Looking Presidential

A couple of type designers analyze the logos of the presidential candidates for readers of the Boston Globe. Some excerpts:

• "The Hillary logo has the look of an '80s newspaper layout or an investment company."
• "The Edwards type is very Wal-Mart, tabloid, middle class. Not a whiff of high-powered lawyer."
• "Obama's ... serifs are sharp and pointed; clean pen strokes evoke a well-pressed Armani suit."
• "Huckabee has the most inexplicable selection of typography and graphics, from the six floating stars to the white stripe seemingly stolen from the Coca-Cola logo."
• "[Romney's] graphics are puzzling. The eagle logo has the head of the US Postal Service logo and body of the Norwegian flag flowing behind it."
• "[Giuliani's] message is all about Rudy, name recognition. The enlarged R introduces the other letters like a big, protective parent."
• "From the perfectly centered star to the perfectly spaced type, [McCain's] entire design looks like a high-end real estate company."

In conclusion: "If we were to predict the results based on typography and design, we would pick McCain and Obama."

Via The Ridger, who's peeved--as am I--by the misplaced apostrophe in the Globe's sidebar heading, "All the Candidate's Logos." (Just one candidate with many logos?) Not only that, but on the "all logos" page there's an extraneous comma: "type designers, Sam Berlow and Cyrus Highsmith..." Does anyone work on the copy desk anymore?

Bonus link: Obama has the hardest-working logo of any presidential candidate.

Read my earlier post on candidates' logos.

Comments

[Devon Thomas Treadwell]

Is it just my monitor, or is there no blue whatsoever in John McCain's logo? Sure looks black to me. His design creeps me out--too military, sharp-edged, cold and ruthless--and the single star reminds me of the U.S.S.R.

[Nancy Friedman]

Devon: Yes, that version is black and white, but most of the McCain campaign tchotchkes are in white type reversed on navy blue: https://secure.donationreport.com/productlist.html.
Agree with you about the military look. But apparently that's what appeals to his fans.

[Jan Freeman]

I have to defend my Globe copy editor, who handles the entire Ideas section, where this feature ran. The mistakes are not in the print edition; the headline and caption were retyped by the website staff, who introduced the errors. The good news is, they're probably fixed by now.

As for the logos: I was interested to see that none of them were in italics; not even the "change" candidates went for a forward-leaning font.