Politics and Designers make Strange Bedfellows -

As the old proverb goes, People who would normally not have much affiliation with design will hire designers to build their brand if they think it is politically useful to do so.


As I look at the Hilary logo I think of Fed-Ex. I don't know why. No, I do, but that is besides the point.

Her logo is probably the most interesting of the group, from a design standpoint, but when I see the some of the other pieces of her campaign (in this case her website) I think there was more focus placed on getting her politics and point of view across to potential supporters and not so much on design. But I looked at a few others main candidates and I am getting the same feeling. Maybe that is the aesthetics behind the design. Some look like they are WordPress built templates.

And not to pick on Hilary, but I am talking about Trump, Bernie Sanders and even Ben Carson focussed more on the politics and not wowing the audience with design. That might be the best way to approach this type of campaign (no pun intended).

But back to the logos -

What Barack Obama was able to do with his campaign and the Gotham font, was take them both to the promise land. And his logo is now iconic because he and his camp knew that their was something to be said for good design in the business place. The logo re-emphasized his then promises of change and hope with a bold display of colors and imagery, that the political world just hadn't been seen previously.

Although, when I see what all the potential candidates have done with their logos it is inspiring but now it all seems like white noise to me. To me they felt they had have a logo prepared for their campaign based on what president Obama did and now it is just a standard practice.
When that happens then you lose the iconic feel that was once found in the Obama campaign.
So what is my solution? If the presidential hopeful what to spend millions and millions to get themselves into office, then build a full-fledge brand campaign around your politics that defines who you are and furthermore is aseptically appealing to a mass audience.
You may not get every vote but at least you will look good trying to.