[This article was about the original campaign brand, which launched in February 2017, but was changed in December 2017]<\/p>\n
As a marketer, I knew choosing the right tone for the campaign brand would make all the difference as we try to grow our audience. \u00a0So I recruited a crack team of designers, and got to work. \u00a0Here are some of the decisions we made.<\/p>\n
As we grow up and experience the world and our particular society and culture, we begin to develop certain expectations about what words and symbols mean. \u00a0When you see Mercury’s shoe in a logo you typically think “speed.” \u00a0When you see a lion you think “strength.”<\/p>\n
When creating a brand, the marketer has to decide if they are going to tap into these expectations, or try to forge a new path. \u00a0When you do something people expect, it’s called giving them an affordance. \u00a0If you want people to think speed, using Mercury’s shoe in logo is just such an affordance. \u00a0The designer is capitalizing on\u00a0shared knowledge so that the person experiencing the logo has an easy time understanding what is being said.<\/p>\n
Because tapping into shared knowledge is\u00a0easy, it risks becoming clich\u00e9. \u00a0Additionally, brands that rely too heavily on common imagery can have a hard time standing out from their competitors.<\/p>\n
How does this work in political campaigns? \u00a0Fundamentally, political campaigns\u00a0tend to want to say a couple\u00a0things:<\/p>\n
To accomplish this, they tap into the shared language of patriotism and trust. \u00a0Red, white, and blue, and state flag colors (add yellow and copper in the case of Arizona). Stars and\/or stripes, evoking the US Flag. \u00a0In their pictures, they’ll wear formal business attire, and frequently appear with their family to show stability.<\/p>\n
That’s about it! \u00a0Not a whole lot to go on. \u00a0Which is one of the biggest reasons why campaign logos and signage all tend to look alike, except for the names.<\/p>\n
Given that I am such a different kind of candidate, for my campaign, we decided fairly early on that we wanted\u00a0that we wanted to push the limits of political branding. \u00a0We wanted to communicate that I’m different, while still being recognizable as a serious campaign. \u00a0What does that look like in practice?<\/p>\n
One of the first things we had to decide was the kind of imagery we were going to use. \u00a0We wanted our campaign to be uniquely Arizonan. \u00a0Some of the designs we tried involved saguaro cacti and the outline of the state border. \u00a0These images led to beautiful designs, but they were less obviously political. \u00a0In the end, we went with a design based on the Arizona flag. \u00a0It\u00a0is widely recognized, clearly related to government\/politics, and obviously unique to Arizona.<\/p>\n
We experimented with the traditional flag rectangle, but ultimately thought rounding out the rays of the star created a more modern, aesthetically pleasing look.<\/p>\n
Red, white, blue, yellow, and copper. \u00a0Color was one area where we really felt like we could separate ourselves from other campaigns. \u00a0We considered using colors whose shades almost never show up in the campaign world, like orange and green, to symbolize vibrancy and growth, but ultimately thought that veered to far away from expectations to be useful.<\/p>\n
Instead, we decided to go with a color palette that, in aggregate, evokes Southwestern art. \u00a0Additionally, each of the colors also has unique political meaning.<\/p>\n
I’m thrilled at our choices, and at the response people are having to the color palette.<\/p>\n
Unlike companies, politicians don’t get to choose their names, or at least they don’t have as much flexibility. \u00a0That said, politicians do make a couple important name decisions.<\/p>\n
I thought No\u00e9 was commonly known by non-Spanish speakers, like “Juan” or “Jos\u00e9,” but that hasn’t turned out to be the case. One unanticipated consequence of my nickname choice is that non-Spanish speakers have been a little confused. Still, I’m pleased with the choice, and it gives me an opportunity to talk about my commitment to the Hispanic community with non-Hispanics.<\/p>\n
One of the main goals of my campaign is to increase primary participation by registered independents. \u00a0I wanted to choose a tagline that would speak to them and motivate action. \u00a0Independent Together speaks to the fact that we can each walk our own path and think for ourselves, but that we need to unite to speak up for policies that support our shared interests as independents.<\/p>\n
While many organizations design their brand once and never look back, others are constantly revising the way their brand communicates with their audience, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in big ways.<\/p>\n
While we’re really happy with our choices, we are certainly\u00a0observing the affect our brand has on our target audience, and are willing to make changes based on what we learn. \u00a0We’re excited to see where things go.<\/p>\n
What do you think about the brand? \u00a0Love it? \u00a0Hate it? \u00a0Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n
P.S. Special thanks to Devin Hanson, Tricia Principe, and Joe Shurtz for their input and hard work bringing the brand to life.<\/p>\n
Like what you see? \u00a0Please:<\/p>\n
[This article was about the original campaign brand, which launched in February 2017, but was changed in December 2017] As a marketer, I knew choosing the right tone for the campaign brand would make all the difference as we try to grow our audience. \u00a0So I recruited a crack team of designers, and got to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noahdyer.com\/campaign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}