If you think message and aesthetics don’t have to mesh up, go read the threads on techpresident.com about the new obama site (which i largely like). Dems and Reps alike have expressed issue with the overly blue look as being counter to his reaching out message. And that’s just on the color…

Design is a very small part of the overall effort of a campaign, but it shouldn’t cause problems or stick out. But please begin to explain the problems with my comments on the culture wars…

You seem to be the expert. But my experience in campaigns across the country tells me that those themes play a major part in the South, West and major purples like Ohio.

But clearly you’re not nearly as familiar with Obama’s messaging as you think you are. He’s reaching out to Red Staters in what you might call dead-ender states like Kansas. You don’t think folks are concerned with their guns and bibles in Kansas? Maybe you’ve been out of the country for a while.

His appeal to independents and cross-over voters is key to his 50-state strategy. His campaign is heavily influenced by recent red state successes like Schweitzer. Hell, why do think he risked alienating the gay vote by holding gospel concerts with prominent ex gays and homophobes. He’s reaching across the aisle to your dead enders.

And why do you think there hasn’t been a single pro gun control Dem since Gore bit it over Columbine. Obviously, every feasible Dem that ran this cycle is concerned with what dead-enders think.

And no, I don’t think the typical voter will make the Mao connection. But will a well informed consultant toss this in a Oppo file for some point when it may be pertinent? Yes.

And that’s what I was talking about, as professional campaign staff we often have to work around well intentioned supporters. Sometimes it works very well as with Phil’s 1984 video for Obama, but there the 1984 aesthetic was turned against the Hillary. Here, I don’t believe the hipster ironic aesthetic works in Obama’s favor.

And I completely agree with (2) which is why I think designers shouldn’t add to the problems with really cool looking but ill-informed designs.

Yeah – I can find at least 2 quotes where he said he’s setting the goal to 2011 and he wouldn’t make any promises

So it seems he changed his position a bit, changed for the better mind you – but this doesn’t really make me feel confident about his future positions.

If he changed the colors a bit I suspect the Soviet impression will be replaced by fauvism. (Why’s it always gotta be red-white-and-blue?)

Of COURSE, everybody wants change, though. Look what we’ve had for the last 7 years.

The image reminded me of the broad fields of limited color that happen when images are converted down to bmp. The color palette, and the smooth effect without rogue pixels, make the image work way better, but it still has a resemblance of the broad reductionist quality. The image is fantastic; I should have just attributed this more to early printmaking than to goofing around on paint as inspiration.

The propaganda angle is right one, but it seems more subdued than soviet posters. This is not a man giving a speech or emanating an image of overt strength. It looks more like a man sitting in a legislature and troubled by what he hears. The technique is propagandish – the pose just doesn’t seem to fit.

I’m sure you’ve never ever changed any opinion of yours over the course of time, huh?

@#2 Billy: I’m glad the voice of Valley Girls from 1984 are still present in our public discourse.

Hope is good to feel, progress is great to achieve.

The work is poster-style art: severely limited palette, strongly contoured color areas. That’s derived from a repro technique, not a political position. The image itself is straightforward — a bit retro, but very much in the style of American campaign posters. It’s more beautiful and better designed than they tended to be, but it’s absolutely in an American style.

LiberalArt, you’ve come off sounding like a troll. Wouldn’t it have been better to admit that Shepard Fairey directly competes with your business? I went and looked. You design political ad campaigns, logos, and websites, and your work isn’t nearly as striking as Shepard Fairey’s.

MercerMachine was right to question whether someone with your evident liberal arts background could be getting those readings from Fairey’s poster:

“This poster may appeal to die hard supporters, especially younger ones given our nation’s crappy knowledge of history, but it’s a liability to the campaign.

The Obama cult of personality takes on disturbing proportions as it begins to inspire neo-Maoist imagery. This poster has a creepy 1984 vibe with it’s imperative message to progress.

But maybe the campaign likes the cult of personality because there are already variations of this with “HOPE” outside the debate Thursday night.

But I think the visual association with totalitarian leftist movements like Mao’s and Stalin’s are problematic for the campaigns message of one nation and unity given the the Right is already overly concerned about the culture wars. This feeds that concern by associating his throngs of supporters with the Cultural Revolution, coming to your home soon to take your bibles and guns and re-educate you.

The artist has every right to make this poster, but if he’s a supporter, he may be doing more harm than he realizes…”

I don’t think you read any of those meanings into it. I think you just claimed you did, in an attempt to diss your commercial competition.

Please take it personally if I decline to have you involved in any future project where I have a say about which artist is used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p6OGdRfL9g

@#4, “Hope is not a feeling. Hope is not the belief that things will turn out well, but the conviction that what we are doing make sense, no matter how things turn out.” — Vaclav Havel

This is creepily close to communist propaganda posters, is it not? Stalin?

It’s very cool, and effective I think. The first thing that I thought of, though, was “soviet”. Hmm.

just made a rude comment about CC licensing for digital versions of this image. Have asked to have it removed.

Mr. Fairey has generously provided an 8.5 X 11 copy of this poster for download at:

http://obeygiant.com/images/barack_poster_bw-85×11.pdf

I can’t figure out the exact licensing but the disclaimer on his site seems to say fair use not for profit:

http://obeygiant.com/post/obama-pasters-update

Anyway, thanks Mr. Fairey. Not sure if blowing the thing up to say 18*24 and posting it in your apartment window is obeying or not but I may do just that.

Only a few days left all!!!

Why PROGRESS, though? Obama isn’t going to repeal the Patriot Act, or close Guantanamo, or stop us from acting like swaggering cops all over the world. Someone please shake the artist awake and point him to some sites where he can look at the voting records of candidates and see where they get their money.

Yes, he will fix the PATRIOT Act. Yes, he will close gitmo. Yes, he will end the war.