The Genius of the Obama Campaign Logo
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

Barack Obama made a huge impression on me at the 2004 DNC. I knew that he would be running for president at some point, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I’ve always wanted Hillary to run, and throughout the campaign I’ve been telling myself that Obama doesn’t have enough experience – that he should spend more time in the Senate. But as I see the diverse support he’s getting, and as I realize his speech at the DNC wasn’t a fluke, I find myself hoping he’s running the White House in 2009.
So let me me list the reasons why the Obama logo is pure genius:
- The O represents Obama and he can use the logo without his name next to it. He’s claiming the O as George W. Bush claimed the W
- The blue O and the red stripes represent the flag
- The red stripes represent the plains, the American farmland
- The O’s whitespace represents the sun, shining over the plains. Because it’s white, it evokes sunrise, not sunset.
So what the logo is trying to say is that there’s a new morning sun (a hope, change) rising over America, and that Obama is it. I don’t think you can find that level of meaning in any other logo, campaign or corporate. For contrast, take a look at the other campaign logos:




Update: Leading up to the campaign this post got hit by a barrage of racist and ignorant comments about Obama and the symbolism of the logo. I’ve collected them here.

