To many graphic design experts of both political stripes, Hillary Clinton’s new logo would be better off in the trash bin.
The presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner unveiled as her campaign logo a blue ‘H’ and a rightward-facing red arrow. It’s blanketed all over her website and sits at the top of her new Facebook page. On her revamped Twitter handle, the ‘H’ has even taken the place of the iconic picture of Clinton wearing dark shades and reading her Blackberry.
Some high-minded critics say it’s all wrong. The arrow’s direction and its Republican-minded red color, for starters, has raised alarm that she’s signalling an imminent political shift to the right.
Going with an abstract design has also opened the door to all manner of Internet fun: a new copycat font dubbed “Hillary Bold” and a do-it-yourself widget that lets anyone make their own Clinton-like logo, and plenty of odd interpretations, including a plane hitting New York’s Twin Towers and rip-offs of the Federal Express and Wikileaks logos.
“I think the Hillary logo is really saying nothing,” said Scott Thomas, the design director for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and who later worked on the Whitehouse.gov website’s redesign. “It’s just a red arrow moving to the right.” (...)
Of course, campaigns are hardly won or lost on a logo. But political veterans say this remains a critical branding event – just think of the buzz surrounding Obama’s ‘O’ back in 2007 or even how donkeys and elephants during the 19th century came to be associated with Democrats and Republicans. A good logo can go a long way in the modern-day digital era where campaigns are desperately trying to reach attention-starved possible voters, volunteers and donors via their phones and Facebook feeds. Create an easy-on-the-eyes brand and it can pay big dividends as someone decides whether to open yet another email message from a politician, or just hit delete. (...)
The presidential candidates of 2016 are facing perhaps the toughest audience yet when it comes to their design elements. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 logos — an iconic ‘O’ that went through numerous iterations widely interpreted as a rising sun — loom as the best-in-class benchmarks. Twitter and other social media allow for instant criticism, and there’s the prospect that the reaction to a new logo can go even more viral than the logo itself.
Consider the response since Clinton unveiled her logo less than a week ago. On the online image hosting service Imgur, more than 1.1. million views have landed on a post featuring a “five-minute” redesign of Clinton’s logo that turns the image entirely to different shades of blue and adds in a more curved arrow which “gives the logo a feeling of energy and life.”
The presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner unveiled as her campaign logo a blue ‘H’ and a rightward-facing red arrow. It’s blanketed all over her website and sits at the top of her new Facebook page. On her revamped Twitter handle, the ‘H’ has even taken the place of the iconic picture of Clinton wearing dark shades and reading her Blackberry.Some high-minded critics say it’s all wrong. The arrow’s direction and its Republican-minded red color, for starters, has raised alarm that she’s signalling an imminent political shift to the right.
Going with an abstract design has also opened the door to all manner of Internet fun: a new copycat font dubbed “Hillary Bold” and a do-it-yourself widget that lets anyone make their own Clinton-like logo, and plenty of odd interpretations, including a plane hitting New York’s Twin Towers and rip-offs of the Federal Express and Wikileaks logos.
“I think the Hillary logo is really saying nothing,” said Scott Thomas, the design director for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and who later worked on the Whitehouse.gov website’s redesign. “It’s just a red arrow moving to the right.” (...)
Of course, campaigns are hardly won or lost on a logo. But political veterans say this remains a critical branding event – just think of the buzz surrounding Obama’s ‘O’ back in 2007 or even how donkeys and elephants during the 19th century came to be associated with Democrats and Republicans. A good logo can go a long way in the modern-day digital era where campaigns are desperately trying to reach attention-starved possible voters, volunteers and donors via their phones and Facebook feeds. Create an easy-on-the-eyes brand and it can pay big dividends as someone decides whether to open yet another email message from a politician, or just hit delete. (...)The presidential candidates of 2016 are facing perhaps the toughest audience yet when it comes to their design elements. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 logos — an iconic ‘O’ that went through numerous iterations widely interpreted as a rising sun — loom as the best-in-class benchmarks. Twitter and other social media allow for instant criticism, and there’s the prospect that the reaction to a new logo can go even more viral than the logo itself.
Consider the response since Clinton unveiled her logo less than a week ago. On the online image hosting service Imgur, more than 1.1. million views have landed on a post featuring a “five-minute” redesign of Clinton’s logo that turns the image entirely to different shades of blue and adds in a more curved arrow which “gives the logo a feeling of energy and life.”
by Darren Samuelsohn, Politico | Read more:
Images: Clinton and Obama Campaigns
