The brands in the 2016 race for the White House
Obama set a high bar with his brand for the ’08 White house race. It communicated an idea, and aligned with the values he wanted to project. He developed a brand, rather than just a logo. Whether you liked it, or not, you will have been able to take a guess at the message. Since Obama, politicians have understood the priority of branding – and plenty of politicians have given it a go!
How do you create a logo that will resonate with at least 51% of the population? Whether you are a politician who most of the nation would recognise, or an up-and-comer that needs to make themselves heard, getting the tone of the brand correct must feel like a bit of a minefield. Which brand will end up in the White house?
We all make judgements about people in the public eye – positive or negative, they exist. The job of the designer is to acknowledge enough of those judgements so the outcome feels recognisable and true to the individual, but push just enough boundaries that the population feel the politician will bring ‘change’.
So, how have the 2016 candidates fared?
In the office, we are most impressed with Hillary Clinton’s offering, especially on social media. The logo adapts well, and can be personalised within each state. One of the only examples of a full brand rather than just a logo within the line up.
Perhaps our least favourite would be Lincoln Chafee – mainly due to the fact that the tagline of ‘fresh ideas for America’ doesn’t sit well next to the design!
An update .. after the race to the White House was completed
Michael Bierut, designer of #ImWithHer has written an insightful article in the Design Observer than sums up most of our thoughts better than we could possibly do. The design thoughts around the brand and campaign centred around flexible branding, and giving the brand over to the community.
As the campaign moved into its breathless final weeks, Hillary’s supporters took her graphic identity as their own. The simple geometry of the H-plus-arrow was reproduced in thousands of forms: arrayed in patterns of seashells on the beach on Labor Day, carved into pumpkins on Halloween, stacked in beer kegs in Milwaukee, embedded in the state’s name in Ohio. The underground army of supporters who called themselves Pantsuit Nation made the logo its own. Voters posted every possible rendition online: hand drawn, crocheted, scrapbooked, appliqued. My favorites were the ones from kids. It turned out the critics were right: your five year old could do this logo.
Michael Bierut
And then it comes to Trump, with Bierut asking ‘Had Trump won not in spite of his terrible design work, but because of it?’ A scary thought for those of us who would like to think a brand as well conceived as Bierut’s would see results!
Then there was Donald Trump. Bad typography; amateurish design; haphazard, inconsistent, downright ugly communications. [His] graphics were easy to dismiss. They combined the design sensibility of the Home Shopping Network with the tone of a Nigerian scam email … We had spent months developing a logo; Trump had spent years building a brand.
Michael Bierut