~ O ~

Steven Heller interviews Sol Sender, designer of the "O" sign, in the New York Times, 20 November 2008.

Q: What were you thinking when you conceived this idea?

A: When we received the assignment, we immediately read both of Senator Obama’s books. We were struck by the ideas of hope, change and a new perspective on red and blue (not red and blue states, but one country). There was also a strong sense, from the start, that his campaign represented something entirely new in American politics — “a new day,” so to speak.

Obama campaign logos can be downloaded from the campaign web site. Sol Sender comments that one of the advantages of a good logo design is that it can be adapted to a variety of uses -- here are some examples from the Obama campaign site. I suppose seeing all these images together, and there are still others, gives some sense of the targeted campaigning, and the possibly fragmented result, of modern campaigning. On the other hand, there is a latent appeal here for convergence and perhaps unity, since these images are not solely appeals from the campaign to its audiences, but also images that can be downloaded or purchased, and then displayed on windows, car bumpers, tee shirts, and so on, so that the message seems to be going not simply CAMPAIGN--> VOTER but VOTER--> VOTER.

The voter-to-voter effect is perhaps given more power not only by the sophisticated design, but also by the sense that many others are sharing the same appeal. On the other hand, the sense that this is part of a much larger movement may be for some viewers dimished by the sense that the grass roots may instead be made of astroturf.