I was looking through the Logo Design Love website, when I found an extremely interesting post on it that brought you through the contenders for the Obama branding for his 2008 Presidency Campaign. Sol Sender, led the design team for the Obama 08 logo and interestingly enough he had never worked on a political logo before. These were some of the ideas that he and his team came up with that just didn’t cut it.

This is Option 1. It is an interesting idea, just using blue, with clever use of reflection. It is quite interesting how half of the ‘08 is present but it is still readable. It is quite quirky with the use of reflection, it catches your attention. I think however that it probably isn’t suitable for a presidency campaign. It is extremely corporate, and I think a bit too similar to many other designs. It is very straight and bland, it is missing substance.

This is option 2. Personally I absolutely adore overlaying colours, especially in type, it just is so eye catching and so beautiful, it just adds to text, without having to do too much. This logo has an interesting layout, the 0′8 being the most predominant, with the campaign info to the side. It is quite an interesting design, the layout would be quite interesting turned 90 degrees clockwise, I could see it being used on many different treatments either way. It is very patriotic in colour choice with the red and blue against the white, which is quite an important statement for a Presidency Campaign, it means that the American people can associate with the logo. It is a very clean, fresh and modern design, but I am not to sure if the ‘08 in scale should be so predominant.

This is option 3. I actually quite like the idea behind this logo. I love how the designers have made the O and the B at the start of the name also represent an 0 and an 8. It is very quirky and eye catching and gives equal importance to both pieces of information. Again the designers used the patriotic colours of the American Flag. It is a very clean design, that is quite modern, it is youthful enough to reach out to first time or young voters and also modern and corporate enough to speak out to an older audience. I think it would be quite an appropriate design but it is still lacking in something.

This is option 4. This is an interesting approach to the logo, clipping an illustration into the 0, of ‘08. It is in a way cheesy shown in this context but the designers presented this logo on many different treatments and in some it actually looked quite interesting and appropriate. I wonder why the designers chose to put a picture of a landscape instead of some other photograph that would represent the candidate or their ideologies, but I suppose in the same breath I can see that it could represent the future, a bright future, or even a breath of fresh air that the candidate it bringing.

This is option 5. This is quite an interesting logo, using speech bubbles to communicate the information. Again the designers used the patriotic colours; red, white and blue. It is quite a contemporary design, it is very youthful and for this reason I can see why it was not chosen. It is not very appropriate for a presidency campaign, it is too playful and looks more like branding for some sort of advertisement trying to sell something to a target audience of 18 to 25 year olds. It is completely detached from the majority of the population especially those who will vote. It is not serious enough, and does not say anything about the candidate. It is an interesting design, with interesting layout and it could work so beautifully on another project but I feel that it is completely inappropriate for a presidency campaign.

This was the winning design. The logo moves forward from the above design of the 0 with the picture in it, instead it is a beautiful logo, of the stripes of the American flag, with a sun rising over it. It is a very powerful and beautiful design, the type works well with it, using differing shades of blue. It is modern yet it is a timeless logo that will last, as it is so simple yet not bland, it invited the viewer in a communicates through image. It is beautiful, and inviting and reaches out to wide target audience. It would work beautifully in many different treatments which the designers showed throughout the entire campaign.
It is interesting to see the progression of how a logo like this is designed and where the design originated from. It is also extremely interesting to see especially for a student designer like me, that all designers go through a lot of prep work and quite a few design ideas to get to the final, perfect one.