With the Republican party wrapping up in South Carolina, moving on to Florida, and this election seeming like it has already been going on for over a year now, I thought it’d be appropriate to do a quick review of the logo and web designs for two seemingly top Republican contenders and the incumbent, President Barack Obama. One thing that does not need to be said in each different section would be that the dominant color theme happens to be Red White and Blue. I think if anyone strayed from this they would automatically be disqualified in the subconscious mind of the viewer. Anyhow, onto the Republicans.

Republican hopeful and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has what I consider the safest of all logos I’ll look at today. From a graphic standpoint he is going the traditional route of using an abstracted flag and star as an underline to the reminder of, Vote for Newt! From a message standpoint he is the only contender to use his first name only and is relying that people know him already and just need the reminder to vote for him this year.

While I am unimpressed with his logo his website is doing a much better job. The organization of information on the site is clearly defined, he has limited the homepage slide show to just 2 items (vs the four on his main opponent Mitt Romney’s), and his news feed lands above the fold giving me the ability to find out the most recent things happening. In my mind, this news feed is one of the most important features. In the political arena and especially an election, up-to-date information, whether good or bad, should be prominently displayed. The main critique I have for this site is that I think the choice of the dark blue background was a poor one. I understand that it brings the viewer’s eye into the center of the page where the content is, but in my mind it gives the entire site an ominous tone compared to the other candidates.

While during the 2008 election I would have considered then hopeful Barack Obama’s logo to be the most daring, this year I must hand it to Mitt Romney. Unfortunately this is not for good reasons. Like Mr. Gingrich he has decided to abstract the American flag but he has used it to create the “R” in his last name. Personally I don’t think it comes off as readable. At first glance I read this logo as “OMNEY” with a flag icon placed to the left of the typeface. It is only on second glance that I catch the merge of the two. I would applaud this move had it been pulled off well or if the designer had not decided to pair a modern abstraction of a letterform with the font “Trajan,” which is a rendering of the font that appears on Trajan’s Column, one of the earliest examples of type setting in our history. (Side note: I have a personal distaste of this font because of its difficulty to space the letters so they are pleasing to the eye. Just look at Mr. Omney’s logo and try to tell me that looks nice.)

To further annoy at least me, once you land on Mr. Romney’s homepage the rest of his type treatment is gone and is just replaced with the Flag “R.” Once I have moved past this I am pleased with the overall layout of the site. He has used photos and images well to draw the viewer’s eye into the different sections of the site. My two main complaints are I don’t see the reason for including the “We have a moral responsibility/Learn More” section immediately below the main nav bar. My eye quickly jumps over it to the main image. If this was that important a message it should be a part of the homepage rotator. Second, is that his blog feed is at the very bottom of the homepage, and the viewer must scroll all the way down to see this.

Now onto the incumbent, President Barack Obama. As I stated earlier, I thought that in the last election Mr. Obama had the most daring logo. While it has been around now for a while, and compared to Mr Omney’s the Obama “O” is not as daring, I must say that it is the most pleasing to the eye. His version of an American Flag abstraction does a good job of not only being readable as an O but also representing a horizon with a rising sun. The Obama design team also did a great job of pairing this modern abstraction with a more modern Slab Serif font that feels as progressive as the icon treatment.

The Obama team is also doing a great job on the website. They have forgone a rotating image on the homepage for one static visual and are using the “Record in Brief” section as a text rotator to call out the things he has accomplished while in office. The tones of blues in the majority of the site help define navigation and eye flow, while the hits of red help the items they want you to see most stand out. My favorite, the news feed falls above the fold, but my one critique here is that they are giving me too much of it. They have 13 items listed before the “see more” item appears causing the left column of content to be MUCH longer than the right column.

Even though I have left out a few of the still running Republican contenders in my very brief overviews, I went with the two frontrunners. That being said, if Ron Paul or Rick Santorum pull ahead, I promise to review their logos/websites too, though I can already say Rick Santorum’s website is scary. It seems to defy most standard practices in website organization and not at all in a good way.