Last year, I wrote a column about how the Obama design aesthetic -- including, but not limited to, the use of the Gotham font and the reassuring palette of blues the campaign used -- was spreading around the world. If you're into this kind of thing, we learn (Via kottke.org) that Scott Thomas, the design director of the 2008 Obama campaign, has created a book called Designing Obama, which describes the process that went into creating the Obama visual brand. You can read the whole thing online, get a hardcover version, or, of course, get it for your iPad.
It's safe to say that no campaign in history paid as much attention to design as the Obama campaign did (has any other campaign even had a design director?). But maybe it will set a trend. If our campaigns aren't going to get any more high-minded or edifying (and of course they won't), at least they might be more pleasing to the eye.
--Paul Waldman
