Barack Obama for Graphic Designer In Chief

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


mojo-photo-obamaseal.jpgI’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.”

mojo-photo-sonybuilding.jpgDrudge 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.”

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate