Local Politics Keeps Money Local

I’m getting political…hear me out. A local man, Dan Simonds, that is running as a Maine Clean Election candidate, meaning he collects $5 dollar donations from local people that want to see him elected, recently hired me to create his campaign logo. As a business owner, I do have the option to choose who I work with and can have my own personal reasons for doing so, but I felt especially grateful to be approached with this project because it was community action that supported his platform. He was offered access to other designers, but he chose me, someone that lives and understands the area we both live in. 

The graphic represented the different landscapes and people intertwined through living and working in our District 73.

I do my absolute best to spend my money at small businesses, and enjoy doing so because I know it helps maintain the towns and lifestyle I care about. Spending money local, whether it’s food, pharmacies, hardware stores, etc, keeps money closer to where we feel the impact. Graphic design services are included in that list. It’s not an all or nothing game, but every little bit helps and I have gratitude for those able to help do so where they can.

I also felt honored and took seriously the fact that it was a collection of people’s hard earned money that was helping support this project. As a Clean Campaign it also requires that people be paid their fair value, so it wasn’t a matter of asking for a favor, it was a candidate quietly announcing he wants to honor this system and the people participating in it. I hear a lot of people pointing at what others are doing wrong these days, and so I wanted to take a second to highlight something that I personally think was done right. Not because he necessarily hired ME, but that he understands the impacts of his actions and wanted to do things in a way that aligned with his values, that I found also aligned with mine.