Nicky Dieter, Flickr

For decades, political campaign advertising had more in common with Menards than Milton Glaser: campaign graphic designers — whose job was to sell candidates often through an expected visual language of flag-toned stars and/or bars — took the back seat, while the well-funded media buyers got the front. Then came Barack Obama. His campaign, lead by design director Scott Thomas, enlisted designer Sol Sender to both create a memorable, appealing identity and advance the lessons of Howard Dean’s web-savvy “netroots” surge of 2004.

We all know what happened next. Obama’s “O” logo became ubiquitous, embraced and modified by supporters so it appeared everywhere: carved into Halloween pumpkins, spray-painted on city concrete, plastered on cars, t-shirts and mugs, reprinted on one of American history’s most recognized political posters, and interpreted by DIYers on murals, baked goods, light-up bike spokes and beyond.

"Change" by Patrick T. Power

Next Tuesday, May 12, Thomas and Sender will be speaking at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center on the development of the Obama campaign in a panel called, “Designing Obama” — and Minnesota Independent editor Paul Schmelzer will be moderating the discussion. He’ll begin the evening by putting the campaign into historical context (how it differs from more traditional patriotic-themed campaigns by candidates like Bush, Gore and Clinton and from Obama’s 2008 challenger, Republican John McCain, whose design motif is reminiscent of a luxury car ad) and geographical context (how it played in the land of Jesse “the Body” ads and Paul Wellstone’s still omipresent green bumperstickers), before highlighting examples of creative re-use of the “O” logo.

In preparation, what would you like to ask Sender and Thomas? Got a critique or kudos for the campaign? Leave your thoughts in comments.

Tickets can be purchased here, or watch the event’s webcast live at the Walker Channel.

Earlier: Design with a big O: On developing Obama’s campaign identity

While Barack Obama apparently did many things right on his campaign, possibly the most visible mark of success was his ubiquitous graphic design identity. Now that the dust of Election 2008 is settling, Sol Sender, who along with Andy Keene and Amanda Gentry, designed the identity, is discussing how the logo came to be. Fitting Obama’s theme of “change,” the campaign didn’t go with seasoned political marketers but with MODE, a Chicago motion-graphics firm that had never done a political identity before. “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.”

Surveying competitors in the ’08 race and noting that “there were no real logos to speak of,” he and his team created, over two weeks, seven or eight options for the campaign.

Watch the videos, created by VSA Partners, where Sender now works as a strategist, then take a look at some of logo options Obama’s campaign had to choose from, after the jump.

Sender discusses the design process…

…and then how the identity went viral:

Before design began, the team looked at the kind of vocabulary that has dominated presidential campaigns:

A few of the eight design concepts presented to the Obama campaign:

Here’s the runner-up, ultimately beaten out by the red, white and blue Obama “O” logo we’ve all seen a million times:

And one of the many viral permutations — which ranged from Obama cookies to DIY t-shirts — of the identity:

Related:
Coleman’s ‘Victory’ mimics Obama’s ‘Change’

Designs for signs, Web sites show presidential candidates’ strengths, weaknesses

(Hat-tip Tom Elko.)