The “O” Design Team
I have no artistic abilities whatsoever, but I nevertheless find design to be an endlessly fascinating subject. And I think it’s clear that from a graphic design point of view, the Obama ‘08 campaign was light-years better than anything American politics has ever seen. Thus, I found this interview with the creator of the “O” logo interesting. Still, it actually doesn’t get at the subject I’m curious about here. The logo was designed by a design professional, so obviously he was trying to do a good job. But what I’d really like to know is whether there was a conscious decision made by the campaign to try to reach higher, design-wise, than previous campaigns had done. That certainly seems to be what happened, but I’ve never heart it specifically articulated.
52 Responses to “The “O” Design Team”
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November 21st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I had no clue what language “Chanjman Nou Bezwen” is, but google tells me it’s Haitian Creole. Very impressive!
No doubt you saw the NYT article recently about how Binyamin Netanyahu’s campaign website suspiciously resembles Obamian design.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I think from the interview the designer said that the firm that gave him the job got the contract because they had worked with Axelrod and Plouffe before. Maybe it’s just a case of hiring people they know have done a good job in the past, rather than some “reaching higher” strategy.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I don’t think they ever set out to up the standard of design for political campaigns – Obama is about excellence – he looks for it in his campaign people and it shows.
When you have a manager that looks for good people, expects high standards and lets them know how they are doing you will get better results than someone that only hires old frat chums.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Cue the idiots who will claim that any circular logo resembles that of the Weather Underground in 5…4….3…
November 21st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
This article written in Fast Company a while back really explains the Obama Brand:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/124/the-brand-called-obama.html
November 21st, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Chanjman Nou Bezwen = change we need. If you took high school French, you’ll see it’s almost French written by a person who uses English rules of spelling.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:37 pm
“Chanjman Nou Bezwen” – yup, Haitian Creole
Means, Change We Need
Basically, it’s a transliteration of the French “changement nous besoin” using English-y phonetics.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:42 pm
http://brandavenue.typepad.com/brand_avenue/2008/11/logo-logic.html
Your instincts were right about the “branding” thing. Here’s another interview.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Contrast this to the McCain/Palin star logo which, as best I can tell, was supposed to evoke the sense of an old, reliable, American, automobile logo. With Detroit’s inability to get its act together, irony doesn’t get much better.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Who designed the Obama flag that he stood in front of in Ohio?
November 21st, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Oh, and why isn’t it “change nous besoin”?
November 21st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Obama basically used Chicago design shops rather than going to the DC political units that exist in a weird, sequestered world from the rest of the design profession. I think it’s been mentioned before here, but political campaigns are usually conservative by nature when it comes to image and media: they’re working in an environment where dull is safe, and safe is good. That allows dull design shops to survive in DC.
Oh, and why isn’t it “change nous besoin”?
‘Changement’ is the noun derived from changer.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
“changement nous besoin” is not proper French.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Related to this, the sans-serif typeface used most prominently in Barack Obama’s graphic design (for instance, in words like “CHANGE”) is Gotham, and in this interview for a documentary about Helvetica they explain its creation and how it was originally designed for GQ which was looking for a typeface that “had a dual agenda of something that was very very fresh; but also established with kind of a credible voice to it.” The documentary was largely produced before Obama even announced his candidacy, so it’s interesting that their campaign would pick a typeface with such precisely appropriate connotations.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:57 pm
“changement nous besoin” is not proper French.
Creoles often drift away from the “proper” grammar of their mother language. Strike often. Make that pretty much always. It’s one of the things that seperates that creole from français.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:19 pm
they explain its creation and how it was originally designed [for] a dual agenda of something that was very very fresh; but also established with kind of a credible voice to it.” ….it’s interesting that their campaign would pick a typeface with such precisely appropriate connotations.
FYI: having been graduated from graphic-design school and worked extensively as a graphic designer, I can say from vast experience that “fresh and new but also reassuringly recognizable” is the default bullsh*t pitch used for allclients.
Gotham is still a nice font, though.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I think the worst graphic design had to be the one for the republican national convention.
The stripes made it look like the elephant got run over by a truck and the star for an eye then made it look dead. I guess in hindsight it was appropriate!
November 21st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Re: “changement nous besoin” is not proper French.
