The Politics of Type

Every four years, lawns across America become canvases for presidential political signage. To the untrained eye, the careful consideration of font, color, and type size may not be appreciated. However, countless hours were spent strategizing with graphic artists who help to create and shape the perfect message for the 16” x 24” sign of a presidential hopeful. For Obama, Clinton, and McCain, the politics of typeface played a memorable role during the 2008 presidential primary race and the typefaces selected give us insight into each candidate’s politics.

Designers John Slabyk and Scott Thomas (“Gotham (typeface)”) chose Gotham typeface to represent President Obama’s 2008 campaign. The typeface was “designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000. Gotham's letterforms are inspired by a form of architectural signage that achieved popularity in the mid-twentieth century, and are especially popular throughout New York City” (“Gotham”). The typeface is no-nonsense, attractive, and unassuming (“Gotham”). In line with President Obama’s campaign mission, Gotham is meant to be familiar, friendly, and confident. Interesting fact, Gotham was originally designed for GQ magazine (“Gotham (typeface)”), perhaps a nod to the popularity a cool-factor behind Obama’s campaign?

For Hillary Clinton, Baskerville was chosen to represent the former First Lady’s campaign for the Oval Office. According to Typophile, “Baskerville is a ‘transitional’ typeface, designed by John Baskerville in England in the mid-18th century, revived in the early 20th century and widely used for books and other long texts” (“Baskerville”). Baskerville is both respectable and conservative. The typeface seems classic and steadfast, representative of a candidate with whom the U.S. voting population has some familiarity.

Finally, McCain’s party chose Optima, “a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf between 1952-1955 for the D. Stempel AG foundry” (“Optima”). According to Ellen Lupton, “Optima attempted to merge characteristics of serif and sans serif typefaces. You could call it a centrist font. I’m sure John McCain’s design consultants know that Optima is the typeface used on Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial. Mr. McCain’s image is inexorably tied to his status as a war hero; this is his story, and Optima helps him tell it” (“McCain’s Optimum Look”).

In conclusion, although it’s doubtful the candidates themselves selected the typefaces to signify their presidential campaigns, nonetheless, designers were consulted to help choose a typeface that represented the mission, values, and image of his or her campaign. Typeface plays an important role in politics because not only does a politician need to use type to display the most important message, his or her name, but the candidate needs type to convey a memorable political mission statement. While it’s true that typeface probably won’t make or break a political campaign, its value cannot be underestimated in regard to conveying a political message.

Works Cited

Charles Apple. “Use the Gotham typeface and the voters will come.” April 3, 2008. (Obama photo) http://www.visualeditors.com/apple/2008/04/use-the-gotham-typeface-and-the-voters-will-come/.

Charles Rubinoff. “The Design of Politics.” May 6, 2008. (McCain photo) http://charlesrubinoff.com/blog/.

Emvergeoning. “Faces of Politics.” May 21, 2008. (Clinton photo) http://www.emvergeoning.com/?p=1273.

Hoefler & Frere-Jones. “Gotham.” December 6, 2010.http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100008.

The New York Times. “McCain’s Optimum Look.” April 21, 2008. http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/mccains-optimum-look.

Typophile. “Baskerville.” December 6, 2010. http://typophile.com/node/12622.

Wikipedia. “Gotham (typeface).” December 2, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_(typeface).

Wikipedia. “Optima.” December 5, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optima.