July 23, 2007 issue - Election season is taking over the front page, the evening news, and—sticker by sticker—the nation's bumpers. Like any ad, the logos of the '08 contenders are designed to sell a brand and subliminally play up a candidate's winning image. PERISCOPE sat with Michael Bierut, a partner at design firm Pentagram, to parse the good, the bad and the sans serifs:
Barack Obama"Obama is blessed with a name that looks good in type," Bierut says. "Obama's font is quite elegant and almost literary." While Clinton's flag is just a literal flag, this symbolic one "encompasses both the 'O' and a rising sun, signifying the hope of a new day—though a setting sun looks the same. Perhaps we're not supposed to consider that."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19762070/site/newsweek/
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Are political bumper stickers and their subliminal messages really effective? In todays world accumstomed to fast-paced, immediate gratification, will people quickly dismiss the stickers after giving it their attention after a simple second? Or are there Americans who actually give the stickers another glance, another thought, and spend a few more seconds contemplating the meaning, whether or not subliminal, of the "O" in Obama's bumper stick and immediately signify the "O" to a rising sun?
Unless one already stands firm with a candidate of their choice, catching glimpse of a bumper sticker of their candidate might elicit a certain level of pride, but to the rest of us Americans, a bumper sticker might be just that, a bumper sticker.
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2 comments:
I agree because while bumper stickers are like personal identification and voicing one's belief, it is not effective in convincing the minds of people to vote for a candidate (at least I hope not.) Voting for a candidate definitely requires more than a good font, symbol or looking good in print.
Well image is everything in this era. If a person is ugly or remotly unattractive well we will not like them as much. This is true and you know it. We are mostly shallow people and we are attracted to shiny colorful pretty things.
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