January 24, 2019

Is the Kamala Harris logo "the worst political graphic design job in a generation"?

Jonathan Last says it just might be.



So... is there anything worse? Or... what's so awful about it?

The question whether "For the People" is a good slogan is separate. Feel free to talk about that. But I'd like to encourage the discussion of the visual — the shape and placement of the letters, the colors, etc.

Last says:
It could be that Harris’s design team looked at the AOC poster and saw the earth-tones, heavy-text, and adjacent colors and thought that that was the secret of their success. And about those earth tones—they’re straight out of the 1970s and they’re a bad idea.

Pantone describes the ’70s palette consisting of “Harvest Gold” and “Rust.” In the 1970s, designers used these colors because they wanted to take viewers “back down to earth—solid, earthy colors to ground us during shakey economic times.”
Here's the AOC poster he's referring to (alongside another poster he compares it to):



ADDED: On the Kamala Harris logo, vertically down the center, it says "LIE."

221 comments:

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Lawrence Person said...

You're forgetting the Wendy Davis sinking ship.

GRW3 said...

I’m thinking the “I’m with Stupid, uhm, Her” was the worst.

Michael said...

At least AOC is an out-and-proud Red and the poster conveys that, whether sincerely or ironically. The Harris thing is just scary; what were they thinking? But Hillary's arrow may still take the cake.

Big Mike said...

Too much white space in the logo (yes, the "white" space is actually yellow in her case) and the colors are blah. The name and the slogan should not run together as much as they do in this logo.

wildswan said...

I'm with the "looks like a word cloud" crowd. But, see, Harris has never, ever, ever said anything memorable and her campaign has no direction. Look at the way people are trying to supply her with something memorable even if it's the word "lie". So I think she's a lawyer through and through and mainly concerned with not giving away her position during the negotiation, oops, the election. Letting the American people know what she's thinking would be a sign of weakness so the meaning of her poster colors is also confidential.

Known Unknown said...

Better slogans?

KAMALA IS OUR T'CHALLA!
KAMALA FOREVER
HARRIS DON'T SCARE US!
KAMALA HARRIS FOR ALL OF US

Just an old country lawyer said...

We have a personal injury firm around here, big advertisers, whose slogan is "For the people." Chasing ambulances just like Kamala chasing the presidency.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

AOC: the love child of Sade and Marty Feldman

AZ Bob said...

Take a look at the OCASIO-Cortez poster. Notice that the Ocasio portion is almost twice the size as the Cortez portion? Is she ashamed of her name because Cortez led the Spanish Conquest of the New World?

Neil Young has something to say about this in his song Cortez the Killer.

tcrosse said...

Notice that the Ocasio portion is almost twice the size as the Cortez portion?

Not only that, but she has sacrificed her hyphen for the Common Good.

AZ Bob said...

Ha ha ha!

buwaya said...

AOC uses the Spanish naming system - her father is Ocasio and her mother is Cortez, so both are used normally, but the actual apellido that she would pass to a child, should she have one, is Ocasio.

In a British-American-French system she would simply be Ocasio.

buwaya said...

"Not only that, but she has sacrificed her hyphen for the Common Good."

There shouldn't be a hyphen. They don't do hyphenation in the Spanish system.
I guess some American writers assumed this, or maybe they are screwed up in Puerto Rico.

Ken B said...

I have a modestly negative view of Bloomberg, but that might change, and he seems a serious person. I expect he cannot win the nomination.

John henry said...

Blogger AZ Bob said...

Take a look at the OCASIO-Cortez poster. Notice that the Ocasio portion is almost twice the size as the Cortez portion? Is she ashamed of her name because Cortez led the Spanish Conquest of the New World?

Maybe she's going for the Irish-American vote? Lots of O'Casey's came over from the old country.

In the 16 and 1700s many more came over to South America than to the US/Canada.

Think of Ambrosio O'Higgins, born in Ireland, eventually became Spanish viceroy of half of South America. Or Alejandro O'Reilley, Inspector General of Infantry and governor of Louisiana under Spain. Also built El Morro in San Juan. Tomas O'Daly was born in PR and became a Spanish Field Marshal. His father was born in Ireland and was a colonel in the Spanish army.

Many, many more. Some famous, some not.

Ocasio is the Spanish version of O'Casey.

John Henry

John henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John henry said...

Excuse me, Tomas O'Daly was the Colonel born in Ireland. Demetrio O'Daly, his son, was the field marshal born in Puerto Rico.

John Henry

FIDO said...

The color scheme is all off. It is like a Blacksploitain Movie Poster or something by Quentin Tarantino (but I repeat myself). The color scheme of a Huggy Bear going to talk to Starsky and Hutch. Pimptastic.

It is garish, loud and proud. Almost scientifically designed to offend WASPS.

How exactly does she intend on getting elected if she can't appeal to WASPs?

chickelit said...

@FIDO: Did you or did you not see the latest roll out of new Dem voter tactics?

Big Mike said...

If anyone is interested, the white letters in Lenin’s poster richly translate into “world peace.”

Paul Zrimsek said...

Maybe she's going for the Irish-American vote? Lots of O'Casey's came over from the old country.

The old Reverse Beto, eh?

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