Building the Narrative: Branding and Storytelling for California’s Automatic Voter Registration Campaign
Overview
Today, 4.7 million Californians are eligible but unregistered to vote. This group is disproportionately made up of Asian American, Black, and Latinx citizens because voter registration was created to deter certain communities from participating. reimagine collective worked with the California Grassroots Democracy Coalition (CAGDC), comprising over 140 community organizations, to pass Senate Bill 299 which creates a pathway to 100% voter registration so that every eligible Californian can fully participate in a genuine democracy.
We prepared CAGDC’s campaign to pass SB 299 by designing the brand materials, setting up a new website, and creating social media content to educate Californians and pressure lawmakers on upgrading California’s voter registration system.
Our Approach
Branding
During our discovery session with stakeholders from the CAGDC, we learned that they wanted a bolder, more engaging look that could inspire coalition members and supporters to share the SB 299 campaign more widely. The previous campaign materials relied heavily on the color red, and the website included black and white stock photography that did not reflect the diversity of the coalition.
Additionally, the campaign’s previous tagline was too long (“Secure Automatic Voter Registration for a Pathway to 100% Voter Registration”) and difficult to remember, chant, or read on posters. We set out to design a new logo with an updated tagline, “4.7 Million to Reclaim Our Democracy,” referring to the 4.7 million eligible Californians who are not registered to vote.
We put together a bright, energetic color palette inspired by fruits commonly found in California — lemons, oranges, figs, avocados — that can also serve as a connective thread between diverse cultures and communities of color. The logo incorporates the state of California, using a sunny yellow to evoke the Golden State, and a simple checkmark to represent voting. The handwritten nature of the checkmark adds a human element, symbolizing the people-powered movement behind SB 299.
As part of the brand assets, we also created colorful posters that could be printed for actions or other events, multilingual fact sheets that could easily be edited in Google Docs, and a variety of Zoom backgrounds that coalition members could use during calls about SB 299.
Website
reimagine collective updated CAGDC’s Squarespace website with the new logo and branding, replacing the majority of photos with pictures of coalition members in action; in other areas, we selected stock photos that evoked real people but could be swapped out in the future.
Our team redesigned the content-heavy homepage by breaking up information into more digestible sections and adding explicit call-outs urging people to take action. We also updated the Media page, which only had one article from several months prior, and the ActionNetwork form encouraging people to support SB 299.
In order to reach a broad, diverse audience, we implemented a translation dropdown menu using the Google Translate API. The new website supports English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. During this process, we made sure to choose typefaces that support Vietnamese diacritics (a common issue we see on websites and digital media).
Social Media & Digital Toolkit
The coalition comprises over 140 community organizations across the state and they needed a social media toolkit for their members that was not just attention grabbing, but values aligned and culturally sensitive. Upgrading California’s voter registration system is an intersectional issue so we designed each post in the toolkit to focus on a theme such as housing or workers rights while communicating that at the core, this is a racial justice issue.
With such a vast, diverse coalition there were many audiences the social media toolkit needed to target. Each post was designed strategically towards a specific audience with tailored messaging. Our specialty is taking wonky, dry and confusing policy and breaking it down into accessible and digestible pieces of information that builds people’s sense of personal agency and motivates them to take action. The Instagram reels we created referencing internet meme culture showcase how we make unknown, far-removed issues into ones that people see personally affecting them and their communities.
Social Media Carousels
Digital Toolkit
Impact
SB 299 passed both California’s Assembly and State Senate but was vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 29, 2024. We hope the CA Assembly and State Senate overturn Newsom’s veto as SB 299 would not only help register new eligible voters – more than half of all eligible voters opt out of signing up at the DMV – but also automatically update information for existing voters and help formerly incarcerated citizens reclaim their constitutionally guaranteed freedom to vote.
“I would 100% recommend reimagine to anyone who is looking for support on communications and campaign strategy. They were wonderful to work with and are fantastic strategists and collaborators!”
– Erica Cheung, Communications Director at AAPI-FORCE
PARTNER
California Grassroots Democracy Coalition
TEAM
AJ Titong
Kavi Vu
Kifah Shah
Kim Nguyen
Laura Li
SERVICES
Brand Redesign
Website Redesign
Social Media Writing
Digital Creative Content
Print Design
YEAR
2024
