One of our most favorite parts of Elizabeth Warren‘s stump speech is when she says, “I’ve already lived my dream job.” Warren has been a law professor, a Senator, and is now an American Presidential candidate but her childhood “dream job” was being a special needs teacher. One thing is clear: learning and helping others learn, is a deep passion for Elizabeth Warren.
Elizabeth Warren: Children, Parents and Education
Examining how Senator Warren has rolled out her policy proposals around children and education demonstrates how highly she values it. Two of the earliest plans she released after announcing her candidacy called for Universal Child Care and, as she calls it, “something truly transformational,” Universal Free Public College and Student Loan Forgiveness. Together, these plans are indicative of what Warren sees as some of the most valuable investments we can make in America’s future.
Senator Warren is a politician deeply committed to ending corruption in Washington D.C. and leveling the economic playing field. Yet she offers Americans an optimistic vision because of the plans she puts forward for our children, students, and former students. She recognizes that people carrying student debt need relief so they can be the best parents and teachers possible.
It is Warren’s Oklahoma roots, not her career as a professor or politician, that informs her understanding of the deep and transformative power of education. Thanks to Mrs. Lee, the second grade teacher who believed in her, and the $50 commuter college that allowed her to finish her undergraduate degree, education had a transformative effect on Warren’s own life. As a result, she understands instinctively that unless we invest in our children, our nation will continue to be duped by corrupt and self-serving politicians and corporate interests, instead of finding public servants prepared to work for the overall good of all Americans.
A PLAN!
With all this in mind, we came up with a plan to help other Warren grassroots organizers celebrate Senator Warren‘s commitment to children, families, and education. Her messages around these issues present some of the core optimism of her campaign, and we want to extend this vision. Using these graphics voters will recognize that Elizabeth Warren’s plans for education will create a productive and flourishing society that respects and values everyone’s human rights, not only for this generation, but for the next generation, and succeeding generations of Americans too.
As grassroots organizers, we devised a new subset of branding within the campaign. We saw an opportunity to create images that would represent the children, parents, and teachers across the country who support the Warren Campaign both on and offline. Social media advocates and local grassroots organizers can use these logos to highlight the importance of these constituency groups. We chose the graphic of a healthy, natural image — an apple — to represent the life and hope that these groups bring to the grassroots campaign.
In our concept, green apples symbolize children (our “sprouts!”), red apples represent parents and families, and blue apples designate educators. By using the apple graphic to unify these three groups we want to highlight the alliance between families and educators essential to supporting our nation’s children.
Originally we started playing with the apple because we are both based in New York City and we were thinking of the “Big Apple.” Quickly we understood that the apple could persist much more broadly in the campaign. Unlike the Apple Corporation’s logo, the Warren campaign’s apples have no bite taken out of them. They are whole and ready to provide deep and sustaining nourishment to children, parents, and teachers. The iconography reminds us that children, family life and education should be savored and enjoyed to the fullest.
Parents, teachers and children will pull us out of these dark times. With these groups among Warren’s most ardent supporters, a future led by President Warren will be a brighter and more humane era, empowering the big structural changes we need now.
We are grateful to be part of this grassroots movement. As it is Back-to-School season, please be on the lookout for this artwork on Social Media accounts, and promoting on-the-ground family-friendly events. We are grateful to the people who are take the helm @Parents4Warren, @Children4Warren and @Teach4Warren and for all the folks who have helped us with this project along the way. We hope these apples will symbolize a joyous opportunity for grassroots volunteers both to collaborate and catapult Elizabeth Warren to the Democratic nomination and the Presidency.
Find unofficial campaign swag — buttons, stickers — with this project here. This campaign is powered by grassroots activists, so please donate to the Warren campaign to celebrate this effort and Elizabeth Warren’s vision of the future for American children, parents and teachers.
Warren 2020!
-Aren G. & Ray
