Public Wise—Naming, identity, collateral design, and image research, designed at RoAndCo, for new Washington, D.C. based non-partisan voting rights organization.

Public Wise was formed in 2019 with the goal of expanding access to voting. The name, derived from remarks by Teddy Roosevelt, speaks to the organization’s core focus on widespread public access to voting, as well as their core belief that the collective wisdom of many leads to the best political outcome.

The logo and identity system provides credibility by leaning into mid-century design motifs. The multifaceted monogram represents the political spectrum—often bifurcated into separate colors and opposite ends of a line—folding in on itself and working in tandem, while also nodding to an ascending line graph and a voter’s tick mark.

Since the organization had no budget for imagery, I curated a set of 200+ public domain photos, sourced from the Library of Congress, the American Folklife Center, and other public-owned national archives, for use in all branded materials. This was a handy work-around that gave the organization a broad toolkit to work with while also doubling down on the organizational mission to empower and utilize the everyday ciitizen and their work.

Created at RoAndCo with Creative Director Roanne Adams and Managing Director and Head of Strategy Rebecca Angus Smith. Designed in collaboration with Elena Miska.

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