How It Works

While the effects of public policies can be widespread, the discussion and understanding of these policies are usually not. This series aims to make information on policy truly public: accessible, meaningful, and shared. We aim to add vitality to crucial debates about our future. At the same time, we want to create opportunities for designers to engage social issues without sacrificing experimentation and for advocacy organizations to reach their constituencies better through design.

A jury of prominent design and public policy experts selects advocates and designers in a two-part submission process. The first call for submissions is to advocates, organizations, and researchers with a public policy issue, problem, or system that needs a visual explanation. The second call is to graphic designers, visual artists, and other creative workers. The jury chooses collaborative teams and announces them on the Making Policy Public website. CUP provides the collaborators with a working stipend, project management, and research assistance. CUP publishes the resulting fold-out poster and gives 1000 copies to the sponsoring organization for use in their advocacy and education work.

Here and here are two articles that document previous collaborations.

Format

Each poster doubles as a pamphlet. The folded pamphlet measures 8” by 11” and unfolds into a 32” by 22” poster.