Here's how Andrew Yang branded his Forward Party
What font does Yang's Forward Party use, and is the logo really that bad?
Hello, in this week’s issue we’ll look at how Andrew Yang branded his new Forward Party, why British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is using Biden’s “Build Back Better” slogan, a “Western White House” that’s for sale, and more. — Hunter
Here’s how Andrew Yang branded his Forward Party
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang announced last week that he left the party and started a new one, called the Forward Party. Its slogan is “L̶e̶f̶t̶ R̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ Forward.”
The Forward Party uses the typeface ATF Franklin Gothic, which American Type Founders calls “the quintessential American sans for more than a century.” It’s a modern version of a 1905 typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton.
The party has an eagle mark and shortened FWD logo on some of its early merchandise, but its main logo is a star formed by five styled letter Fs. The logo’s gotten grief online for resembling the star logo of waste disposal and recycling company Republic Services, which is made from five letter Rs, and overall, the reaction to the branding online hasn’t been very favorable. The verdict from @PopulismUpdates was that the Forward Party’s “graphic design leaves a lot to be desired.”
Personally, though, I think this is Yang’s best visually designed political venture yet.
The logos for his presidential and mayoral campaigns didn’t say anything interesting or original, nor did the logo for his nonprofit Humanity Forward. Type has never been one of Yang’s defining visual identifiers and his past logos looked generic. With the Forward Party, though, he’s using type that doesn’t look like what contemporary Democrats or Republicans are using. As for the star, my first impression wasn’t a garbage pickup logo, but the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial logo, designed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.
The Forward Party platform includes term limits for members of Congress, data as a property right, and election reforms like open primaries and ranked-choice voting. “Politics is tribal,” Yang tweeted Monday. “We need more than 2 tribes - for all of our sakes.”
Why is Boris Johnson using Biden’s slogan?
As President Joe Biden pushes Congress to pass his Build Back Better Act, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is promoting his own Build Back Better agenda, but with really cringy videos.
Johnson posted some terrible videos on Twitter last week saying things like “build back butter” white buttering toast and “build back bitter” while drinking beer.
I don’t get it, but it was just a prelude to Johnson’s “Build Back Better” boxing gloves and speech at the Conservative Party Annual Conference, where he promised, “today, we are going to fix this economy and build back better than ever before.” “Build Back Better” is transatlantic, baby.
But Johnson isn’t lifting from Biden, he actually used the term first, in a speech last May six weeks before Biden did. The Trump campaign even called Biden out over it, tweeting last year, “Why does Joe Biden plagiarize foreign politicians so much?” Before both of them, though, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the phrase in one of his slides about rebuilding after the pandemic, during a briefing in April 2020.
These are the first five American women who will be on new quarters next year
The U.S. Mint announced five new quarters last Wednesday that will be released in 2022 as part of its four-year American Women Quarters Program.
The quarters celebrate women from ethnically and geographic diverse backgrounds who worked in suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, science, space, and the arts, the Mint said, and five new quarters will be released annually from 2022 to 2025.
Here’s who will be on the quarters coming out next year:
Maya Angelou - the poet and author’s quarter shows a bird and rising sun, inspired by her poetry.
Sally Ride - Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983, and her quarter depicts her looking out a window on Earth.
Wilma Mankiller - the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Mankiller’s quarter has the name of the Cherokee Nation written in Cherokee letters.
Anna May Wong - Wong was Hollywood’s first Chinese American film star, appearing in more than 60 films, and her quarter is blinged out with marquee lights.
Nina Otero-Warren - Otero-Warren was the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools and she helped get the 19th Amendment ratified in New Mexico. Her quarter says “Voto Para La Mujer,” or “Votes for Women.”
Depictions of historical women on U.S. currency are very rare. On our coinage, there’s been the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, the Sacagawea dollar coin, Helen Keller on Alabama’s state quarter, and a female school teacher on Iowa’s state quarter. Only two bills have ever featured a historic woman: Martha Washington and Pocahontas.
This White House-inspired home in California is now on the market
A 22,300-square-foot, 24-room “Western White House” has been listed for $35 million in Hillsborough, Calif., south of San Francisco.
Built in 1878, the home was damaged in a fire and given a neoclassical redesign in 1930 by Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan. The White House homage was deliberate, but with Morgan’s California twist. She designed the home for George Hearst, son of media titan William Randolph Hearst, who intended the mansion to be an actual Western White House for American presidents when they visited California.
No disrespect to the real White House, but this West Coast version is way hotter. The contemporary living room is much more airy and inviting then, say, the Red Room, and could you imagine a cabinet meeting in that dining room?!
The home has three primary levels, an elevator, a renovated Olympic-sized swimming pool, and wood-paneled office with fireplace.
The mind mush that is 2020 and 2021, now in art form
Artist Rob Pruitt has been scribbling and drawing on Massimo Vignelli’s black and white Stendig calendars daily since 2014 with notes, appointments, and shopping lists, and his calendar pages for 2020 and the early months of 2021 are now going on display as part of his exhibition “These Are The Days of Our Lives.”
The calendar pages include news and cultural events capturing the beginning of the pandemic, the final months of the Trump administration, and the opening months of the Biden administration, reflecting “the tumultuous, unforeseen changes of the past two years,” per 303 Gallery.
“These Are The Days of Our Lives” is open through Oct. 30 at 303 Gallery in New York City.
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