Designers for Obama

Sure, I’m intrigued by Barack Obama. You have to admit, the guy really has his act together. Not just as a breath of fresh air on the political scene, but his campaign identity seems to have reached groundbreaking levels too. Check out his web site: barackobama.com. Every inch of it, from the black and white portraits to the smallest typographic details — the quality is pretty exceptional. The design of the original logo is credited to Chicago-based firms Sender LLC and mo/de. The evolution of brand appears to be painstakingly well-considered, and flawlessly executed and maintained by the Obama campaign and its current design team. Pay particular attention to the interpretations of the logo under the “People” and “State” sections.

You’ll notice subtle and not-so-subtle variations of the Obama mark and typographic treatments. Each is meticulously crafted to appeal to his very diverse constituency. Now, not every single one is a “home-run” in my book, but you have to appreciate the effort that went into these. Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever given any political campaign’s identity a second look until now. Actually, I take that back…

In 2004, at Nesnadny + Schwartz, we designed a new campaign for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. During this time, Planned Parenthood had endorsed John Kerry in the presidential election. The challenge was to create something clean, crisp and typographic — a bold message that would “stand up” and get noticed in a sea of humdrum stars and stripes and improper uses of backward apostrophes and prime marks (see how many ‘08s and 08’s you notice in the coming year). Anyway, we were very proud of all of those “Stand Up for Choice” exclamation marks behind John Kerry. We felt certain our work was making an impact. Unfortunately, it didn’t help to get Mr. Kerry elected.

Nonetheless, I’m happy to see firms putting some much needed passion into this area of design. Generally, I think firms don’t want to touch politicians with a ten-foot pole (and who could blame them?), but then again, this is the election of “change” and it’s always the right time for good design.

Now, if only there was a way to measure the effectiveness of graphic design on the political process.