Well, that’s because it isn’t French- any more than Spanish is Latin, or Hindi is Sanskrit. Haitian Creole is its own language with its own grammar and rules of spelling.
I don’t speak Creole but I could recognize it on that sign….it’s pretty common on signs and stuff around Boston, where there’s a large Haitian population.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:57 pm
The coolest thing by far was the variations on the main logo that were created to appeal to various Obama supporters: gays, environmentalists, jews, even rural Americans and Republicans. You can view them all here. It’s really a brilliant suite of logos.
November 21st, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I got sucked into Shepard Farley’s “Progress/Hope” graphic before I had really taken any note of the Obama campaign’s own posters, and didn’t cognate on the “O” until very late in the game… about 5 minutes ago.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Yeah, the “fresh/new/recognizable” noise about Obama’s official font is BS, but the biggest thing to note is that, unlike other campaigns, Obama’s mulled over its visual presentation enough to pick it’s own typeface. And yeah, Gotham is pretty great, even if they did choose it mainly on the strength of its big letter O. Meanwhile, look at all the fuss generated by those posters for his Berlin rally–I mean, speech.
Hell, his campaign’s graphic design even had some pull in our all-but-forgotten recent election here in Canada. Take a look: http://hyfen.net/out/writing/2008-09/campaig-web-design-roundup/
November 21st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Who else sees in the Obama symbol the Rolling Stones logo that the Victoria and Albert Museum paid 50,000 pounds for in September? (Maybe I should lay off the pipe, but….)
http://www.logodesignlove.com/rolling-stones-lips-tongue-logo
November 21st, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Can we get someone to work on an improved donkey logo? The standard elephant is seen everywhere on Republican stuff, but there are a hundred different donkeys….
November 21st, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I disagree with Matt about the design being light years ahead.
Obviously Obama ran an effective campaign, but I don’t think the logo had any material affect on the result. To me the logo is odd. It’s like an American flag, but with a ball (sun or moon?) instead of a star warped into the shape of the first letter of a candidate’s last name.
If anything the designs from the early 60s are better:
http://logoblink.com/2008/03/23/usa-polit-logos-2008-1960/
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 am
” But what I’d really like to know is whether there was a conscious decision made by the campaign to try to reach higher, design-wise, than previous campaigns had done.”
I think that’s what they tried with the infamous economic conference seal. It was, I think, supposed to recall the seal on the back of the dollar bill, and was rendered in a way that resembled the monochromatic engravings on currency. (If they weren’t trying to make it look like money, they surely would have used some color.)
Unfortunately, the media missed the reference and assumed it was aping the presidential seal.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 am
I disagree with Matt about the design being light years ahead.
Obviously Obama ran an effective campaign, but I don’t think the logo had any material affect on the result.
I think it’s an elegant and appealing design, and I think it’s more stylish than the usual campaign logos. I agree, I don’t think the logo itself had much, if any, effect on the outcome. It’s just one tiny, tiny piece of a campaign, but it is part of the competence the overall campaign showed, and I definitely think that helped him. They did a very good job getting the details right.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 am
Contrast this to the McCain/Palin star logo which, as best I can tell, was supposed to evoke the sense of an old, reliable, American, automobile logo.
You’re joking, yes, but it was actually designed to mimic the silver Service Star from a military uniform.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_star
Not as snazzy as the Obama logo, but a pretty nice looking logo by US presidential campaign standards, and placed his major rationale as a candidate front and center. As branding goes that’s pretty good.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:28 am
It is a strong logomark, with some Web 2.0 bling in some versions (top right). It’s simple, distinctive, and instantly recognizable once seen (like the Shell logo). It’s not exactly timeless, being a obvious product the current generation of artists and modern computerized tools, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: it appeals to the sensibilities of the targeted demographic, so it works.
Of course, you can be read in a negative way if you really try (ooh, look, “O” has wrapped himself in a flag), but that’s stretching a bit.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a bad logo, only that I am skeptical of any design/marketing claims that overstate the logo’s impact.
I think the slogans, e.g. Yes We Can, had a much greater impact than the design of the logo. In fact, I’ve started to hear versions of the Yes We Can slogan in tv/radio ads for various products, etc.
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