Politics for Designers

I know most people hate talking politics, but this conversation came up in my other class, and I think it's important for designers to analyze the branding aspect (and it's the only fun part of politics). Ever since Obama's campaign in 2008, presidential candidates have changed the way they visually represent themselves. Before this logo, it traditionally was just the candidate's name with a slogan in red, white, and blue. Because of Obama's success with this, most candidates are now using logos. Here is a breakdown of the Obama logo and why it was so successful from the view points of a marketing expert and an art therapist.

For this upcoming election, we have an abundance of candidates, all of which have chosen to represent themselves very differently. Below are the logos (I may have missed some):

The Washington Post ranked the best and worst logos from the campaign, and from this and other sources, Hillary's ranked highest among designers. She's been utilizing the logo to target different audiences along her campaign trail by doubling it as a container for photography:

So for discussion, from a design perspective (all biases aside) what are your thoughts on the logos? Do you think any are as effective as Obama's logo? And just for fun, I compared the logos to existing logos, which could also lead a discussion.