Stuck at 435
Created: Fall 2021; Revised: Spring 2022
Stuck at 435 addresses the fact that the 435 seats in the House of Representatives are not divided equally to accurately and equally reflect the votes of the people from state to state. The book is bound with a piano-hinge that allows readers the ability to absorb information in small pieces while also being able to see the progression and stagnation in the number of seats in the House.
So many things went wrong with the 2020 Census, it was hard to choose a topic. Between political agendas, the COVID-19 pandemic, and usual Census issues, the survey seemed doomed from the start. Every ten years, the Census data influences the number of House Representatives seats by using the population data gathered to divide up and assign a certain amount to each of the fifty states.
Stuck at 435 specifically focuses on the fact that the 435 seats are not divided equally to accurately and equally reflect the votes of the people from state to state. The final product is intended to be used as a tool for grassroots lobbyists to use for explaining and spreading awareness about the need to increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives in order to create a more equal representation of the people in the government.
Below are a few pages of notes I took in the initial research phase.
Because this project was so data heavy, I struggled to find a format that I could fill with information that wouldn’t be overwhelming, resulting in me experimenting with quite a few different formats. The pie pamphlet below was a favorite, but it couldn’t contain all the necessary information I needed to convey.
The result is the accordion-folded timeline bound in a piano-hinge that you see below.
Because the book is bound in a piano hinge, the reader is able to pull the skewers out and view the timeline as a whole to see the progression and then stagnation of seats in the House of Representatives.
Research, Book Design, Book Binding,Photo Editing,
Digital Illustration