Obama logo

The Obama logo was the flagship symbol of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. The design became one of the most recognized political brand logos during the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, and was used again for Obama's re-election campaign.

Process

The logo was designed by Chicago-based Sender LLC (a brand development and design company) on assignment from Chicago-based Mode Project (a motion design studio). The latter had been brought on board early on by David Axelrod, Obama’s chief campaign strategist, although it had never done a political identity before. Creative director Sol Sender, now a partner at VSA Partners and founding director of the IBM Design Lab, led the design team of three which included Amanda Gentry and Andy Keene. Project managers at Mode Project were Colin Carter and Steve Juras.

"We were looking at the “o” of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day,” according to Sender. “The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope." "The design expression was so constrained and so bland for so many years in politics," Sender says. "I think we had a fresh approach because we’d never worked on a campaign before” — and, of course, the power of the logo had a lot to do with “the power of the candidate’s message."

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (US ⁱ/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician serving as the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Logo

A logo (abbreviation of logotype, from Greek: λόγος logos "word" and τύπος typos "imprint") is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark).

In the days of hot metal typesetting, a logotype was one word cast as a single piece of type, e.g. "The" in ATF Garamond (as opposed to a ligature, which is two or more letters joined, but not forming a word). By extension, the term was also used for a uniquely set and arranged typeface or colophon. At the level of mass communication and in common usage a company's logo is today often synonymous with its trademark or brand.

History

Numerous inventions and techniques have contributed to the contemporary logo, including cylinder seals (c.2300 BCE), coins (c.600 BCE),trans-cultural diffusion of logographic languages, coats of arms,watermarks,silver hallmarks and the development of printing technology.

Sol Sender

Sol Sender is an American graphic designer and brand strategist best known for leading the design of the logo for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Sender is a partner at the design firm VSA Partners. Sender's father is composer and writer Ramon Sender, son of Spanish writer Ramon J. Sender.

Creation of Obama logo

Sender's firm, Sender LLC, was commissioned to design a logo by Chicago-based mo/de (a motion design studio). The latter had been brought on board early on by David Axelrod, Obama’s chief campaign strategist, although it had never done a political identity before. Sender led the design team of three which included Amanda Gentry and Andy Keene. Project managers at mo/de were Colin Carter and Steve Juras.

"We were looking at the “o” of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day,” according to Sender. “The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope." "The design expression was so constrained and so bland for so many years in politics," Sender says. "I think we had a fresh approach because we’d never worked on a campaign before” — and, of course, the power of the logo had a lot to do with “the power of the candidate’s message."

Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008

The 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, was announced at an event on February 10, 2007 in Springfield, Illinois. After winning a majority of delegates in the Democratic primaries of 2008, on August 23, leading up to the convention, the campaign announced that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware would be the Vice Presidential nominee. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 27, Barack Obama was formally selected as the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 2008. He was the first African American in history to be nominated on a major party ticket.

On November 4, 2008, Obama defeated the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, making him the President-elect and the first African American elected President. He was the third sitting U.S. Senator, after Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy, to be elected President. Upon the vote of the Electoral College on December 15, 2008, and the subsequent certification thereof by a Joint Session of the United States Congress on January 8, 2009, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and Joe Biden Vice President of the United States, with 365 of 538 electors.