Designcision 2012

[Waffles]

NOTE: This is not the thread to discuss the relative political/personal/philosophical merits of the various candidates for election next year. We already have a thread for that stuff. This thread is strictly to discuss, respectfully and constructively, the branding and other design components - website, merchandise, signage, etc. - of their campaigns.

2012 is around the corner, and the first design elements for those vying for the office of the Presidency are starting to emerge. This is from the website of Newt Gingrich's exploratory committee:

I'm curious to see how Obama's 2012 campaign follows up their superbly branded 2008 effort, and if his potential rivals are able to duplicate their successes in this regard.

[sc49erfan15]

Callista Gingrich's hair color = Callista Gingrich's teeth color.

Also, lol: http://newtinfrontofstockphotos.tumblr.com/

[Mings]

Callista Gingrich's hair color = Callista Gingrich's teeth color.

Also, lol: http://newtinfrontofstockphotos.tumblr.com/

=third color of Newt's campaign. Not sure if that is a good enough reason to justify the color.

[pcgd]

Great Thread idea!

I think everyone's already duplicating Obama's branding. Not exactly design wise but the approach for sure. You saw it in lower levels even in 2008.

Its good but I worry because although the campaigns waste large amounts of money, I don't see them spending much in the ways of branding. I don't think they truely value the design side of it and are much more likely to just copy someone else's website or logo. Remember the guy in Oregon?

I hope I'm proven wrong.

I think you'll see a lot of top notch design in politics for the first time in 2012, but below presidential candidates, I think you'll see quite a bit of stolen logos and other branding.

[omnivore]

The thievery will be blatant and rampant because the politicians will often demand it of their staffers who are afraid to speak up, be fired and then someone else will do it. Since the rules on it are murky at best, they figure there is little harm in trying it since their main audience isn't savvy internet denizens, but people who just got broadband and are still voting based on hearing the candidate speak in person.

I think it'll be interesting to see what this season yields though.

[BBTV]

Do you guys consider these "logos" more like the personal logos of the nominee, or like logos for the particular campaign? I think there's a difference, right? I'd love to see a candidate / campaign use a logo that represents their values / themselves while not relying on stars and stripes. I'd love for one not to use RWB, but I don't see that happening.

[oddball]

Do you guys consider these "logos" more like the personal logos of the nominee, or like logos for the particular campaign? I think there's a difference, right? I'd love to see a candidate / campaign use a logo that represents their values / themselves while not relying on stars and stripes. I'd love for one not to use RWB, but I don't see that happening.

The removal of stars and stripes won't happen because it's an unwritten rule that you have to use them. It's laziness as far as creating a brand. As far as the discussion on Newt's brand. Um... I go with the line, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." This had to be created by an intern, it's just that bad!

[BBTV]

Do you guys consider these "logos" more like the personal logos of the nominee, or like logos for the particular campaign? I think there's a difference, right? I'd love to see a candidate / campaign use a logo that represents their values / themselves while not relying on stars and stripes. I'd love for one not to use RWB, but I don't see that happening.

The removal of stars and stripes won't happen because it's an unwritten rule that you have to use them. It's laziness as far as creating a brand. As far as the discussion on Newt's brand. Um... I go with the line, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." This had to be created by an intern, it's just that bad!

There is something wrong here...

[Lee.]

Do you guys consider these "logos" more like the personal logos of the nominee, or like logos for the particular campaign? I think there's a difference, right? I'd love to see a candidate / campaign use a logo that represents their values / themselves while not relying on stars and stripes. I'd love for one not to use RWB, but I don't see that happening.

The removal of stars and stripes won't happen because it's an unwritten rule that you have to use them. It's laziness as far as creating a brand. As far as the discussion on Newt's brand. Um... I go with the line, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." This had to be created by an intern, it's just that bad!

There is something wrong here...

Other than the irony?

[oddball]

Do you guys consider these "logos" more like the personal logos of the nominee, or like logos for the particular campaign? I think there's a difference, right? I'd love to see a candidate / campaign use a logo that represents their values / themselves while not relying on stars and stripes. I'd love for one not to use RWB, but I don't see that happening.

The removal of stars and stripes won't happen because it's an unwritten rule that you have to use them. It's laziness as far as creating a brand. As far as the discussion on Newt's brand. Um... I go with the line, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." This had to be created by an intern, it's just that bad!

