Don’t usually like to get into political stuff on the blog, but as a wonk, I found this pretty interesting. According to a newly launched website, lots of folks are trying to recruit economic commentator, author and stock broker Peter Schiff to run for a Connecticut Senate seat in 2010. On the Libertarian ticket as a challenge to incumbent Chris Dodd. Fair enough (politically speaking, Schiff’s bona fides consist of being Ron Paul’s economic advisor and Dodd ain’t exactly Mr. popularity).
As as we’ve learned from last year’s Presidential campaign, any politician worth his or her salt has got to have a decent logo. Let’s not forget how the Obama campaign’s logo and branding were instrumental in building a grass roots coalition that went and got the dude elected. Well, Peter Schiff is no different, and the feisty might-be-politician, if he runs, will require a new logo that encapsulates his potential upcoming campaign. Accordingly, the nice people behind the site are looking for a logo redesign (the current logo, above, has been described as “a cross between Obama’s logo and the Jack in the Box head, with the hat”). Client brief for the redesign? Pretty standard stuff for a political logo:
1. It should be Patriotic and design specifically for a grassroots campaign to draft and elect Peter Schiff.
2. Peter Schiff is an advocate of Austrian (free market) Economics and commodities; red, white, blue, gold, and silver should be considered in any combination.
3. It should have a theme of liberty, freedom, and constitutionalism.
Free market. Check. Patriotic. Check. Lots of Stars and Stripes. Hold on a minute. Seems Schiff’s fans have contracted his new logo to a design contest site (grand prize a whopping $150.00) and the site they’ve chosen to use is 99 Designs. Not going to get into the logo contest debate again. but I wonder if the Schiff people realize that 99 Designs are an Australian company? Melbourne to be precise. And that the designers vying for the princely bill-and-a-half are located all over hell’s half acre? Trying to be, ahm, patriotic and all, wouldn’t it be more politically sound to offer a US based company the gig? Or a US based designer? Hell, even a Connecticut resident for that matter if they still wanted to go the contest route (I’m sure many local designers would tackle the project pro-bono if they believed in Schiff’s cause).
Don’t want to be a wag, but isn’t this the kind of stuff political opponents make hay over? Especially when one is trying to be all patriotic and stuff. As a Canuck company we’re usually out of the running for US political logos for the reasons I just mentioned, so I have no axe to grind. Just trying to be politically helpful is all.
Anyhoo, if you’re interested, you can track the contest here (or enter if you’re so inclined). So far, there’s more than a few designs that are, ahm, inspired by the Obama logo. But knowing what we do about logo design contests, that’s not terribly surprising…
Related posts:
- Logo design contest with a twist
- Yet another 99designs logo contest knock-off
- Numbers – The ever-shifting realities of crowdsourcing and design contest sites.
- Roh-oh. Winning entry in Cadbury Chocolate’s design contest may have been plagiarized
- Again with the design contests
Tags: Contests, crowdsourcing, politics, spec
thx for this. I enjoy watching this guy on TV. His videos are all over YouTube.
A logo design contest seems like a great idea, as long as it’s tied into a great PR story about the designer. So I agree about the thought of a non-American designer creating a “patriotic” politician’s logo as being a bad move.
Libertarians aren’t protectionists.