Campaign Yard Signs

“Signs don’t vote,” is a common refrain in our work, but this summer, boy, signs have been making me feel better. Stickers, lawn signs, flyers, and an NPR button adorning a plant—these signs of resistance and solidarity brightened my walks and occasionally made me laugh out loud. There’s a lot of work to be done (shameless plug: reach out to us if you want to talk about that work in the form of strategic consulting, training, direct mail, or digital content), but for today, I wanted to share some of the safe-for-work signs I’ve seen and (hopefully) add a little bit of light to your day. If you want to see some of the edgier signs, feel free to email me.

The advertising world is well-versed in using and exploiting the visual language of typography to convey messages that go beyond the overt, verbal language on the page. Cal Swan, author of Language and Typography, says, “These two distinct areas often come together in practice as there is clearly a very strong relationship between the conception of the words as a message and their transmission in visible form.” Nowhere is this more important than in political messaging.

A campaign logo is something that many candidates obsess about. The color, the font, the stressing of the first vs. the last name, incorporating a candidate photo or a sprit animal, we’ve heard it all. I like a good campaign logo, but this is a time in which many first-time candidates get taken advantage of. Yes, the campaign’s brand is undoubtedly important and it is worth some conversation, but it should not be a long, arduous, drawn-out process. With that said, here are a few important items to consider when you’re designing your campaign logo.