«--Previous Post | Blog Index | Next Post--»

Barack Obama for Graphic Designer In Chief

I've written before about the artwork inspired by Barack Obama's run for the presidency, as well as his own campaign's choice of fonts, and it's all good, but their latest design choices are apparently causing some controversy. While the campaign's eschewing of the candidate's name on podium placards raised eyebrows, their current podium design has even the Drudge Report giving it an alarmist link: "Obama Changes Presidential Seal," he claims. It turns out the campaign debuted a new design (right) that appears to be "inspired" by the actual presidential seal, but with some important differences, as the Associated Press reports:

Instead of the Latin 'E pluribus unum' (Out of many, one), Obama's says 'Vero possumus', rough Latin for 'Yes, we can.' Instead of 'Seal of the President of the United States', Obama's Web site address is listed. And instead of a shield, Obama's eagle wears his 'O' campaign logo with a rising sun representing hope ahead.

After the jump: the dreaded "P" word, and I don't mean "public financing."

Drudge types may look at this as a troubling revision of one of our country's great symbols, but from a design perspective, it's quite lovely: the blues change subtly with each concentric circle, and the eagle and campaign logo look positively 3-dimensional, like some sort of elaborate papercraft sculpture. The New York Times famously called Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC in a comparison of the two campaigns' web sites, but honestly, Obama's designs are one step beyond Mac's neo-Nordic minimalism. With the sleek sophistication of their Gotham font (originally designed for GQ magazine) offset with an almost winking use of classical filigrees and a delicate script, it's both traditional and distinctly new. I hate to use the word "postmodern," but boy, doesn't this style seem like it would fit right in at the Philip Johnson-designed AT&T Building (now the Sony Building) in New York (left), which combines function and ornament in a way that foregrounds the quotations? If you want to over-analyze a bit (and why not, it's a blog!), there are a couple things from postmodernism's Wikipedia page that bear quoting:

Postmodernity is a state of being ... concerned with changes to institutions and conditions. ...[While] modernity [is a] cultural condition characterized by constant change in the pursuit of progress, postmodernity represents the culmination of this process, where constant change has become a status quo and the notion of progress, obsolete.

You can critique the design the same way a lot of people critique Obama's candidacy: it sure looks pretty, but will people really vote for it? Plus, now that I think about it, it is kind of '90s. Too bad the campaign didn't take up the most current design trend: flashing, so-bad-it's good, M.I.A.-style neo-'80s fluorescent ridiculousness. Now that would really say "change."

Comments

If Obama's seal took on the aesthetic you're recommending, he would immediately lose the epileptic vote. Before you dismiss the power of this voting bloc, you might want to have a chat with David Axelrod.

Seriously, though, I was totally unprepared for that link. Even if it means a flatter design with less old-is-new cred, I'm going to have to vote for the current version of Obama's faux presidential pomo vero possumus seal. Although the polling may not back me up on this, anecdotal accounts (3) suggest that super seizurific stylings do not result in more popular campaign materials. OUch.

Posted by: thisniss on 06/20/08 at 11:22 PM Respond

Possums? When did that old tart Dame Edna Everage join the Obama campaign team?

Posted by: luca on 06/21/08 at 1:28 AM Respond

Pompous would be the word for this shield. But then, as Obama is appropriating the Declaration of Independence to get money from his supporters, I guess this sort of arrogance is to be expected.

Posted by: Rickvid in Seattle on 06/22/08 at 1:05 PM Respond

Gotham is the new Helvetica :P

Posted by: Guy Incognito on 06/23/08 at 9:03 AM Respond

hmmm...let the corination begin,...maybe the super delegates told him the country is not going to count the other 48 states either, are we going to hear demands that mccain drop out?

Posted by: ricko on 06/23/08 at 11:13 AM Respond

Does anyone bother to monitor this site? The ads are so large, AT&T ad here, it covers up half the article and there's no way to close it. I've seen this here many times and on other sites too. I'll find this story somewhere else.

Posted by: Laura Nason on 06/23/08 at 11:25 AM Respond

thanks for that tid bit laura?????????

Posted by: ricko on 06/23/08 at 11:42 AM Respond

He should also replace the arrows in the eagle's left claw to olive branches. So the eagle would represent peace fully, not "peace and war" at the same time.

Posted by: jamie on 06/23/08 at 1:21 PM Respond

Probably should replace the Eagle also, isn't it a predatory bird? It looks silly "spread eagle" with the Obama circle in the middle of it. But I think the idea of changing the logo and the "branding" of this corporation we call America is good business. Obama represents the new improved America!

Posted by: Amy on 06/23/08 at 8:27 PM Respond

talk about a dictator...vote for McCain

Posted by: abby on 06/26/08 at 11:22 AM Respond

what are you liberals insane! America is only worse with you in it. If you have a problem with America and its original president logo then get the heck out of here...go to canada with the other hippies and sit around a campfire...or better yet go to iraq and see what its really like...maybe then you'll appreciate America and what freedom it has to offer. Maybe you(liberals) should morally check where your at and change...isnt that what Obama wants...change?

Posted by: dan on 06/26/08 at 11:28 AM Respond

Vero Possumus doesn’t mean what Obama says it means. To replace this motto and to give him a new name, I would substitute the Latin phrase “Veto Possumus”, which means Veto the Possum. I would suggest The Possum as his new nickname. He has a grin resembling that of a Possum eating excrement. These young androids who are going to vote for him so that he can “change” things are going to have a rude awakening, similar to those who followed Hitler, and later found out that Germany suffered as a result.
Veto the Possum, or Veto Barack Oppossum!

Posted by: tom cooper on 07/07/08 at 9:18 AM Respond