Ultra-minimalist political flyer, Los Angeles

Link, shot by Sean Bonner. I post this not to express a political position -- rather, because it's an interesting example of brevity and simplicity in design.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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George Curious

For WINGO, those acutually ARE Shepard Fairey posters you’ve been seeing in SoCal.

check out obeygiant.com
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Mike8787: Wrong. Also, fairly stupid.
Steaming Pile

#28

IT
DOESN’T
MATTER

I’m still pulling the lever for Obama today.
zuzu

PAUL
VOTED
“NO”

^_^
Bullpot

Ha ha I love that spare comment…
Quiche Lorraine

#28 Nothing will solidify the finally fractured republican machine more than their white hot hatred of Hillary. IMO voting for Hillary would be handing the presidency to the republicans, it would be the dirtiest general election in our lifetime. At least with Obama they’d have to pretend to be civilized or risk being called racists.
joemo

There is a lot of great video of the Clintons talking up Saddam’s WMDs during the first Clinton administration too. Here is one of my favorites…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnceSIxxOYg

Too many people think Bush was the one who started this – it wasn’t.

If you search YouTube you will fine much much more.
meegs

well said

if only there was more coverage of the election which so eloquently presented the facts at the heart of the campaign rheotric
Antinous

It’s impressive that they can nail someone without mentioning her name, but they could have deleted ‘the’.
anwaya

I drove around Pasadena for several months with a sheet of letter-size paper in the rear window of my car. It said:

WORSE
THAN
NIXON

Some gave me thumbs up, and others the shaft – yes: like the press once gave a certain candidate.
kendrak

this sign would have more impact if it used helvetica.
mdhatter

brevity is the soul of more than wit.
James David

Sometimes brevity can be too much of a good thing in these situations. However, much agreed with #2.
edgeways

2 things…

It only works because of a paucity of female candidates.

With a comma you could even take out ‘for’, so it’d only be “She voted, war.”
turgan

so effective its almost a propaganda.
addictivepicasso

if only people who’d lost their cat could be so precise.
BadManSports

Brittney voted for the war?
Bloo

Shoot, I thought it was a Burma Shave revival, but no follow-on signs….
Mike8787

*Eyeroll* Yes, I know she’s a woman, but unlike the literal police in this comment section, no, I don’t reserve that particular catch phrase just for men. I’m sure you don’t, either.
Not a Doktor

@ #9 BadManSports

I’m sure one of her many, many personalties did

All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up
noen

few know what Obama’s policies are or Clinton’s or McCain’s policies are.

If only there were some way to say… look things up on the internet. You know, some kind of… I guess you’d call it a search engine, yeah, something like that.

[shrugs]

But I guess I will just have to remain ignorant until someone invents one.
likeweusedto

#7

i think if you were deleting “for,” a dash would be more effective than a comma.

SHE
VOTED –
WAR
bardfinn

NOEN:

Or – hey, here’s a revolutionary idea: An encyclopedia, with up-to-date entries! There’s a killer application. Damn. Hope someone hops on that.
ATLAS

Anyone else notice the word GOOD placed just to the left of the word WAR… Kinda creepy…
Mike8787

Ths ntr pst s rdcls. ” pst ths nt t xprss pltcl pstn.” Yh rght. Thr r plnty f sgns t thr tht dn’t tlk bt pltcs. f y’r gng t trn yr blg prtsn, t lst hv th blls t dmt t.
Antinous

Misusing ‘literal’ is the square root of irony.
Antinous

…at least have the balls to admit it.

Did you miss that embarrassing lecture in the fifth grade?
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Mike, gender confusion is not what got you disemvowelled.

Since we’re on the subject, roughly speaking: could you please look up “literal” before you use it again?
jazzy

The word good in the background adds balance to the message. Excellent observation!
zuzu

I am Clin-Ton. As overlord, all will kneel trembling before me and obey my brutal commands. [crosses arms] End communication.

Senator McCain, why should people vote for you instead of Clinton? It makes no difference which one of us you vote for. Either way, your planet is doomed. DOOMED!

I don’t understand why we have to build a ray gun to aim at a planet I never even heard of. Don’t blame me, I voted for Kucinich.

(almost.) Citizen Kang
Moon

#37 Noen, you missed the whole point. It IS easy to find out the information, but these “supporters” STILL don’t know – it’s all about the “charisma” and “inspiration”, etc. (Or whose nephew was caught with a hooker)

I just ran into a couple of Obama supporters, with the signs and the hats and everything. I asked them “Why Obama?” – got the usual “inspirational, he’s for Change!” answers. Then I asked “What’s his economic policy?” (Kind of a big deal, with a possible recession coming up). They stammered for a minute “He’ll improve the economy”, but it was obvious they didn’t know.

It’s not that they can’t FIND out what the issues are, they DON’T CARE. It’s all about the fluff.
cowlessPatty

a mashup of “Yes We Can” with Tide’s “talking stain” Super Bowl ad:

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

I know where that is! Good is a cool little beer joint.

I love the influx of Obama signs with the ‘Andre’s got a Posse’ design I’ve seem on street corners today. In all colors. Very cool Warhol/Obey aesthetic.

Frank Shepard Fairey should be given some credit for bringing a certain amount of artistic merit back to street campaigning. Fun stuff, regardless of who you’re for…
Pyros

voted for the war
yep, voted for the war
that’s right, voted for the war war war!
blood everywhere
those apes are going it again
those damnable, incontinent apes
Slab64

Where’s Takuan?
take me to your leader

> I post this not to express a political position — rather, because it’s an interesting example of brevity and simplicity in design.

Actually this is art – seen by all our comments in it – and the message is mixed in with that.
Mike8787

literal: Being in accordance with, conforming to, or upholding the exact or primary meaning of a word or words.

