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Designer-in-chief

February, 11th 2009 posted by ilovedesign

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2008 was a victorious year for many Americans. It also proved victorious for our favorite art form-graphic design. There's no denying design had a big role in the Obama campaign, both in the primaries as well as the general election. From the logo to the posters, website, mailers, and commercials, the brand strategy and execution of the Obama campaign raises the bar for American politics.

That's not to say that branding is entirely new to American politics. Obama's own Democratic Party has promoted itself using the donkey imagery since the election of 1828. In one of the first examples of owning your enemies insult, President Andrew Jackson branded himself the donkey after rivals tried to paint him as a jackass.

For me the most impressive campaign artifact is the logo. Designed by Chicago's Sender LLC, the logo came early in the campaign and best summarized the "dawning of a new day" message the campaign was selling. The logo is modern without using any trendy cliches, and is inviting without looking overly nostalgic. The logo set the pace for the graphic design work yet to come in the following campaign. The Obama logo makes me want to jump into it, a better America is just over the horizon. By contrast the McCain logo looks like it might impale me if I get too close.

Of course a good logo alone isn't going to win a presidential election. A good logo is similar to a good smile in its ability to influence. That's not to trivialize its importance, both will help foster trust, but neither will buy your vote. The intent of design is to make the viewer feel something, typically an increased feeling of quality or trust. The Obama campaign went the extra mile to achieve this by personalizing the logo for 23 different specific demographic groups. Movements with logos are nothing new. It's all about the power of self-identification; the Obama logo lets the reader apply their own life story while maintaining a uniquely American feel. The mere idea of 23 different logo variants is counter-intuitive to the typical brand manager.

For many people the defining image of the Obama campaign is the Hope poster created by Shepard Fairey and based on a photograph by Mannie Garcia. The irony alone is brilliant-a campaign dogged by labels of Socialism uses a Russian Constructivist-inspired poster of their candidate. I would give them credit as another case of "owning the insult" if the style weren't already a staple of Fairey. (Is there such a thing as a non-constructivist Fairey poster?) The McCain campaign exclusively used photo-realistic portraits of their candidates; in contrast the Fairey poster's more abstract view of Obama is a good representation of their "change for a better tomorrow" message. The image's popularity is confirmed by the shear number of imitations and parodies.

Design teams throughout the campaign did their part by delivering top-notch signage and a great website. Their impeccable use of Gotham on just about everything was exemplary. All in all the campaign executed graphic design and branding with a historical level of success. The quality in presentation of the messages helped legitimized those messages-just what successful graphic design should do.