Get Out the Vote is an initiative by AIGA, the professional association of design, to encourage the American public to participate in the electoral process and vote for a presidential candidate. Designers from across the United States are invited to submit nonpartisan posters aimed at encouraging the voting public (or non-voting public as the case may be) to shun apathy and participate.

The initiative began in 2000 and was repeated for the electoral campaign of 2004 where 50,000 posters were printed and displayed in public places in communities across the states. AIGA are accepting submissions for this years campaign and so far here are a few that have caught my eye.

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I have been blogging for well over a year now and along the way I’ve discovered many fantastic design and creativity blogs. I’ve wanted to thank the authors for their commitment for a long time now, so consider this post an official tip of the hat and slap on the back from me.

Some of the blogs I list below I am an active commenter on and know the authors personally - others I am a silent but appreciative lurker. One thing all these blogs have in common is that in some way over the past twelve months they have inspired me.

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Commercial printers offer a range of different print processes suitable for different types of jobs. Each process has advantages and disadvantages over the others. In this article I look at each of the print processes and examine how they work and what their advantages are.

Lithographic press (litho)

Printing hasn’t really changed a great deal since Gutenburg gave us the printing press in 1468. Technology has allowed modern printing presses to produce millions of copies of a page in a single day, but the principle of applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon paper, thereby transferring an offset of an image, remains the same.

These days a printer creates a set of ‘plates’ which are used to press the image onto paper. There are initial costs involved in creating the plates and setting up the press. This means a litho job can be expensive and take time, but for large print runs it remains the most efficient process and also boasts superior quality and finish.

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