Vote Ruthless: The artist bringing color and community to election year yard signs

 

In a region as civically minded as the Twin Cities, it isn’t unusual to see political signage dotting the Minnesota landscape in manicured front gardens, apartment windows, in front of local businesses, and available at local markets. But beginning in July, Kamala Harris signs — and later “Coach Walz,” when Minnesota’s governor was selected as Harris’ running mate — began to take on a different look: the silhouette of a laughing Harris framed by the words “We Fight We Win” sprayed through a stencil in a myriad of bright colors, with the hashtag “#VoteRuthless” across the bottom. 

They’re the simple yet dynamic pet project by Minnesota transplant Brandon Litman. You may have seen him — and the lines his paint table draws — at local farmers markets donning a gas mask while the crowd that’s gathered chatter excitedly amongst themselves. At least, that’s what I saw on a Saturday morning when I arrived at Mill City Farmers Market to meet Litman for the first time. Unfortunately, his table was rained out soon after, but he promised those who had waited in line that his studio would be open to visitors that afternoon. There, they would have the chance to spray their own signs and posters. 

 

Brandon Litman preparing his spraypaint. All photos by Aaron Belford, courtesy of the photographer.

 

There were already a dozen or so individuals when I arrived at the studio a few hours later, along with boxes upon boxes of spray paint in every color imaginable (purchased from Saint Paul art store Wet Paint whose team has been a positive and helpful supporter of Vote Ruthless). Litman was giving a demonstration of how to place the stencils and spray — corner left to right, all the way off of the page and then back again, making your way towards the middle from the top and bottom; if you’re creating an ombré, you want to do the blending color last — before letting everyone loose to spray posters, signs, and clothing to their hearts’ content. 

What immediately caught my attention was the seriousness of the half-dozen young girls there. They watched — sometimes on their tiptoes — with rapt attention, placed the stencils reverently and chose their colored spray paint with the utmost care. One took a step back from the table to take in her own work before nodding to herself, “Needs more glitter.”

This is what has drawn me to what Litman is doing with Vote Ruthless: he has introduced the idea of art as an antidote for political apathy to people who likely don’t consider themselves either an activist or an artist, and in doing so, has created a growing community and introduced civil engagement to people who have yet to vote.

“It’s not just about the issues,” Litman said as we discussed this year’s election, “It’s about exciting the next generation to participate.” And street art definitely has the ability to excite.

 

At a Kamala Harris rally in Georgia. Photo by Aaron Belford.

 

Litman first started with the stencil medium as a means of garnering attention from big companies as a young entrepreneur. “I ran an animation studio with some friends in my 20s. This is back when you would send your reels in DVD format in the mail, so in order to get [the customer’s] attention, I’d stencil their logo on the box and spray paint it.”

In 2016, he began to play more with the format while living in New York City, including a guerilla marketing tactic for Hillary Clinton’s campaign called “I Feel Like Hills.” 

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg died so close to the election in 2020, Litman was already living in Minneapolis. Reworking a previous likeness to RBG, he was able to cut out a new stencil, pop up a table at Lake Harriet, and begin spraying on sheets of paper straight from a ringed notebook. Within no time, “a line formed and I was spraying for hours. I was like, ‘Oh, this is something.’ Then I showed up again a couple days later and it happened again. [This project] was validated through the social feedback I was getting. And then I just got obsessed.”

From there, his passion continued, including spraying for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s runoff election for senate and Angie Craig’s campaign, during which time he taught Governor Walz his tried-and-true method for getting the image crisp.

 

The posters begin as sturdy stencils, carefully trimmed and weeded by the artist (below). Photos by Aaron Belford.

 

As for this latest rendition for the Harris-Walz campaign, he wanted images that were inspiring and joyful. “I wanted to communicate joy because that is a major difference [between] the Left and the Right about what the message is. I needed to find an image of the candidates smiling, and I wanted them to be facing each other.”

It took Litman four tries before he had designed a stencil of Harris that felt like it would be inspiring to the community he hoped to build through Vote Ruthless. “I wanted to create an image that the community would love,” he explained. “When you’re thinking about community, [you] develop something that people are going to get excited about, and — because of my format — that they’re going to be excited to project their identity onto. The amount of people who are requesting [specific colors] — whether it’s their family heritage, country of origin’s colors, or maybe there’s a flag that represents their gender identity — the amount of people that are projecting that onto the candidate is impressive. I think it’s really powerful, and I think there’s something deeply psychological that happens and this format affords for that. But it wouldn’t work if the image isn’t inspiring.”

Personally, I felt honored to watch that projection in real time that Saturday at the Vote Ruthless studio. Of the four spray tables available, at least one was always in use with attendees of various ages asking each other what they thought about the use of this color or how they achieved a specific style. One young girl, maybe nine years old, told me with pride that she received the last of Litman’s posters that day at the farmers market before it began to rain, and her brother was very jealous. “I guess I’ll make him one,” she sighed. But when she finally removed the stencil and took a look at her work with pride, she announced she was keeping this one; her brother could have the farmers market poster.

 

Top: An outdoor poster-making session in Minneapolis. Bottom: Attendees hold their signs aloft at a rally in Georgia. Photos by Aaron Belford.

 

For the most part, the cost for signs has been donation-based, but with the increased demand from people to purchase signs online, Litman found a way to expand the community by using the proceeds from online sales to hire a handful of people to help. Most of them aren’t artists, and many will be voting this year for the first time, including some who were formerly incarcerated and are just now getting their rights — including the ability to vote — back.

“All of [the team members] are so positive and have really filled me up in wanting to do this with them. Also, they’ve so many creative detours. I’ve sprayed 13,000 posters, probably, throughout this whole process, and I’m still being introduced to new ideas.” 

One of the important aspects for Litman when hiring others is to be able to not just pay his team, but to pay them more than they traditionally are in other jobs. “That’s important because there’s enough to go around.”

At the end of the day, the importance of community continues for Litman. “There’s just something special about creating the space that you’ve seen. You’ve seen it in the line, you’ve seen it here [at the studio]. Ultimately, it’s actually not about me. I just want people to be engaged” he said.

“I won’t remember if I break even or not. I won’t really remember that. I will remember the little girl that was here at the end of the day and her energy, and maybe she’ll remember it too.” He’s describing a second grader who showed up to the open studio just as the sun was beginning to set and Litman had thrown burgers, brats, and veggies on the grill for those of us still there. She walked in not necessarily sure what she was doing but excited to be doing it. Her energy was honestly contagious and her posters, of course, were covered with glitter, which made her light up and gasp in awe after the stencil was pulled away.

“I won’t remember the mess,” Litman added, “but I’ll remember that we did it.” ◼︎ 

 

Photo by Aaron Belford.

 

To keep up with their artwork, follow @voteruthless on Instagram, and order signs, posters, and stickers through voteruthless.com.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, though early voting is already underway. If you are not currently registered to vote in Minnesota, you can register when you show up to vote. For more information, including locating your polling place and finding out what will be on your ballot, visit the MN Secretary of State's Elections & Voting page.