Frances Homiller

How do political campaign posters affect different personality types in the Big Five model decisions to vote? Knowing this, what is the best method to design these posters?

Started Jan. 5, 2024

Abstract or project description

Campaign posters are a cheap, effective, and easy way to get a message across to all groups of people when designed right, which looks different for each person based on their personality. Personality can be defined in many ways, however in this study I will be using the Big Five Personality Model which includes extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. In this paper, I explore how personality types play a role in the effectiveness of campaign posters and how designers can take advantage of this. To do so, I have made six campaign posters for Michelle Obama, designed differently in color, word choice, and layout, to attract voters of different personality types, with one poster designed to maximize votes Through this paper and explanations of each poster, readers will come to understand the effect design has on campaign poster effectiveness and be able To answer this question, I reviewed the research on the psychological effects of color, design, and message phrasing and, using these findings, applying it to the dying art of posters, and their effects on election campaigns. Campaign posters have the ability to reach all areas, and all people, meaning even those who have no access to technology or live in hard-to-reach areas, and therefore it is important to study and understand the design and effects of campaign posters. This way, not only does the campaign benefit from further voters, the ones who are only reached by these posters, but the voters themselves benefit by being offered a source of knowledge to cast their vote. This far-reaching ability of campaign posters is important for democracy itself as well. By allowing all people of the United States to have the knowledge and motivation to vote, true democracy, which is each person having a voice in the decision of the government, is able to be carried out.