University holds talk on designing Obama

on Thursday,March 05,2009 03:03

Last year''s presidential campaign abounded in political artwork, and an art university recently hosted a discussion to explore the impact of creative design on politics.

Designing Obama was hosted by the Academy of Art University in late February and featured Sol Sender and Scott Thomas, creators of the Obama logo and Obama 08 campaign, respectively, as guest speakers.

The discussion was moderated by design journalist, Alissa Walker who said that finally "good design is being considered important to a political campaign."

Sender took the floor first to discuss the design process behind the logo, including several different concepts, and the reason why the particular symbol was selected that became central to Obama''s successful run.

"We dove into numerous explorations to address the key challenges the campaign was facing before Obama announced his candidacy - experience and patriotism," said Sender.

Thomas then followed by explaining how the campaign used the logo to build it into a political brand that reflected and promoted Obama''s core beliefs.

Obama''s campaign was the first in history to rely heavily on the internet and its graphic design aspects turned out to be key to conveying his message and connecting with voters.

To achieve this, Thomas combined elegant, impactful design with the latest technology to foster a sense of community, teamwork and activism among viewers-citizens.