Pints and point-scoring – Our run-down of election-related creative projects

The UK is gripped with election fever this week as we decide which middle-aged white man we want standing up for us at the world’s top table. As polling day draws ever nearer, media coverage is reaching fever pitch despite the fact it increasingly resembles a tallest dwarf competition. Kudos though to the creative community who have come up with a whole host of election-related projects ranging from the genuinely thought-provoking to the gloriously ludicrous. Here are some of the ones that have caught our eye and tickled our fancy…

Let’s start with something a bit serious in the form of Street Graphs, which hijacks existing street furniture to visualise the housing crisis across the country. By reappropriating things like telecoms boxes to make a point about homelessness or London’s ludicrous average rents, the charity behind it makes a really important point in a very effective way.
www.streetgraphs.tumblr.com

From the sublime to the ridiculous; Painting With Nigel Farage does exactly what it says on the tin. The UKIP leader is the most interesting character involved in this election – either a courageous scourge of the establishment or dangerous bogeyman depending on your point of view. Still it’s fun to paint with a variety of his faces; feel free to impress your friends with this poster I made if you like.
www.paintwithnigelfarage.com

More Farage-based fun courtesy of The Sun newspaper’s dedicated election site SunNation. Nigel famously enjoys a pint and this game invites us mere mortals to try and outdrink the man of the people from the comfort of our keyboard. Bottoms up Nige!
www.sunnation.co.uk

Social media has played a big part in this election and has opened up political discourse to a much wider audience. To reflect this brave new world, artist Annemarie Wright has created portraits of the party leaders using comments about them gleaned from these channels. She then hand writes these and builds them into images that bring together the medium and the message in a very literal way. Her work is on show at London’s Woolff Gallery until 15 May.
www.annemarie-wright.com
www.woolffgallery.co.uk

To the disengaged or the non-Brits among you, the whole election rigmarole may seem fairly baffling, but never fear because Mashable has ridden to the rescue with this guide based on boobs-and-bastards fantasy drama Game of Thrones. It features UK newsreader Jon Snow (see what they did there?) in conversation with an American whose main interest seems to be wolves. Silly, funny and marvellously convoluted for a pretty ropey idea.
www.mashable.com

Apparently in a bid to encourage political engagement among 18-24 year-olds, rehabstudio has created a 43-emoji set for the upcoming election. All the major figures are represented but I particularly enjoyed some of the more narrative-driven creations like Nurse Crying and Monkey Nick Clegg.
www.politicons.co.uk

The Thick of It was a vicious satire on the UK political process and its star was Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), a fabulously splenetic puppet-master with an ingenious line in foul-mouthed put-downs. Buzzfeed has done some genuinely excellent coverage of this election but here’s them doing what they do best, in the form of contemporary photos of the politicians overlaid with some of Tucker’s most memorable bon-mots.
www.buzzfeed.com

KK Outlet has worked with photographer Dirk Rees to create a series of political portraits with a difference. They put out a call for anyone who fancied it to come along and be shot by Dirk, and also to explain what they’d do if they got the keys to Number 10 (policies have ranged from leaving the EU to bringing back the shell-suit). Visitors to the show can vote for their favourites and you may recognise some familiar faces in there. Imagine Mr Bingo as PM…
www.publicprimeminister.com
www.kkoutlet.com