Candidates can only be in one place at one time, but their logos can be anywhere.
The carefully-crafted designs represent a candidate's brand, attempting to capture a multi-million dollar campaign in a symbol simple enough to fit on a button.
"Logos are that first handshake with a voter," said Ty Fujimura, a graphic designer who blogs about design, including political art. "They provide an initial touch point, so they should express exactly what the candidate wants to be seen as, whether that's reliable, loyal, honest or perhaps 'maverick.'"
But how do campaigns come up with these designs?
Through collaboration and research, designers and campaign staff can spend days shaping their ideal logo, which often gets tweaked along the way to fit a candidate's evolving campaign strategy.
And with the standard color scheme including red, white and blue mixed with stars and stripes, designers say the hardest part is creating something unique.
"In our business, there's nothing truly original," said Michael Williams, designer of the 2012 logo for former Republican Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, who formed a presidential exploratory committee in March. "Everything has been recycled."
Williams and other designers point to a few exceptions, most notably the "O"-shaped symbol from President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
They say the image was able to embody Obama's message of "hope" by using sunrays on a horizon made of white and red stripes. The logo, now being re-used for Obama's 2012 campaign, is framed by the president's last initial.
But using a symbol instead of spelling out the candidate's name can be a risky move, designers say. It allows more room for subjectivity.
"It can mean a million things to a million people," Williams said. "A lot of people wouldn't have taken that chance. It worked for him, but it was a rare case."
In the past, some candidates have tried standing out by using colors other than the patriotic pattern so often seen on the campaign trail. President Jimmy Carter sometimes used a street sign green and white color scheme. Sen. Barry Goldwater chose a McDonald's-esque red and yellow theme for some of his paraphernalia.
For the most part, however, political consultants find that Americans respond best to traditional Uncle Sam colors.
Fonts can also make or break a logo. Designers face many decisions when shaping the words on an image, such as whether to use a sans serif or serif font. Bold or regular? Full name or last name only? Tagline or no tagline?
"There are two guidelines that designers try to follow: Less is more, and go simple and bold," said Williams. "You can't let it get too busy."
That's because the logo needs a one-size-fits-all design that can be reprinted on a number of items, from yard signs to bumper stickers to t-shirts.
"Logos are the visual interpretation of a campaign personality," said Vincent Harris of Harris Media, a communications firm. "Everything from the font size of a candidate's name, to the colors on their website, they all define the campaign."
21 Comments
Very interesting! Thank you. ;-)
In logo "ROMNEY", why are letters "E" and "Y" connected? Is some mistake or that should be.
Thanks for this information.
It's kerning and spacing ;-) If the letter Y was more to the right, then the space between E and Y would be too large.
Agree.
Thanks XBlueDivision.
@XBlue: You're right, of course...but the rest of the kerning on Romney's logotype is awful
When two letters are combined in this fashion, it could also be referred to as a ligature. Some typefaces even come with predesigned ligatures (example = fi and fl), but most of these are lowercase or combination upper/lower. And now looking at it again, it does appear to be most likely a custom ligature. Look at the top of the E, the serif is missing on the top arm. If this look was attempted simply by adjusting the kerning, the serif would still be visible, thus it is a ligature.
BARACK OBAMA + RON PAUL its my favorite logos. (not favorites for president.... ;) ).
hehe ;)
All I can say is that most of these logotypes are boring or simply disastrous. The only ones where I see some design/typography work are:
- Obama: nice font choice, proportions, very well thought symbol that we remember from the previous elections)
- Huntsman: the logo has great line spacing and generous kerning space, it looks fresh and the H symbol looks IMO great, it's also using a very modern sans serif font that I find attractive. The only problem is that it cannot be directly associated with US elections since it doesn't use the 'traditional' red/white/blue flag colors, this bold choice may be on one side a way to differentiate it from the other election logotypes, but may, on the other hand, alienate traditional voters from it.
- Ron Paul: well balanced, nice classic font (Garamond?)
- Cain: nice torch, the tagline's italic font bothers me a little though..
Some of the others are disastrous:
- Roemer: this logo has gradients and shadows that make absolutely no sense to me, it uses a wide and heavy font and with the addition of the half-circle on top of it reminds me of a fat and unhealthy burger..
- Romney: at first sight, it reads OMNEY. (KOMNEY??)
- Rick Santorum: why is the tagline so distant from the logo itself? why is it not even centered? The fact that the name of the candidate is written in a very compact way (small kerning space) makes the logo and the tagline looks like they don't belong together at all...
- Pawlenty: Putting the flag on top of the name would have probably saved this logo. And what happened to the stars? They look like they were drawn by a monkey. And the 2,2 red stripes look like smudged blood. Pawlenty is definitely a guy I would not be happy to meet at a dark street corner..
- Johnson: logo says: "I has mikrosoft word! And I make logo! I win elekshun bekoz I iz osom!!!" Seriously, they should have hired a designer...
- Newt: booooooooriiiiing...
- Bachmann: see Newt above...
Now I'm not voting, just because the designs are so bad. Pawlenty renders me speechless and voteless. End of story.
What would say uncle Sam to see your words. :)
this remembers me of an episode of South Park...when Stan gets banished for not wanting to vote....having to choose between 2 ....let's say, funny mascots!
I'm not a fan of Ron Paul, but I like his logo.
As for me, Obama 2012 logo with it's rising sun is the best — simple, clear and positive. The winner! :)))))))))
lots of people see this logo as representing a sunset lately... :/
I'm joking about the winner. I wish to americans a better one ))
Roemer definitely has my vote for "Ugliest Logo."
This is funny, I wrote a similar post about presidential hopeful's logos here: http://openbox9.com/2011/09/16/design-for-presidential-hopefuls/
Nice, thanks!
The Obama one is by far the best, but the kerning is out on that 2012 text. Too tight on the 1 and the 2. The use of the graphic in the 0 is interesting as it suggests several things: a rising sun, the flag with the red lines but also sewn fields representing prosperity perhaps. The lines go upward slightly signifying hope. The sunrise also representing the American dream to some extent. Simple, memorable.