

Obama logo ideas that weren’t chosen - dilanj
http://www.logodesignlove.com/obama-08-logo-design-options

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mdasen
The Obama campaign did such an amazing job marketing itself and it really
shows that the power of a logo is its simplicity. The others were all more
relevant - most of them were more topical with the "'08" or "change" in them,
but the final logo just works so well.

Obama's logo reminds me a little of Bank of America's. They both evoke an
image of the American flag as well as farming/middle America (BofA's logo
looks like farm plots to me and the red/white stripes of Obama's logo make me
think the same). The blue semi-circle looks somewhat like the arc of a rainbow
over the horizon evoking (for me) a hopefulness that something is better over
the horizon and an idea of inclusiveness.

It's one of the best logos I've seen. I'm guessing he'll use it again in 2012
as it's an instantly recognizable symbol.

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johns
The ones with the O masking the photo looked like they were using the Bliss
wallpaper from XP.

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swilliams
I immediately thought the same thing.

It's nice to see that they developed so many different styles, you really
can't have to many rough drafts.

They ultimately settled on the best one.

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theoneill
The unusual thing was that he had a logo at all. That was a clever move. I
have to say, though, that the precedents of political organizations having
logos are not that great.

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neilk
There are some other unusual aspects of the Obama logo not mentioned.

\- They used a much brighter and more intense blue, almost cyan. Even though
blue is the Democratic color, they tend to fall back on very conservative navy
blues. Obama's blue isn't afraid to be a liberal, and it doesn't think it has
to crush your hand in a handshake.

\- This logo is about equally targeted to online and offline campaigns and
takes advantage of ubiquitous digital printing. It breaks with 70s-style solid
colors and offset printing, and embraces subtle gradations (although it can
still be rendered in solid colors for media like baseball caps).

\- It is assumed that the logo will be modified for special interests by
amateurs, especially for online campaigns. This is anathema to most designers,
by the way. The typical logo comes with a little rulebook telling you how can
and can't use it. Mostly can't. I think the first instance of this kind of
logo was Tux the Penguin.

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JoelSutherland
These logos were seemingly scraped from this video with the designer
describing the creation process:

<http://www.vsapartners.com/news.asp?article=70>

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raamdev
My co-worker wrote about the genius of the Obama campaign logo earlier this
year:

[http://www.herecomesthescience.com/2008/02/06/the-genius-
of-...](http://www.herecomesthescience.com/2008/02/06/the-genius-of-the-obama-
campaign-logo/)

He shows the other campaign logos for comparison and it's pretty amazing how
similar the other logos look to each other.

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dilanj
I'm trying to think of another logo that is so simple yet is so relevant and
communicates so much, but I can't seem to. Any other examples?

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kirse
Uhh, the Nike swoosh? The Adidas three-stripes? McDonalds arches?

Obama's logo is good, but if you're talking about simplicity and
communication, it barely compares to the culturally-transcendent nature of
those corporate logos. Those logos don't identify with a language or anything,
they simply carry meaning.

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dilanj
I’m talking about how much the logo alone by itself communicates. Lets see,

1.The ‘O’ symbolizing Obama. 2.The colors of the flag. 3.The unification of
red and blue, indicating cross-party unity. 4.The sunrise image aligning with
the ‘hope’ and ‘new start’ campaign themes. 5.The horizon, indicating the
future.

Just a few that came to mind. Does the Nike swoosh, the Adidas three stripes
or the McDonalds arches symbolically convey nearly as much?

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byrneseyeview
_The unification of red and blue, indicating cross-party unity_

This is going to be pretty confusing when we go back to thinking that red
symbolizes commies.

The swoosh communicates more densely, I think: it's a single, monochrome
visual element, while the Obama logo is busy being a shape and a letter and a
picture and a flag. The Nike logo says a lot, laconically; the Obama logo says
a lot by being visually chatty.

~~~
talboito
Seems like we'll continue with the red=Republican thing for the forseeable
future.

There isn't anything intrinsic about communism that says "red, that's the
color!". It was just a useful convention.

I don't know how much the Nike swoosh can say, perhaps movement/agility?. It's
always been fairly meaningless to me, aside from the whole being the Nike logo
thing.

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byrneseyeview
_Seems like we'll continue with the red=Republican thing for the forseeable
future._

"We" are a very small minority. Everyone -- the US included -- knows who Reds
are. Only Americans, and folks who follow American news fairly closely, know
what "red states" are.

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Zev
Ultimately, thats who the Obama campaign was aiming at this semester:
Americans. The people who can vote for him.

~~~
byrneseyeview
Yes, but we're talking about the long term. Americans interacting with
Europeans are going to wonder why everyone scoffs about associating 'red' with
militarism and low taxes. It's not sustainable.

~~~
Zev
I imagine when interacting with foreign committees and governments, Obama
would use a symbol of the United States such as the flag, rather then his own
personal logo.

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sutro
I liked the post-election New Yorker cover:

[http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341cc90353ef010535f...](http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341cc90353ef010535f2333d970b-pi)

~~~
mynameishere
I liked the pre-election New Yorker cover:

[http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/1/C/2/new-yorker-
oba...](http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/1/C/2/new-yorker-obama-
cover.jpg)

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misterbwong
Really interesting look at the evolution of his logo.

"The strongest logos tell simple stories"

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dchest
08ama. L33t!

