Design and Politics

I think graphic design can’t change a voters mind about a candidate but it can say a lot about the candidate’s views and campaign. The logos for the two candidates are a perfect example of this. Obama’s logo did a great job demonstrating what he stood for, which was “CHANGE” and the beginning of a new day for America. While John McCain used the star to demonstrate that he was a strong candidate that was a leader and of course it also links him with his military background. I think these logo designs did a great job telling us about the candidates.

Design also played an interesting roll in the commercials. Without design the commercials would not work. Large parts of the design of the commercials were the selection of the images that were used. This is something that a lot of designers over look. Effective images can make or break a design. If the details of the images were overlooked the commercials would have been less effective.

Oh poor graphic design

Oh poor graphic design, handmaiden to business, earnest kid sister to art, propagandist, puppet, the tail wagging the dog. Visual culture in the business world, where most of us reside most of the time, is apolitical and amoral. Reading, class, personal thinking and social ghettos have much more to do with one’s politics. I do also wonder who those mythical “undecided’s” are I certainly don’t know any. My personal fortune has had little to do with who is in the White House, although I’ve spent that last 8 years irritatedly switching the TV station whenever you-know-who is on. It is my hope that the desire machine that is our economy, and of which we a bit players, can retool our culture into sustaining; the planet, a real thought, and human communities of all classes and social ghettos. I am ever the optimist.

The (thank god it's ending) Election and Design

I, for one, will be very happy when this election is over (sounds like Steve will be too).
With that said, I think political design reinforces people's beliefs but probably doesn't change them. I agree with Dave, if you are an Obama fan, all of the great designs for his campaign are going to reinforce that, but I don't think they would change someone's mind with a different view (unless someone doesn't follow politics). With other things, like products and services, I think design can greatly influence someone's view of something if they didn't already have an opinion, but with politics, there's already so much baggage and connotations with each candidate and party that a good design alone would be difficult to change someone's beliefs.
Hopefully this made sense, I woke up really early today to vote.

STOP STARING AT THE BLOG AND GO VOTE!

thank you.

Impact of Design

I think design can have the same influence on voters as it does everything else, which is to say, a lot. Graphics Design is propaganda, symbolism, and marketing all rolled into one, and effective use can make a difference to voters -to a point. A nicer looking sign probably won't influence a staunch McCain supporter any more than a Heinz ketchup devotee is likely to switch brands because of the label alone. But to a newcomer or an undecided it probably makes more of a difference. Check out some of these projects done by a design consortium in Philadelphia called Design for Social Impact. They showcase their design projects which were all done with social causes in mind. There's a few interesting projects in there...

Graphic Design-The Left and Right

Both ends of the political spectrum have used graphic design to advance their political agendas and ideologies. For example, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, considered by many the father of Italian Futurism, married Futurism to Benito Mussolini's Italian Fascism. Steven Heller writes of this in his book Graphic Design History. He also writes of how the Soviet Union conceived a magazine called USSR in Construction in order to promote Communism in a favorable light. When design is used to promote the extreme ideologies of both the left and right, usually it degrades to mindless propaganda. I believe that both Democrats and Rebublicans to be completely full of shit. Sorry for the profanity and sorry if some find that offensive, but I find the Democratic party moving further to the left and the Republican party moving further to the right. Political ads, posters, and the "once every four year useless pep rally" (also known as each party's National Convention) are becoming worse and worse in their extremism. Responsible use of graphic design for political and social change needs to resist this extremism and engage viewers in a reasonable and thoughtful discussion of issues. This is not a response or commentary to Emily's post. Just an angry rant on my part.

The Social Impact of Design

Hi everyone...Sorry to not get this in as early as I was supposed to. I have no excuse other than the distraction of miniature Batmen and fairy princesses banging on my door last night demanding candy.

In this election season, I've been thinking a lot about the impact of design...Mostly because Obama is so well-branded with the 8,000 iterations of the "O" logo, each . Critics say it's all bluster and no depth, of course, and that a sans serif on the posters does not a president make. Putting aside my own politics and hopefully everyone else's, it is interesting how designers have come out for Obama. I can see why he's liked by the artsy crowd: He's new, youngish and has a face that looks good on paper. Of course the most-seen posters are Shepard Fairey's (the most recent here). But Steven Heller had an interesting blog in nytimes.com about other poster artists crankin' out the same sort of thing to various degrees of effectiveness, including those who are actively getting out the liberal vote at Obama's website.

Does all of this have any kind of impact on influencing voters? Does it just make Obama fans who are designers like Obama even more because they get to add more cool stuff to their poster collections? Does it have any impact on those undecided voters? (And seriously, how could anyone be undecided still? I don't understand that.)

The first design I remember really striking me both for being clever and for being socially impactful was this one, placed in the New York Times by the ACLU in 2000. I still think about it as, "man, I wish I could think of something like that."

Can you remember particular designs that have really gotten to you, and actually fulfilled their purposes? Is design drived to social change largely pointless -- preaching to the choir in that it's only really "seen" by people who already agree with its message? Or do you think stuff like this really changes people's minds?