Conference talk
Alicia Cheng:
This Is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot
How the humble ballot illuminates the noble but highly flawed process at the heart of our American democracy. The talk traces the visual story of the ballot, from early handwritten tickets to colorful and typographically outlandish examples from the 19th century. Responding to the explosive growth of an evolving electorate as well as a legacy of fraud, the struggle for suffrage, and concerns about voting security, the ballot reveals insights into our electoral process both past and present.
About Alicia Cheng
Alicia Cheng is a founding partner of MGMT. She has worked as a senior designer for Method, New York and was the co-design director at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. She has taught and served as a visiting critic at Yale University, Princeton University, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and the Cooper Union School of Art. She currently serves as an external critic for the MFA program at the Rhode Island School of Design. Alicia received her BA from Barnard College and her MFA from Yale University.