I Am The Decider

There has been a lot of talk recently about how Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to really use the internet to his advantage during a campaign, but not much has been made in the national media about the strength of Barack Obama's graphic design in his campaign. This isn't a surprise, since good graphic design often goes relatively unnoticed. I don't mean that to sound like I'm whining about how under-appreciated my profession is, I just mean that most of the time if a company has a great logo, people just have a general positive feeling toward that company's look. They aren't going to be able to articulate what they like, specifically, about that company's logo. The same is probably true about Barack Obama's campaign brand. I thought his designers did an outstanding job throughout the campaign. They started with picking one of my absolute favorite typefaces (Gotham by Hoefler & Frere-Jones), which was originally drawn to be a distinctively American form...a nice touch, and they let that typeface do a lot of the work for them (remember all of those signs that just said 'CHANGE' or 'YES WE CAN' in that typeface?). The 'O' logo was fantastic as well. I could go into a paragraph about the symbolism behind using the horizontal red stripes not only as a reference to the American flag, but also as a field (connecting with the average great plains American blah blah blah) with the O shape creating a sun rising over that field, which represents a dawn of a new age of American politics blah blah blah... I'm sure you saw that logo a thousand times, but did you think about all of that? Probably not. You probably just liked how it looked. But did you see these variations of that logo?:

They were made by the Obama campaign to be used by different support groups (Republicans For Obama, Environmentalists For Obama, etc.), and are available for download from a special 'downloads' section of the Obama website where you can download all sorts of logos, posters, signs, computer wallpapers, buddy icons, and site widgets (a section like this is unsurprisingly absent from the McCain website). The thing that struck me when I saw these logo variations is that not only did the designers do a good job with the campaign as a whole, but the campaign managers did a good job in allowing the designers to do their job. Often times in any campaign (not just political, but ad campaigns and many other large design projects) there are several levels of approval that need to take place before a design is finalized. And usually when a designer has a good idea (like the idea to make the above logos), there will always be someone along that ladder of people that doesn't think it is a good idea. All it would have taken is one important campaign manager saying something like "well, I like it, but do you think just having an O will read as Obama?" or "I don't think it looks patriotic enough, maybe it should have some stars in the logo" and that wonderful O logo is on its way toward being ruined.

The point is that there are a lot of good designers out there, but there aren't a whole lot of people with the balls to let the designers do good work. Most good designers have years of training in design, so leave the design decisions to them.

PS: McCain's graphic design was lame.

O-BA-MA

I'm just now recovering from the lovefest that was the Obama election night rally in Grant Park. I've been to some big sporting events before, but nothing that was anything like the amount of people in and around Grant Park on Tuesday night. Is that how all of those huge celebration events are? I've never been to a big championship rally before (thanks Cubs, Blackhawks), but that is what the attendance was being compared to. Only 60,000 people were let into the ticketed area where Obama delivered his acceptance speech, but the overall crowd was estimated to be between 120,000 and 250,000 (seems like kind of a huge range, right?). The crowd control couldn't have been any better. It was probably the first time I really believed that Chicago could handle the Olympics.

Well, as you might expect it was awesome. Even going through the security checks were fun, because it was kind of like "So this is how real security is done? Secret Service style! Not like those imbeciles at the airport! These guys have seen an iPhone before, and know that it isn't going to blow up". Since the only things I have to compare it to are sporting events, I guess I'd say that when CNN (which was being played on the huge Jumbotron) projected Obama as the winner of the election, it was like a walk off home run was hit in the bottom of the ninth in the world series, but the game had been taking place for an entire year, and the person who hit the home run was someone you had a great emotional investment in. Something that was unlike pretty much every sporting event is that everyone there were, obviously, Obama supporters. So it was pretty much all or nothing. I'm glad I didn't have to see what the mood would have been like had McCain pulled off an upset.

Mainly, I was just relieved. From the beginning of the primary's to the frightening idea that Mike Huckabee might win the Republican nomination to Super Tuesday to Hillary's condescending attacks on the idea of 'hope' to figuring out what Superdelegates are to the emphasis on Barack HUSSEIN Obama to Reverend Wright videotape to Michigan and Florida being disqualified from the primary to Hillary's refusal to give up even when her chances were nearly mathematically impossible to the 'terrorist fist jab' to the Clinton's lack of any sincere support to the pick of Sarah Palin and the fear that she might steal Hillary supporters to Troopergate to realization that Sarah Palin is the opposite of who I want running this country to Giuliani and Sarah Palin making fun of 'community organizers' at the Republican Convention to the debates to the economic collapse and McCain's ridiculous attempt to make it look like he is getting shit done by suspending his campaign to William Ayers non-story to Joe the Plumber to the Barack the Socialist labels to the Bradley Effect to the reintroduction of the Reverend Wright tape and everything else the Republicans could think of in a final desperate attempt to tear down the first black man with a legitimate chance of being President......it has been a long year. And I was constantly terrified that Obama would end up losing. To finally have it over is just a huge relief. No more checking the polls every day, seeing how many electoral votes Obama is projected to take if today's polls hold. No more wanting to vomit when I see Sarah Palin's face. No more hearing John McCain say "my friends". No more worrying about how the world would see us if we picked Bush Jr over the most inspiring politician I've ever listened to.

I remember listening to Obama's speech at the DNC in 2004 and thinking it was probably the best speech I'd ever heard at the time. When the rumors started up about him running for President, I wanted him to run so badly. Everyone was worried about his inexperience, but I was worried about what would happen with too much experience. What could happen in 4 years, or in 8 years if a Democrat ran and won? How many seemingly helpful bills would he sign that ended up having some small detail that his opponent could take out of context? remember McCain's ad about how Obama wanted to teach sex eduction to kindergardeners? That is the sort of thing that worried me. How many favors would he owe if he had to wait until 2016? I knew it would be risky to run with so little experience, but it seemed worth it. And it was.

So yes, it was awesome to be at such a historic event. And for all of my friends that are jealous that they couldn't be there: How many times have I told you that you should move to Chicago?

The Debate

Is it me, or does the following debate have some striking similarities to McCain's logic about Barack Obama and William Ayers?