To win the popular vote in any race, be it state or national, one must be popular. Voters have to be proud of their candidates, or at least revile their opponents. And so when it comes to designing campaign graphics for buttons, bumper-stickers, Web sites, television ads and the like, it’s all about an easy, quick identification of a candidate or their message, and something to invoke a voter’s pride so they become participants, wearing, displaying and distributing their candidate’s messages and imagery.

The first rule—think red, white and blue. These patriotic colors of the flag have had a special place in America’s image as a land of liberty and equality, ever since they were chosen, many say as a show of solidarity with the French Republic. The next step, invoke simple, clever imagery that appeals to popular sentiments to help shape a candidate’s character—their face emblazoned inside a drapery of flags or framed by cannons (as was common during the civil war era), a catchy phrase that plays on popular ideas of social change or justice, or a carefully selected symbol that embodies both the candidate’s character and a sense of popular justice. And the final step is to produce a lot of graphics on a lot of items at a low cost so that supporters can wear, use or display them, be it lapel buttons, bumper stickers, television ads or more quirky items such as fly swatters and potholders.

When William Henry Harrison ran for president of the United States in 1840, his party—the Whigs—set out to portray him a humble, clear-headed, simple man of the people. To this end, they chose the log cabin as the symbol of their candidate, putting it on everything campaign related. The idea that Harrison was born in a log cabin played to popular romantic notions about the humble, self-reliant character that a country upbringing was assumed to have instilled. This image of the rugged gentleman, a man of the people had great folksy appeal, and when his opponents countered satirically that Harrison was an old man unfit for office, that he should just retire from politics and go back to the simple life and drink hard apple cider all day, Harrison adopted that into his campaign, paint himself as a good ‘ol boy from the frontier. He even renamed his campaign for the White House—Log Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign.

In reality, William Henry Harrison was born to a wealthy aristocratic family in Virginia. But the power of the log cabin—a fearless man of the people, born on the frontier and raised with the strongest virtue—resonated with voters, helping him win his party’s contentious nomination and the Office of the President. The log cabin image would survive through other presidential campaigns, including Abraham Lincoln’s. He was actually born in a log cabin. And these symbols continued to play on popular conceptions about the values and earnestness that accompanied the idea of a log cabin upbringing.

Campaigns in the United States today don’t use the log cabin image anymore, nor do they use the large cannons and battle swords that were so popular during the civil war. But some designs and color schemes—such as red, white and blue—have endured over the history of campaign politics in the United States. One need only look at the mountains of election memorabilia produced by the American political machine to notice such similarities. The most enduring theme from campaign graphics has been the depictions of the candidates’ faces. Whether looking at an early pin for William Henry Harrison or Abraham Lincoln, or a modern Barak Obama pin, the candidates’ faces often appear emblazoned inside a drapery of flags with red, white, and blue. Many buttons of 20th Century campaigns utilize almost exactly the same graphics structure. Compare the red, white and blue-striped buttons bearing the name of the candidate in the middle (white) stripe, from the campaigns of Wendell Willkie, Richard Nixon, right up through Hillary Clinton.

The costs and techniques of campaign design and campaign advertising have changed over the years, first as pin and celluloid button production became cheaper, and later as radio, television and then the Internet enabled candidates to reach a larger number of people at a lower cost. It also enabled more segmentation of messages and graphics according to demographics and issues, each with their own graphics and color schemes. Ever since Jimmy Carter’s green campaign, in which everything was colored green, “It’s become a more multi-colored world,” according to Michael McQuillen, Regional Vice-President for the American Political Items Collectors association. He operates his own Web site devoted to memorabilia, PoliticalParade.com, and notes that even though Carter’s green broke the color barrier, the vast majority is still composed in red, white and blue.

In 2008, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain all pretty much stuck with the same patriotic color schemes as their forefathers. Stars and stripes are everywhere. But each has selected their own imagery, their own twist to help define their character, their “log cabins.” John McCain uses distinctively military style symbols in his campaign graphics, with solitary stars and golden eagles against a background of grey or, as usual, red, white and blue. These play on his service in the armed forces, upping the popular culture ante in a time of unpopular war and distinguishing McCain as the only candidate to have military experience. Surprisingly, Hillary Clinton’s imagery is steadfastly traditional, with basic—almost cheesy—images of American flags and an arraignments of stars and stripes that feel both patriotic and familiar, as if right out of Bill Clinton’s campaigns in the 1990s. Obama’s imagery is that of change, of a rising sun (a star, if you will) over the red and white-striped America. Ideas of new beginnings, mobilization of the youth, and revolution, which is no surprise considering Obama is a young, newly elected senator-celebrity that rode to power on a wave of popular sentiment about ideas of change and cultural revolution.

The challenge is to get creative with campaign graphics without leaving popular culture or the colors of America behind. One designer, for instance, featured Obama’s imagery of cultural revolution on a pin, his face printed in Andy Warhol-style reproduction across the front. Naturally, the images are in different hues of red, white and blue, but the Warhol reference furthers the association of Obama’s cultural, even artistic revolution. Whether it’s McCain’s military star, Hillary’s familiar ol’ flag, or Obama’s rising sun, each is hoping their campaign graphics will do what the log cabin did for William Henry Harrison in 1840—win.

>Written by d/visible contributor>Avraham Karshmer.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Graphic Arts, Culture, Art & Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.