There is something wrong here...

Other than the irony?

Okay fine. It looks like pure and utter CRAP!!! Are you guys happy? Now I have to go to bed knowing that I said that Newt Gingrich's logo looks like CRAP!!! And I'm fine with that. I'll have a nice sleep!

[pianoknight]

Why is there a rectangle "stars" pattern inside the circle? That looks fantastically horrible. It's like they randomly copied+pasted the canton off 'Old Glory and cut down to fit in their little logo.

[MrCanadien999]

Callista Gingrich's hair color = Callista Gingrich's teeth color.

Also, lol: http://newtinfrontofstockphotos.tumblr.com/

=third color of Newt's campaign. Not sure if that is a good enough reason to justify the color.

= colour of her necklace

[STL FANATIC]

This maybe isn't the place for it, but I probably wouldn't have mentioned it anywhere else otherwise, so since we're on the topic of political branding and how Obama's campaign changed things, I've been working on the campaign of a mayoral candidate here in Champaign. The last thing I'd pretend is that Obama's campaign wasn't a heavy inspiration. It was. He changed the way things are done and established a successful aesthetic.

Here's the logo sheet, and the website is http://www.dongerard.com/

Pat might know this already, but for everyone else, the negative space at the bottom of the star is the City Building, which is at least somewhat iconic around these parts.

Election is in a month, so this doesn't exactly fall under 2012, but I thought I'd throw it in.

[oddball]

This maybe isn't the place for it, but I probably wouldn't have mentioned it anywhere else otherwise, so since we're on the topic of political branding and how Obama's campaign changed things, I've been working on the campaign of a mayoral candidate here in Champaign. The last thing I'd pretend is that Obama's campaign wasn't a heavy inspiration. It was. He changed the way things are done and established a successful aesthetic.

Here's the logo sheet, and the website is http://www.dongerard.com/

Pat might know this already, but for everyone else, the negative space at the bottom of the star is the City Building, which is at least somewhat iconic around these parts.

Election is in a month, so this doesn't exactly fall under 2012, but I thought I'd throw it in.

If you made either the star or the "G" red, it would pop so much more. Maybe you've gone through that version and you/they didn't like it.

[STL FANATIC]

That was tried, but ultimately not considered the best. One reason being that while he's an independent running in what is a non-partisan race, it makes a lot of since in this campaign to be mistaken for a democrat rather than being mistaken for a republican. Hence the heavy use of blue (but also the inclusion of red when possible).

[pianoknight]

I hate that whole Red State, Blue State crap. Sounds like a damn Dr. Seuss book.

[Lights Out]

Ron Paul hasn't officially declared yet but supporters are making their own graphics for him. I quite like this one that's been floating around:

[tvko]

Looks like the designer could use some help from Fraser Davidson's tutorials

[nitroseed]

The thievery will be blatant and rampant because the politicians will often demand it of their staffers who are afraid to speak up, be fired and then someone else will do it.

You might be surprised to know that most campaign designs are done by outside consulting agencies and by designers who are in the employ of those agencies. I know this because I'm one of them.

I work as the creative director for a political consulting firm, and I've designed logos and collateral for several politicians on all levels of government. Most politicians entrust campaign managers to make choices about their image and only glance at the concepts to make an approval or to throw in their input (which is generally disregarded by the CMs). The style of the design is usually left up to people like me. In the case of Marc Delphine, it's highly probable that the designer on that campaign tried to sneak the modified Blue Jackets logo by the rest of the team because they weren't very sports-adept. He/she was probably a pisspoor designer entrusted with more responsibility than they were ready for and stole something out of fear of losing their job. I've seen it, quite literally, dozens of times.

In regards to STL FANATIC's campaign work, I think it's great, personally. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was also a little inspired by his design team's work. However, I've found that the overwhelming trend—at least on the Republican side of the fence—is to avoid anything that even slightly resembles Obama's campaign, be it round imagery, overly-clean fonts, a particular shade of blue, sunrises, anything that might even hint at Obama.

Also as an aside, I think Newt Explore's graphics are terrible.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Do you guys consider these "logos" more like the personal logos of the nominee, or like logos for the particular campaign? I think there's a difference, right? I'd love to see a candidate / campaign use a logo that represents their values / themselves while not relying on stars and stripes. I'd love for one not to use RWB, but I don't see that happening.

There's recent precedence for this not being the case: