the tune millennials tune into or be tuned out.
Jilly Traganou (Ph.D., University of Westminster) is an architect and associate professor in spatial design studies at the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons School of Design. Traganou’s work examines space and architecture at the intersection of design studies, and her current work is focusing on relations between design, dissent, migration, and conditions of crisis, as well as on design’s role in the configuration of new national and post- national identities.
Suraj Patel is a Congressional candidate for the New York 12th district, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University and holds both a JD from NYU School of Law and a Masters of Public Policy from Cambridge University in England. He is also currently an Adjunct Professor of Business Ethics teaching Professional Responsibility focusing on Markets, Ethics, and the Law.
Anjelica Triola Chief Creative Office of the Suraj Patel congressional campaign and founder of Creative Caucus who’s goal is to reinvent the way political campaigns engage audiences by building a grassroots community of talented content creators to support the next generation of progressive leaders.
Bibliography:
- Interview with Jilly Traganou conducted by the author
- Interview with Suraj Patel conducted by the author
- Interview with Angelica Triola conducted by the author
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