On November 4th, 2009 Obama the candidate became Obama the President-elect. True believers, we called this a watershed moment in U.S history, change we can believe in, even called it a miracle. But for those of us in the design world, we recognized it as something no less significant: The complete success of Obama the Brand.

I’d like to say I was prescient enough to know Obama would emerge victorious the second I saw his campaign’s logo, but you would call me a black-turtleneck-wearing-
abstinithe-sipping-the-revolution-will-be-designed-hippie.

But I really did.

Why? Because short of the ubiquitous American brands of our generation (Coke, Harley Davidson, Nike, Chevrolet) there has not been one as seamlessly versatile, and consistently leveraged without breaking a sweat, as the O.

Much has been said about the unique choice of font (Yay, Gotham) and the multi-channel appeal to a variety of audiences, but I propose one more reason for it’s success: The unspoken sense of hope the “Obama rising” visual has conveyed to a world thirsty for inspiration. When a brand becomes more than just a graphic, but invokes a sense of “what could be if you just believe”, there is truly no stopping it.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under Advertising, Advocacy, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.