MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! Designing a Digital Memorial and National Mail Campaign During COVID-19
Client
Susan Silton
Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist
Overview
In May 2020, as COVID-19 deaths in the United States continued to climb, artists and organizers launched MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!, a national participatory memorial and mail campaign.
The premise was intentionally simple.
Participants were invited to handwrite the name of someone who had died from COVID-19, place the name in a stamped envelope, and mail it directly to then-President Donald Trump.
The project transformed individual acts of remembrance into a collective act of public accountability.
My role was to design and build the digital platform that helped communicate the campaign, provide context, and guide participation.
The Challenge
The campaign addressed an emotionally charged and politically sensitive subject during one of the most difficult periods in recent American history.
The website needed to accomplish several goals simultaneously:
Explain the purpose of the campaign
Provide historical and political context
Encourage participation
Honor those who had died
Remain accessible and easy to navigate
Avoid distracting from the message itself
Unlike most websites…
success would not be measured through conversions, sales, or engagement metrics.
Success meant helping people…
understand the project and participate in a meaningful act of remembrance.
Design Approach
The website prioritized clarity, typography, and content over visual complexity.
Every design decision supported the campaign’s central message rather than competing with it.
The result was a focused experience that functioned as both an informational resource and a digital memorial.
Building for a Moment in Time
One of the unique challenges of the project was designing for an event that was unfolding in real time.
COVID-19 case counts, public policy decisions, and national sentiment were changing constantly.
The website needed to support evolving content while maintaining a clear and consistent user experience.
The resulting platform provided organizers with a flexible way to communicate updates while preserving the project’s core purpose.
Outcome
The website became a central hub for a nationwide participatory art and memorial campaign during a defining moment in recent history.
More importantly, it demonstrated how digital platforms can support collective action, public memory, and civic engagement.
While many projects focus on products, services, or transactions, MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! focused on people.
The website was not designed to sell something. It was designed to ensure something would not be forgotten.
My Contributions
Information architecture
UX design
Website design
Squarespace development
Content organization
Responsive implementation
Accessibility considerations
Focus Areas
Civic engagement
Participatory experiences
Content-first design
Accessibility
Responsive design
Public-interest communication