HT to my friend Bob who pointed out this cool article about the unprecedented consistency of the Obama visual branding — from typeface, layout, color palette. (Of course my reasons for voting for Obama transcend the fact that his team uses Hoefler & Frere-Jones typeface Gotham, but what a perfect, well-reasoned typeface for an American campaign.)
Newsweek's Andre Romano interviewed one of my design heroes, Michael Beirut, who articulated something I've felt throughout this primary season; that Senator Obama's campaign staff has — against all odds — kept a very tight reign on their brand amidst a very decentralized (read: "grassroots") campaign. Visual consistency. It's really remarkable how they've done it. From town to town, there don't seem to be any rogue banners (handmade poster boards notwithstanding).
A quick look at Brand Hillary (her branding is diluted, her logo weak, and typography second rate) makes one wonder how much good design might factor into this election.
Remember bad [ballot] design (hanging chads anyone?) and its effect on past elections?
Hm.
what a wonderful point, would be interesting to see how many of us designers are obama fans lol (and you're right, Clinton's branding sucks pretty much across the board)
Posted by: Mak | Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 11:14 PM