Today, Americans go to the polls to vote for their new President and in some people’s eyes, ours too. The Obama machine is well known for its PR campaigns and excellent marketing strategies (remember the Hope poster of 2008). So what better time to give the latest round of brands my eagle-eye critique;
Barack Obama Created by Sol Sender for the 2008 campaign, the Obama ‘O’ was a focal point of the Obama brand and has been retained again for the 2012 edition.
The latest ‘2012’ creation is bolder, featuring a blue background to the previous white. The Gotham font has also been retained, with aded serifs? Can we add serifs to Gotham – for the President of the United States, yes we can!
I like the rural connotations of the logo, it conveys a homely and very American feel – the red and white stripes instantly say to me ‘the land of the free’. One which Siegel and Gale’s New York based President Howard Belk believes too, “There’s a very strong simplicity to it. Visually it suggests a land of opportunity, the wide open country, and an inclusive circle, inviting people to step in”. Though some corners of the design world have criticised it for lacking emotion.
The ‘Forward’ strapline to Obama’s campaign is given its own ‘Google doodle’ in the header of the Obama website - http://www.barackobama.com/; really shows the attention to detail his party is giving it’s every message.
Mitt Romney Romney’s in comparison is quite poor. It’s a very ‘American’ design using a classical font and styling - basic requirement for any presidential candidate. The R’s icon illustrates quite crudely the president and vice-president elect Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, did anyone guess that!? The icon itself is quite crudely drawn, though you feel it could have been refined given a little more time.
Belk says, “It was originally a double R and now it’s a triple R but either way as a pure piece of graphic design it’s extraordinarily amateurish. The typography is unclear and squishy and there’s no clarity or crispness”, he adds. “The kerning is atrocious, and the letter spacing on the ‘ey’ is so weak,” he adds. Not one to sit on the fence!
It’s believed from various design sources that the Obama 2012 identity is the stronger of the two and some believing the Romney R’s were hastily designed in-house as opposed to Obama’s professionally designed brand. Just goes to show what you can achieve with an agency helping you. And to conclude, lets end with the latest TV ad by the Obama machine – Go Obama! Obama for America, Big Bird TV Advert
Or for more videos you can check out Obama’s YouTube page.
Paolo Ventrone
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