GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The voting is over! Well... not at the polls, but for what you'll get at the polls.
The Michigan Secretary of State on Wednesday announced nine winners across three categories in its months-long and first-ever contest to decide what 'I Voted' sticker designs clerks can choose to offer to voters at the ballot box.
Some of those designs came from right here in West Michigan.
"I was surprised," said Rockford middle schooler Gabby Warner, whose 'I Voted Yay' design was one of three winners in the Elementary and Middle School category. "I didn't really think it was going to win."
For Warner, the call to creativity came during a homework session with her friend.
"We saw, like, an ad, I think, pop up for it or something," Warner said. "And so, we would decide, 'We should do it.' And we actually submitted it together."
The idea for the sticker, which featured red writing and the "e" in "Voted" being flipped, is one Warner said was a homage to the whimsy of younger generations.
"Well, me and my friend, we hang out with our younger siblings a lot," Warner said. "And we kind of just wanted to, like, because they don't really know how to spell yet or anything. We want to do something simple, kind of like how they draw and color."
The city clerk's office in Rockford has confirmed to 13 ON YOUR SIDE that Warner's stickers will be available there on Election Day in November.
But Warner isn't the only winner from this neck of the woods.
Working out of her own studio in Grand Rapids, Bree Tanner secured herself a winning slot with her design of a sticker reading, 'OPE, I VOTED.'
"When I was growing up, you know, I was, of course, the kid drawing all the time, and I actually wanted to go into engineering when I was really young," Tanner recounted to 13 ON YOUR SIDE. "And that kind of progressed. I tried to figure out how I could combine those worlds - that artful world, and that engineering world."
Later graduating from Grand Valley State University and starting Studio Us with her husband, Tanner has since worked in graphic design for years.
After hearing of the competition from friends, her career has now seemingly taken on a new twist with her winning design.
"What we decided to do was kind of make it a team exercise here," Tanner said. "And so, we read the brief together, and we got all amped up, hyped up, talked about it a little bit and then we set a timer. I think we started with a half hour, like, just sketch ideas, let's just see what comes to mind when we think Michigan."
"I think that it was kind of just a blend of messing around, but also with intentionality," she said. "So, it was both kind of a creative exercise and just seeing what worked, not trying to think too hard about it, but really letting my personality shine through with the copy, and then just playing from there."
When elaborating on the thinking behind her sticker, Tanner pointed to the geographical nature of the expression.
"I love those kind of regional phrases or words that you have, because it kind of makes the Midwest or wherever you are feel a little more localized, a little more community-based," she said.
Being one nation with distinct dialects, she said, has long been a fascination.
"And so, the word 'Ope' is something that, when I noticed that I said it, when I noticed that people in Michigan say it, I dove hard into it," Tanner said. "I was like, 'This is a great interjection.'"
But it's not just the phrase that carries a meaning.
Even the color, she said, had its own deeper message.
"I was kind of thinking about the idea of, obviously the colors - the red and blue - but blending them together and getting that variation in between all of the perspectives across the range of voters," Tanner said.
But she hopes the humor of the idea can also be a tool.
"I think voting can be really stressful," she said. "I think this time of year can be stressful for people. But once it's done and you've cast your vote, really no matter all sides, [voters] usually take that sticker and they put it on their shirt and they take a selfie with it and they post it online and that alone is really unifying and I think that's really cool."
A little bit of joy is what she thinks this simple phrase could add to this complex and ever-tense political arena.
"[I hope] that it will just bring people out and give them a little bit of a smile in the day and, regardless of their viewpoints, bring them together a bit and just an act of expressing yourself and your voice and to just get out there and go vote."
