Say what you will about his politics, but this dude has quite the logo.
It’s my job to recognize good design when I see it. And in the world of politics, finding any smart design is like finding a coelacanth off the coast of Madagascar. Coelacanth.
Seriously, if a candidate’s logo doesn’t feature at least 3 (preferably 5) stars and the color navy blue, than you can forget it. Just look at the previous campaigns of John Kerry, W, Hillary Clinton and the wily Ron Paul. All have lots of blue, lots of stars and an even heavier does of mediocrity.
But B.H. Obama is another matter. It’s not the best logo I’ve ever seen, but it is by far the best political logo on the market. It’s both symbolic and simple; versatile and iconic. It looks just as good as the first letter of the candidate’s last name as it does in a simple square on the back of a Toyota Prius. It says American without relying on the trite star/navy blue combo that everybody else has done since Eisenhower. The design community has given it mixed reviews overall, but in the context of everything else, it’s outstanding.
Contrast it with the militaristic emblem of the McCain campaign. Dark blue. Power font. Single star. Amazingly predictable. I really can’t fault the McCain camp for going with a mark like this, but I wish they would have consulted someone outside one of the three agencies in Washington, KC and Charlotte that do all the work for the Republican party. It’s hard to attract new voters to an old dude by rehashing a logo straight out of the 1950s. And not in a good, Paul Rand kind of way. Not that a logo should do the attracting, but it should communicate something other than “I have military experience.”
