02.08.19
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Episode 97: Candidates and “Creatives”


In Ten Things That Need to Be Redesigned, Jessica asked,
Where is it written that all political candidates must have lawn signs that are red, white and blue?
That was in 2008. With the 2020 election looming (less than a year to the Iowa Caucus!) campaigns for candidates from Kamala Harris to Marianne Williamson have embraced distinctive logos in untraditional color schemes.

Michael says,
What won in 2016 was not a logo but a tagline, and I know that the Hillary Clinton campaign was just so frustrated to find a reductive slogan for the candidate and finally came up with “Stronger Together.” Which is fine, but obviously didn't stick. and I bet a lot of people can't even say it. However, every person can recite, either with pride with clenched teeth, the slogan of her victorious competitor.

Also mentioned this week:

Subscribe to The Observatory on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Spotify or Soundcloud.

Posted in: Arts + Culture, The Observatory




Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

Jobs | March 19