The DNC 2024 logo puts Biden at the center
Plus: Nikki Haley’s closing message in New Hampshire is that she’s a new generation conservative
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
The DNC 2024 logo puts Biden at the center
The RNC 2024 logo is a little Trumpy
Nikki Haley’s closing message in New Hampshire is that she’s a new generation conservative
Scroll to the end to see: what makes my heart go padam.
The DNC 2024 logo puts Biden at the center
Since planning for national conventions usually begins long before parties have picked their presidential nominees, the branding for Democrats’ and Republicans’ most recent conventions have either been generic or played up the host city. This year, though, with one incumbent president and a former president who’s being treated in many ways like an incumbent, it looks a little different.
For the Democratic National Convention this summer in Chicago, its branding borrows from President Joe Biden’s. Unveiled last Thursday, the DNC 2024 logo uses the three red, waving stripes element used to make the E in “Biden” in the 2024 Biden-Harris logo, and the type used to spell out “DNC 2024” is Decimal, a sans-serif typeface from Hoefler & Co. that the Biden campaign has used since 2020.
DNCC leadership worked on the identity with Wide Eye, the agency that’s handled design needs for three successive Democratic conventions and the Biden campaign and White House. Wide Eye founder Ben Ostrower says it was “clear early in the design process that framing the convention as an extension of the Biden-Harris campaign was a major strategic priority.”
“So, our work on the visual identity self-consciously centers the momentum of the last four years — and captures the spirit of our country moving forward together,” Ostrower told Yello in a statement. “The color palette is distinctly American, and represents the depth and power of the ideals and vision of a unified Democratic Party.”
The primary color palette for the visual identity includes “Democracy Blue,” a slightly deeper shade of blue that fits within the Biden brand system, and Biden-Harris Red. Biden-Harris Blue is a secondary color along with a lighter “Chicago Blue” that pays homage to the blue in the Chicago flag. The distinctive six-point star in the city’s flag shows up as a dingbat between the date and location information in one logo lockup, and the DNCC expects to use more iconography referencing Chicago in the coming months.
The last time Democrats had a convention logo that borrowed directly from a candidate logo was 2012 for the convention to renominate then-President Barack Obama in Charlotte, N.C. The logo reimagined the Sol Sender-designed Obama O logo, replacing the three red stripes with red silhouettes of a group of people under a blue arch.
DNCC Executive Director Alex Hornbrook said in a statement the new 2024 logo “is designed to capture the strength, unity, and pride that people across the country have in the United States of America. Come August, our job will be telling a story that demonstrates these qualities to the American people and showcases the record and vision of President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats.”
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled for Aug. 19-22.
The RNC 2024 logo is a little Trumpy
Meanwhile, Republicans announced their 2024 convention logo last June, and it looks a little Trumpy. The logo is encased in an outline of the state of Wisconsin, as former President Donald Trump’s campaign logo is encased by a rectangle, and the logo shows five stars laid out horizontally, another element from Trump’s logo.
One thing you’ll notice comparing major party convention branding over the years is that the GOP is much more committed to its Thomas Nast-given animal symbol than the Democrats. An elephant has appeared in the logo for every Republican convention of the 21st century so far. The 2024 elephant icon is new. Flat-footed, marching, and whipping its trunk like a bullwhip, it’s a more confident depiction of the Republican mascot than some of the other elephant icons used in recent convention branding.
Wisconsin is a must-win battleground state that Trump won in 2016 then lost in 2020. To me, including it in the logo along with the all-caps, sans-serif font makes it look like the logo for a well-funded statewide candidate, no? According to 2024 Republican National Convention CEO Elise Dickens, the map is a means of communicating the convention’s economic impact for the state.
“The purpose of that really is because we expect $200 million in economic impact is going to impact the city of Milwaukee but also the communities surrounding, throughout the Badger State,” she told Fox 6 Milwaukee.
This particular map was called out by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for chopping off a portion of the Door County Peninsula, but the region’s tourism organization was unbothered. “Wisconsin maps of all types have shown a variety of configurations for the Door Peninsula and our surrounding islands, with some being more representative than others,” Destination Door County chief communication officer Jon Jarosh told the Sentinel. “But we’re still there, and all is good.”
The Republican National Convention is scheduled for July 15-18.
Nikki Haley’s closing message in New Hampshire is that she’s a new generation conservative
Former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s initials just so happen to match New Hampshire’s, something her campaign capitalized on with its state-specific logo “NH ♥️ NH.”
The logo appears on $5 buttons the campaign sells online and it was on signs at Haley’s rally in Exeter, N.H., Sunday with Judge Judy (“When I saw the field, I thought, ‘I want to get to know this lady,’” the TV host said). It’s a message of love, and one that Haley’s campaign hopes won’t go unrequited.
New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary has offered candidates a springboard forward after losing in Iowa, like Ronald Reagan in 1980 and every Republican nominee since John McCain in 2008, and Haley’s counting on a strong performance there to move forward. She’s making her last stand in New Hampshire with a message that she represents the future of her party, and she’s counting on two endorsements to help.
Haley’s campaign is running four different online ads in the state, a review of ad libraries from Google and Meta show. A new cut of her ad “New Generation,” in which she says Biden’s too old and Congress is “the most exclusive nursing home in America,” began airing last year and is still running, as is “Strong and Proud,” which uses a Wall Street Journal poll showing Haley beating Biden by a wider margin than Trump.
These ads make an anti-Trump argument by hitting Biden. Haley’s line that “politicians from yesterday can’t lead us into tomorrow” in her spot hitting POTUS for his age would work in the primary and the general, and by touting favorable poll results, her campaign is arguing a third Trump nomination risks four more years of Biden.
Haley’s other two ads running online are focused on endorsements. In one narrated by New Hampshire’s popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, he calls Haley a “live free or die Republican” and “a new generation of conservative leadership.” A three-minute ad featuring Cindy Warmbier, the mother of Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned in North Korea and died shortly after being returned to the U.S., uses footage of the mother’s speech at Haley’s announcement rally. “We need Nikki Haley fighting for all our children,” Warmbier says, crediting the former South Carolina governor with teaching her to push through fear and be loud in fighting for her son.
Haley’s campaign has spent $4.7 million on TV, digital, and radio ads in the state, a relatively small sum compared to the $24.3 million spent by three super PACs supporting her: SFA Fund, Americans for Prosperity, and Independents Moving the Needle, according to data from AdImpact. Trump’s campaign has spent $7 million in the state and pro-Trump super PACs have spent $8.3 million.
Have you seen this?
Fake Joe Biden robocall tells New Hampshire Democrats not to vote Tuesday. The call, an apparent imitation or digital manipulation of the president's voice, says, "Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again." [NBC News]
Kylie Minogue’s album shows that it’s not enough to just have great album art anymore. Padam Padam, friends. Tension is an album, but it’s also an entire visual world. [Fast Company, by me]
Carrie Bradshaw’s iconic $5 Sex and the City tutu sold for more than $50,000. Now likely the most valuable piece of ballet wear, a tutu worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the opening credits of the HBO series Sex and the City (1998–2004) has sold for a whopping $52,000. [Artnet News]
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History of political design
“A Political First: Geraldine Ferraro for V.P.” pin (1984). Ferraro’s historic run with Walter Mondale inspired campaign buttons like this one that noted her candidacy as “a political first,” while others jokingly put her at the top of the ticket, like buttons that read “Ferraro and What’s His Name” or “Ferraro-Mondale,” according to Tippecanoe and Trinkets Too by Roger Fischer.
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