BILL GRANT | JUDGE’S SELECTION

2 PROJECT M

But for John Bielenberg, who worked on this 24-page piece with his Project M group of young graphic-design volunteers and advisors, the creative reality was a bit different. “For Project M, I tend to pick a place and set up the logistics, but I like the group to figure out what to do,” he explains. “Most of these people are right out of school and are used to being given specific projects and direction. This piece came together in less than a week. We hadn’t yet picked a project, and they were struggling. It’s eight people in a nonhierarchical situation, so it’s hard to get consensus.”

To help the group focus, Bielenberg sent them to Pam Dorr of HERO: the Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization, which offers assistance to low-income families in Hale County, Ala., where Project M was working. When Dorr pointed out that 1000 households—one in four homes in the area—didn’t have access to clean water, the team quickly coalesced. “They latched onto this project because it’s a very tangible thing. People are shocked that in the United States there are conditions like this,” Bielenberg notes. “There’s a fundamental human response to having no water, and a fundamental challenge of fundraising is how to make people care.”

The Project M designers decided to create a piece that would encourage people to donate the cost of connecting one family at a time to the municipal water system: $425 per meter. Photographs the group had been taking around the community were collected and juxtaposed against statements about celebrities. “Your mind is trying to figure this out as you’re flipping through the pages,” Bielenberg says. “I believe people engage more fully when they have to work on it.” The group found a local printer who could work fast and cheap. “We put it together on a weekend, got it to a printer on Monday, and had the papers back on Wednesday. The printing was crummy, but it matches the content,” he notes.

And in this, Grant says, there is a lesson for all designers.

“Beautiful design solutions don’t require the biggest budgets. This piece stood out next to things that took hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. At the end of the day, it’s about editing and getting down to the essence of a piece of communication, and matching the solution to the problem. In this case, the concept was brilliant.” And effective. With just 5000 pieces printed, $30,000 has been raised so far. “We’ve hooked up everyone we can,” says Bielenberg. “And now we’re using the money to put pipes in places where there aren’t even water mains.” But there’s still one more goal left: “The big fish we haven’t yet caught is Oprah,” Bielenberg says. “We’re working the network.” by Laurel Saville