Brand/Logo Awareness
Assignment Description: This exercise is meant to create an awareness of organization branding and features that succeed in brand/log design.
I decided to pick political logos because these logos are not only designed to advertise but to mobilize. They need to be easily recognizable and transferable to any medium in order to reach such a large population. In fact, I’ve heard that before a presidential candidate picks his or her running mate, he or she first designs a mock logo with the Vice President’s name before making the decision. In the case of comparing Obama’s logo to Romney’s, I prefer Obama’s. This might be because Obama’s logo is more established, but I also think it functions better as a brand for his campaign. For example, the red and white lines look like a rode disappearing into the future while the upper half of the O looks like a sunrise. Both of these images connect to his campaign of “Hope” and “Change”. The Romney logo confuses the eye, which has the effect of making it look 3D, but why? Furthermore, the Obama logo seems to function better on it’s own. You could stick that logo on a button and everyone would know what it stood for, while the Romney logo would probably need further definition.
The “Rock the Vote” logo is different in that it is specifically designed to attract young voters. I think the bold sans serif block type face is a good choice for this purpose. Of course, what makes this logo so ingenious is the use of the V in “vote” as a check mark for voting. I also think the strong diagonal up through the lettering implies the power behind the motion of voting (both literally and figuratively). Although when I was looking for this image online, it seems that there are not strict graphic standards for this logo because the image ranged quite a bit. The one thing that remained consistent was the red and black coloring. It may be because this logo is designed to empower democracy that it is subject to democratic usage.
This logo is even more specific in that it is designed to target only Oregon voters. I personally think it is brilliant because the “OR” double functions as a symbol for Oregon and as part of the message: Vote or Vote. The message itself perfectly represents the Oregon Student Association’s full campaign slogan: “Want Change? You’ve got two choices: Vote OR Vote.” However, this logo was very hard to find on the internet and what I did find, was not at all consistent. I cropped this logo from a larger picture that included stars hovering around it (hence the little black triangle on the left). What’s great about this logo is that it’s very flexible (can work in any color or size), but you need to have some standards in order to make a successful brand.