Settlers of Leidos

Leidos PAC (LPAC) tasked Sagac Public Affairs to create an engaging campaign to raise funds for the 2025-2026 election cycle. They wanted something that was fun and that would spark group participation in addition to raising PAC funds. We presented a concept based around the board game Settlers of Catan. In consultation with the client, we built campaign language around the concepts of the “Largest Army” and “Longest Road” cards found within the game. LPAC manages the development of their own emails, so we were tasked with creating the copy for the email, banner images to use within the email campaign, print materials replicating the two cards, and a poster.

I developed the visuals for this campaign, utilizing the Adobe Firefly AI image tool within the Adobe Creative Suite to create illustrations that were incorporated into the designs. Crafting the right prompts took several iterations, but ultimately I was able to produce illustrations through photoshopping elements of several prompts that felt compatible with the artwork style of the game, while also incorporating the branding elements of LPAC and referencing elements of Washington, D.C. into the designs.

AI image generation has improved substantially in just a short time, but even with this early iteration of Firefly, I was able to save the client substantial time in comparison with crafting a series of custom illustrations, while still providing the visual impact and craftsmanship of a custom designed campaign that incorporated these AI elements with human layout and understanding. Utilizing AI as a tool in the designer’s toolbox rather than as a means of replacement or an adversary of the designer is an important skill that I continue to hone as AI becomes increasingly sophisticated in its abilities.

This campaign helped LPAC exceed its fundraising stretch goal, resulting in $296,827 in new annual receipts. The PAC also added 176 members, a 24% increase in membership from the previous year, and resulted in 99 existing members increasing their contributions. LPAC was thrilled with the results of this campaign. Sagac Public Affairs was awarded 3 Pollie Awards by the American Association of Political Consultants for our work on this campaign: A Gold Pollie Award for Best Use of Email Fundraising, and two Silver Pollie Awards for Best Logo + Branding and Most Original/Innovative Collateral Material.