While DeviceNineSix does not endorse political candidates (not that we get a huge amount of requests to do so — none, really. nobody cares what we think), we do take an interest in graphic design and branding, and in doing so couldn’t help but take an interest in what the current crop of candidates have going on in that department. We visited each candidate’s website in order to get to the bottom of it. Without further ado, we present DeviceNineSix’s first-ever Presidential Branding Report Card. Please keep in mind that these reviews in no way suggest a preference for one candidate over the other. In fact, we’ll consider any presidential hopeful as long as they don’t support a law banning the use of high-end laser technology to make people’s stuff awesomer. Here now, DeviceNineSix’s assessment.
John Edwards The first thing you notice about the first name on our list are the colors. One tradition that dates back to as far back as we can remember — that would be the 2004 election — is the use of the ol’ red, white, and blue as your campaign’s color palette. Edwards provides a fine example this year with his alternating red and blue usage. Notice the slightly muted nature of these colors, they convey his patriotism without being all “go USA!” about it. Besides, don’t all presidential candidates have to be natural born citizens anyway? Why all the need to establish that you’re a real American with all these stars, stripes and eagles? Mr. Edwards also employs the use of a logo that fits nicely with his name. The shooting star kind of curls underneath the name there while the star itself looks like a little period at the end of the “John Edwards 2008″ sentence. Nice. You can’t go wrong with a star in your campaign logo, here it suggests, well, stardom, a rising star, the stars of the ‘Merican flag, on and on. Notice the green star trail too. You think that’s an accident? No way: going green, green lights (go!), grassroots…you get the idea. While not wildly innovative, Mr. Edwards’ campaign logo is simple, clean, traditional, and goes slightly punk rock with one color that isn’t red, white or blue.
Rudy Guiliani Here we have a candidate who knows who he is, and knows where he stands. His name is Rudy. He’d like to be the President. He has no time for frivolous, decorative logos. He has no time to bother with telling you his last name. Seriously, it took me about 10 seconds of scanning his web page before finding his last name anywhere. The t-shirts he’s got for sale don’t have it on their either. There’s something about this simple red rectangle with a white name on a field of blue though. Besides fulfilling the requisite patriotic colorway requirement, the font used looks…presidential. Maybe it’s because it resembles the font on American currency. At any rate, Rudy’s showing in the Florida primary yesterday will most likely mean the end of the ubiquitous “Rudy” chant we heard at his rallies.
Mitt Romney Mitt looks like he’s using the same font as Rudy, only he’s using to spell out his full name. Unlike Rudy, his campaign features a logo. Looks like he’s got a bald eagle with a couple of stripes from the American flag trailing behind him as he heads forward toward a brighter future (assuming our future is to the right). While Mitt’s logo looks like it could double as the logo for the US Postal Service, at least he uses it consistently all over his website and on his campaign gear. Extra points for having a color on his website other than red, white or blue (yellow, in support of the troops), but minus a couple more for advertising that his site features something called a “blog”. I think we’re all pretty much aware of the blog concept in 2008, no need to put that word in quotes.
John McCain Ahhhh, finally a site that isn’t festooned with red, white and blue. A refreshing simple grey and black color palette makes everything more readable and further serves to direct attention to Mr. McCain’s well-deserved use of a type of Navy motif on his site. Gold bars sit dignified atop his name/logo, while in the middle he crowns it with the ubiquitous Navy star. It simply doesn’t get more badass than that. McCain’s graphic not only reminds us of his service in the Navy, it also reminds us of every punk rock hipster we ever saw with those stars tattooed somewhere on their body. Is that a good thing?
Hillary Clinton Oy. More red, white and blue. Not a dissenting color to be found. Here she makes an attempt at a logo, but really it’s just a thin snippet of the American flag that they put under her name. She plays it safe like Edwards and many of the others, choosing a simple, generic logo to remind us all that she’s an American running for President of America. It looks like a windsock you might see in an Iowa neighborhood on the 4th of July. Hillary goes by just “Hillary” on her site, but gets away with the mono-name campaign since she’s already lived in the White House for 8 years. In fact, google “Hillary” and you’ll be not at all surprised to see what site comes up as result numero uno.
Barack Obama Well check that out, an honest to goodness campaign logo. Much more than just an American flag derivative, Obama’s campaign appears to be the only one with a handcrafted, conceptual logo attached to it. Designed by these guys in Chicago, this logo has all the utility of the Edwards logo, but is more conceptual and complies with the red white and blue regulations. It manages to work in the red stripes like rows of crops, while suggesting a new day is dawning in America’s heartland. The thing’s even shaped like an “O”. Bonus points for having the “Obama ‘08″ underneath resemble a palindrome, but minus some points for using a logo that reminds me of my bank’s logo.
At any rate, best of luck to all of these year’s candidates. DeviceNineSix looks forward to tracking Super Tuesday over a few libations from our office couch.
Filed under: Other on January 29th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The other day we did a bit of work for local record label Hacktone, and in doing so discovered the music of Love Psychedelico. We’ve been listening to their stuff around the office for the last few days, and it’s starting to have a strange effect. We’re being nicer to each other. We say hello to our neighbors. We thank the mailman. I put the CD on in my car and, lo and behold, I noticed changes there too: motioning people in to merge in front of me. Waving to crossing guards and peace officers. Stopping for pedestrians. You see, Love Psychedelico’s music just puts a little spring in your step. You can’t help but relax just a bit and take it in as you motor along Santa Monica boulevard, realizing just for a second how lucky you truly are. Thanks to Shawnté for introducing us to this band and their band logo, which is much, much better than ours.
We’ve always loved the clean look of a logo etched on one of the iPod Shuffles. Not until we recently did a whole slew of custom iPod Shuffles, however, did we realize how totally Miami Vice the current lineup of Shuffles has become. Now you can not only get a logo 
Hello friends, hopefully everyone’s had their fill of egg nog, ham, and uncomfortable moments at the dinner table with family. DeviceNineSix was doing the same, although we were also, of course, turning out custom artwork on people’s most prized possessions. Today we spotlight a bit of work we did with the 
