Barack Obama: The Triumph of Good Design

There are many reasons why Barack Obama has become the 44th president of the United States, however, I like to think of his campaign as a triumph of good design. And I mean design in the most general sense of the word, but particularly, definitions 1, 2, and 5 from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary:

1 a: a particular purpose held in view by an individual or group designs for his son> b: deliberate purposive planning design>
2: a mental project or scheme in which means to an end are laid down
5 a: an underlying scheme that governs functioning, developing, or unfolding : pattern , motif design of the epic> b: a plan or protocol for carrying out or accomplishing something (as a scientific experiment) ; also : the process of preparing this

Many months ago, during the long, but entertaining primary, season, I looked at the websites of several of the candidates. Barack Obama's site was a breath of fresh air in contrast to the amateur and cluttered sites of, literally, every single candidate on both sides. Obama was the only candidate with a clear graphic identity: the eventually ubiquitous rising sun logo that proved so adaptable throughout the course of the campaign. The barackobama.com website utilized typography, icons, and color in an organized, orderly manner; it was easy to navigate and customize via a Facebook-esque dashboard. Much like the Obama campaign, the website was truly contemporary and sophisticated, demonstrating a technological savvy untouched by any of the other campaigns. The Obama camp ran the first ever Millennial, grassroots, viral campaign that took advantage of the web as the ultimate venue for information distribution and community building. People—young people, old people, multi-ethnic people, previously apathetic people—were actually inspired by and engaged in politics, many for the first time ever.


Of course, as a designer, I'd like to think that good design—developing a clear vision with a strategic plan to make that vision manifest—was largely responsible for Barack Obama's success. This is not to diminish President Obama's charisma, charm, eloquence, vigor, intelligence, and incredible sense of style. In retrospect, poor John McCain (and his train wreak of a campaign) never had a chance. He just seemed old and out of touch, while Obama really did come to represent, dare I say it: hope.

In the months since Obama was elected, his design team has continued to update and re-tool his online identity, first with the change.gov site:


And, now, with the newly released whitehouse.gov:

Gone is the bold, sans serif Gotham, replaced with the more formal, and quite beautiful, Hoefler Text, along with a softer sans serif: Whitney (looks great here). Two more gorgeous typefaces from one of the best foundries around: Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The new website is, naturally, more white and definitely more formal, however, it still maintains enough typographic, layout, and navigational similarities to the original barackobama.com site that it looks like a logical visual evolution.

Many people, myself included, have high hopes for President Obama and his new administration. It's much more difficult to run a country, especially a country as wreaked as ours, than to create a nice website. However, I think Barack Obama exceeds the sum of his parts and has the potential to actually effect change, provided he sticks to his guns and continues to have a design.