And yes, they were acting like literal police, as in people who police whether or not something was used in a literal fashion. And while you are likely right that the reason I was mocked was not my choice of wording, the ridicule came in the form of judgements over that word choice.

And while yes, the tone of my initial comment was out of line (and I apologize), I’d say the response I got was equally juvenile.
dculberson

Moon, I’d argue that’s true of most voters. And while my wife and I have spent a lot of time studying the candidates and their positions, I’m not entirely sure that the Obama supporters you spoke with are actually wrong to support him for solely his personality.

Picture this purely hypothetical situation: What if he put a good face to our country? What if he managed to get the United States liked again? What if he even managed to defuse some of the vitriol behind the Islamic fundamentalist anti-US position? What if thousands of those fundamentalists decided that a country with Barack Hussein Obama as its leader couldn’t be all that bad, and we were able to reduce our military spending?

Even if you don’t think any of that is possible – which it very well might not be – is it all that bad to vote for someone you like rather than voting against someone?

There’s just more to it than policy alone. I’m not arguing for any candidate, just sympathizing with the supporter’s position..

Mike8787.14159265, where should she send future posts for your review and approval?
Kieran O’Neill

At #7: Yes, that’s the problem – it plays on the intrinsic gender bias of the US political system (and the reader).
ridestowe

female
war
vote

what have we learned about design? ask a 5 year old or a caveman to come up with the slogan. but i do admit the one posted does work quite nicely.
Takuan

He’s got electrolytes!
rpupkin77

The problem with it is that some people may think that it is a good thing.
NikFromNYC

She lets girls read in deserts.
Dave Rattigan

Did Obama vote for or against the war?

Forgive my ignorance. I’m a Brit, so I’ve not been following this thing all that closely.
ethan

#21: He wasn’t in a position to vote for or against it at the time–he wasn’t in the Senate yet. But even at the time he said he would have voted against, which is at least something, I guess.
noen

#21 Dave
Against – Hilzoy will catch you up to speed
eclectro

The thing that gets me is that she really hasn’t owned up to the big mistake that the Iraq war is. That and her stance about corporations. Don’t get me started.
Moon

#44 DCulberson, it IS true of most voters, I included McCain and Clinton supporters, as well.

This is a HUGE problem, though. This is how Bush got elected – he was the “Compassionate Conservative”, remember. But, if you listened to him, you knew he was the “rich man, oil man” candidate. I don’t believe he actually HAD any policy statements. It was all a “gut feeling” and he was going to be a “good guy”! ACK!
coaxial

@28

No, she very pointed hasn’t repented.

She said, “If I knew then what I know now, I would have voted differently.” Which is a VERY DIFFERENT thing to say. Especially given then general belief that her vote was motivated out of political hedging. (i.e. If the war goes well, She’s a hero. If the war goes badly, she’d be insulated since she wasn’t the only one who voted for it.) Her statement is tantamount to me saying, “If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have bet $100 on the Patriots to win the Super Bowl.”

It’s a cynical ploy.

She’s too smart to have been duped in to war by the transparent case given by the incompetents in the White House;. She’s WAY too smart for that.
James David

Ibid.
Anonymous

I think the more succinct and more inspiring corollary is

YES, WE CAN!
coldspell

or just:

OBAMA.

Given the target and the timing of the statement, the author’s intended goal is to boost Obama.
noen

Sorry for the misunderstanding Moon. I thought you were asking for yourself.
Number 4

“but they could have deleted ‘the’.”

and completely dismiss people who aren’t against war in general, but are against ‘the’ war in Iraq?

“Did Obama vote for or against the war?”

While Obama wasn’t yet a Senator (and thus did not have a vote to cast), he did make high-profile anti-war speeches *prior* to his election campaign. Given that being anti-Iraq War was a politically risky stance at the time, and that Obama undoubtedly knew he would have to defend his position during the campaign, I do not doubt that he would have voted ‘no’ if he was a Senator at the time.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Noen (23), good link.

Coaxial (45), a lot of smart people were duped. Specifically, a lot of smart people couldn’t believe Bush & Co. would make such over-the-top claims if they didn’t have facts backing them up. It never occurred to them that Bush would be willing to sacrifice long-term U.S. credibility in order to get the war he wanted, when he wanted it.
richard schumacher

She
Has
Repented

…unlike McCain, who is more likely to become President if Obama is the Democratic nominee.

Dilettante purists like the author of that poster helped elect Reagan and GWBush; don’t repeat that mistake again.
Moon

Obama voted for funding the war when he was in office, as well. He’s not the purist against the war that everybody makes him out to be.

It’s a little different with nothing on the line to say “I’m against the war” than it is when you are in the Senate and the people are crying out “Give the President the power to do something IMMEDIATELY” It wasn’t a vote for war – it was a vote to give the President the power to go to war in a crisis.

This sign is typical of what is wrong with politics in the US. It’s all slogans and popularity contests. No facts, no thinking.

“CHANGE!” Yeah, OK, great. We’re ALL for change. We’ve just had 7 years of bad policies and bad decisions. We need to change from that. But how? And that’s the problem – few know what Obama’s policies are or Clinton’s or McCain’s policies are.
edgeways

@28 I don’t think you can say this with anything except emotion to really back it up. I feel exactly the opposite, but not to the point to actually argue such a hard-to-predict point.
Anonymous

I remember watching Colin Powell’s entire presentation to Congress about Iraq, WMD’s, and the case for war.

I would have voted for it too. How was anyone supposed to know he was lying?
justONEguy

Would have read better as:

SHWAR

or a lesser minimalist variation:

SHWARWAR.