For the People

 

Redesigning the Constitution for a Modern Era

 
 
 
 
 
 

The For the People Project is the ThoughtMatter team’s creative response to the divisive and disheartening 2016 US presidential election. We saw an opportunity to use design and branding to generate constructive debate by presenting the Constitution—a document many people reference, but surprisingly few have read in its entirety—in a fresh way. To our delight, the project soon took on a life of its own…

 
 
 
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Using the document’s opening words, “We the People,” as a foundation, we positioned the Constitution as the document made by and for the American people to define and protect our rights and to connect us as citizens. We then created a visual identity that we applied to our redesigned Constitution and the suite of creative assets that make up and support the For the People Project.

 
 
 

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We wanted to bring the Constitution, a document made by the people, for the people, back to the people.

 
 
 
 
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Our branding and visual system came to life in a redesigned copy of the Constitution that made the document more engaging and digestible than the available standard editions. Because we wanted to preserve and present the original transcript without any editorial commentary, we used design as a tool to invite people to interpret the Constitution from a contemporary perspective. Our version of the 230-year-old document puts a modern twist on the classic Americana color palette of red, white and blue by using Pop-Tone Pink Lemonade paper from French Paper Co. and Federal Blue ink.

 
 
 

For the People Exhibition

 
 

National Constitution Day (September 17, 2017) presented a timely opportunity to generate more momentum for the project. With support from Mirko Ilić Corp., The Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource) and The Cooper Union, we organized the We the People Poster Exhibition to bring the For the People Project to life in a new way. We curated interpretations of the Bill of Rights through poster designs, each donated by twelve prominent designers from across the nation, including Milton Glaser, Jessica Hische, Edel Rodriguez and Jonathan Key.