With the upcoming elections in the USA this year, faculty members of the Visual School of Arts weigh in the candidates' logos for their campaigns. It's interesting to see all the logos in comparison and what some experts have to say about them. Warning: lots of red, blue and white following.
Barack Obama
Debbie Millman: After four years, the identity still holds up. But I am disappointed that his campaign isn’t using the branding more creatively. There is no question it is recognized worldwide. Why not have another riff on the logo or the man à la Shepard Fairey?
Alice Twemlow: The choice to reverse the text in white out of cornflower blue feels fresh and bright, and still hopeful. The typographers Hoefler & Frere-Jones created a custom slab version of Gothic with serifs for the 2012 campaign and so the numerals are made of blockier bolder stuff than they were in 2008. Let’s just hope the man is too.
Ron Paul
Millman: Old and trite; branding has a corporate hollowness to it. Web site feels like an infomercial. What identity?
Twemlow: Ron Paul’s campaign, if you could honor it with the name, is a veritable grab bag of different styles, resulting in a visual chaos that prefigures his deregulatory politics. He has co-opted every iconic visual device from the “I heart NY emblem” to the Facebook “like” symbol. The audaciousness and lack of systematic thinking in this ploy is funny until you remember that this guy is running to be presidents of the U.S., not prom king.
Rick Santorum
Millman: For a corporation, it would feel established and a bit stuffy. Seems as if there should be an image of the Bible on this page… If you’re going to make a site that looks like Tumblr, why not just create a Tumblr account?
Twemlow: The further right you get, the less care seems to have been taken with the visual presentation of a candidate’s image. Like a graphic equivalent of his lamely monogrammed sweater vest, this logo looks as if it were created from an interchangeable selection of hackneyed devices that signal American values (eagle, red and blue, stars) in a DIY business card machine. (ouch)
Newt Gingrich
Millman: His branding and website looks like a banking identity. Intentional?
Twemlow: With its dull dark blue, serif typeface, and a double-lined border, the Gingrich campaign signals conservative classicism as emphatically as it can. It would be almost too boring to contemplate if it weren’t for the delightful synchronicity of the word “Newt” being underlined by a swoosh that resembles a slimy salamander.
Mitt Romney
Heller: Did you know his real name is Willard (like the rat)? Actually the R representing the PEOPLE is not a terrible idea. I can see this growing on people. I’m not sure I believe the tagline.
Twemlow: This is the scariest logo of all, because it’s subtly clever in its attempt to steal the middle ground from Obama. Romney is three men—red, white, and blue—according to the layers of the initial “R,” and thus he hedges his bets politically. He has co-opted Obama’s cheery shade of blue, attempted to replicate his clean graphics and the mix of serif and sans serif, and he’s even picked the word “Believe” to stand behind, since “Hope” was otherwise engaged. This logo is like a fake Louis Vuitton handbag. (Seriously, Twemlow's throwing punches left and right)
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