(no subject)

[pearwaldorf]

Hoefler & Frere-Jones, a font foundry, compares the use of typography by Obama, Clinton, and McCain. Clinton's typography is meh to me--it's not spectacular, it's not great either. What's really amusing to me is that the font doesn't remind me of a magazine for gifted kids, but rather a really dry political science textbook from some specialized university press. McCain's on the other hand, just makes me cringe so fucking much. It's wrong in so many ways--the weight's all off, and what the hell is that sans-serif but not really bullshit? I've never seen this blog before, but I am totally going to read it now. (Fonts make me wish I had talent for design.)

Also, Obama and Clinton as types of fandoms? I <3 dsudis.

[eta:] Thanks to sweetstickfigs, take a look at the variations on the main Obama logo. Now that is some fucking well-crafted branding. Curious though, that the campaign uses the term "First Americans" as opposed to "Native Americans." I'm not familiar with that particular terminology as used for the indigenous people who were here before the white guys came.

And because I've been searching all over for these surprisingly well-hidden things on an otherwise navigable site, linky images and buddy icons for Obama. It's interesting that the first iteration of the downloads section is still up and accessible, and seeing the difference between them.

Comments

[anosako.livejournal.com]

I daresay I really like this find. Might I also suggest this post (http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/004262.html) for you to nibble about? I'm a logo girl myself and I am quite happy with the way Obama's design team works to create a brand for the man.

However, with that said, did I base my opinions on the logo and presentation with font usage? Or did I really do my homework and research and study the debates? A bit of both, as the seat of the president is a rather big one to fill (after all, this country is in need of a major overhaul). The emotional catch of each candidate's name with the font used is startling -if you placed Hillary's name in Gotham, the feel of her persona wouldn't fit, now would it? She's someone most people know of from her husband's stint in office.



*dies laughing* yeah, no, I don't think it could work, not one bit. Her persona definitely isn't one for sans serif lovers. She's not edgy enough nor trendy enough. Also, Obama's name, in all caps in sans serif is just fucking sexy.

[redgreenblue.livejournal.com]

I’m seriously impressed with Obama’s design and “branding”, especially his type choice. It’s not just Gotham either—his campaign also uses Hoefler Text (also an HF&J design). It was the primary font used in earlier promotional materials (that is, the ones with the mixed-case “Obama” blue-on-white rather than the all-caps “OBAMA” white-on-blue), and in the body copy in his “Blueprint for Change” pamphlet. Long story short, his designers have seriously good taste in type. If you ask me, HF&J is amongst the top foundries out there, and they consistently out-class even more established ones (at least as far as hit:miss ratio goes).

Interestingly, John Edwards used Gotham as well—the black weights, specifically. The type nut in me points to this as a sign that Edwards will eventually throw his support behind Obama—I even mocked up a damn-near-production-quality Obama/Edwards logo set in Gotham—but I know that’s a pretty silly notion.

Edit: Aw hell, it’s not quite up to my ridiculously high quality standards, but here it is:

[sonatine.livejournal.com]

The liberal typography whore in me is warmed to the cockles of her black bitter heart.

(We should send this to Matt Drudge and watch him have conniptions.)

[sonatine.livejournal.com]

And I noticed the text in the Blueprint for Change PDF too. I didn't know what exactly it was, but I thought it was a damn sexy font. It impresses me that Obama's people are paying so much attention to these things, but not at the exclusion of more important ones. This level of thoughtfulness is incredible and in stark contrast to the Clinton site.