The Minnesota Independent

Design - Latest Stories

Deconstructing Dumbo: 100 GOP logos

By Paul Schmelzer | 08.22.08 | 3:45 pm

Last time the Republicans had a national convention, New York-based designers Thomas Fuchs and Felix Sockwell couldn’t pass up a chance to protest — only they did so in a medium they’re comfortable with: They reinvented the GOP elephant in 100 different ways. Sockwell distributed the logos — a Pepsi-sponsored GOP elephant, a trunk transformed into a gun aimed back at a soldier’s head, a pachyderm turned into a hunch-backed man with a cane — in a bicycle rickshaw throughout New York.

With another convention in the wings, I contacted the artists to see if they had any updates to their self-published book, GOP 100: Deconstructing Dumbo. While they said the book is still fresh four years later and doesn’t necessarily need updating, they had one: a retitled piece showing an elephant in prison stripes (reminiscent of this year’s convention logo). It’s now called “Larry Craig.”

RNC Gets Farked (and Other Media News)

By Paul Schmelzer | 10.11.07 | 7:52 pm

Farking with the RNC logo: The Photoshoppers at Fark.com are having their way with the much-maligned logo for the Republican National Convention, to be held in the Twin Cities next year. From renditions…

Ventura Extra Bold! A Typeface Does Not a Presidential Candidate Make

By Paul Schmelzer | 07.20.07 | 5:13 pm

When Design Observer‘s Michael Bierut was asked by Newsweek to critique bumperstickers of presidential campaigns, everything was fine — until Jesse Ventura seemed to jump into the race. Writer Laura Bans twice misheard…

Solutions Twin Cities Connects Ideas on “Future-Positive Creativity”

By Paul Schmelzer | 05.06.07 | 11:56 am

Halfway through installing a green roof on Wednesday night, May 2, Corrie Zoll stopped to take a slug from a bottle of Guinness. It wasn’t that he was tired out. Just three minutes into the…