Capitol Hill, Seattle neighboring businesses Substantial and SugarPill have launched Love is Action, a campaign meant to remind individuals about their power to affect change. Catalyzed in the days after the 2016 presidential election, the iconographic campaign is headlined by their building-wide window installation, visible to all at the heavily trafficked Pine & Broadway intersection. It has already gained support from other neighborhood businesses, and with the launch the assets are now being released to the world for others to use.
Love is Action was borne out of a post-election brainstorming session between employees of digital product studio Substantial and Karyn Schwarz, owner of the apothecary SugarPill, Substantial’s downstairs neighbor. While Schwarz is already known as an active community member, Substantial’s focus until recent years has been on the tech and design communities. Over the last year however, they have placed more importance on being more participatory at the corporate level (and encouraging that among employees). Given the response of many employees to the election, it became obvious that there was an opportunity to do something.
Love is Action is meant as a reminder of the power of an individual. Rather than prescribing a particular response, it intends to share the various ways one can get involved, whether that is a donation to a dear cause, protesting in the streets, or simply listening to someone that needs to be heard. To that end, Love is Action is distributing its design assets to the world, offering Love is Action as an umbrella for a variety of activity, with the campaign’s power coming from distributed effort, both with other business owners and with individuals as they become aware.
The campaign has already garnered support from other notable neighborhood business owners, who have stated their intentions to translate the designs in their own way. These include:
- – Hallie Kuperman, owner of Century Ballroom & The Tin Table
- – Dave Meinert, bar owner and restaurateur
- – Molly Moon, owner of Molly Moon’s ice cream
Extending the campaign beyond the designs, there is already talk of a panel discussion being organized by a group of faith-based organizations and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce on the topic of individual responses to current events.
The Love is Action organizers are hopeful that the list of supporters will continue to grow. More importantly, they hope that the community takes the campaign’s sentiment to heart, a reminder of Capitol Hill’s legacy as a neighborhood that values inclusion, individual influence, and political activity.
Love is Action assets can be found at http://loveisaction.us.
