Political Aesthetics

How does design change the world? Well this may or may not be a good example but here goes... politics. Whenever designers create works for clients, one of their chief concerns is communicating the personality of the sender. Believing this to be true, then we would expect certain kinds of people to get behind a brand, right? In our recent presidential election there was a real difference in how design communications were a) employed and b) styled (I use the term broadly). Much has already been said about how the democratic campaign employed all media, including texting and blogging. My graphic design classes at the University of Minnesota Duluth analyzed the two parties' websites during the campaign. A clear difference was evident: the Bush campaign employed lots of what were termed as 'tabloid tactics': dueling flashing animations, bold colors, each message overpowering the first. The site loaded with a full-screen video of the vice-presidential candidate giving a speech; the Obama campaign used very organized grids, simplicity, consistent application of identity, using visual language that reinforced the candidate's personality and political approach. These observations are not intended in any way to reflect personal political agenda, but to present an unbiased commentary on the use of design in the campaigns. It is interesting to note however the response of the voters to the design positioning. Although we cannot draw conclusions from this informal analysis, we could speculate that the bar for aesthetic design has been raised. Certainly the methods that will be used in the future for political communication have turned the technological corner. --b