![\"RICH_mitt-romney-logo\"](\"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/6a0153915ddbff970b016769463271970b.jpg\" "\\"RICH_mitt-romney-logo\\"")
<\/a>\nThis year\u2019s Presidential election has to be one of the most divisive and fundamentally polarizing contests in a long time.\u00a0 Whether its Black vs White, Rich vs Poor, Democratic vs Republican, Liberal vs. Conservative, you can clearly see a distinct difference in each candidate\u2019s target audience \u2013 at least from a marketing strategy perspective that is. Their backstories go something like this: President Obama has lived the American Dream, raised by a single-mother, worked his way up the ranks to become President working to help the middle-class and the underserved. Romney by contrast, born into wealth, keeps off-shore bank accounts and questionable tax records and earned a paltry $20 million last year looks to help big business and wants to tax the poor to help the rich (allegedly).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Without getting too much into the Politics of it all – this is after all a DESIGN and entrepreneurship blog, I couldn\u2019t help but notice the Romney campaign logo, especially since he recently announced that his running mate would be Paul Ryan. Right away, from a graphical perspective, you can see the RR (Rolls Royce) image popping up on various blog sites:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Trajan Pro vs Gotham<\/strong><\/p>\n Jokes aside, I wanted to take a look at the font choice: Trajan Pro.<\/p>\n Anyone that is familiar with my firm\u2019s work, knows that we love Trajan Pro. We use it often because it\u2019s a great Display (headline) font for anything that is upscale or elegant. In the case of the Romney campaign logo, does the use of Trajan Pro caters to their upscale, higher tax-bracket, wealthy audience?<\/p>\n Typekit by Adobe describes Trajan Pro as such:<\/p>\n “The inscription on the base of the Trajan column in Rome is an example of classic Roman letterforms, which reached their peak of refinement in the first century A.D. It is believed that the letters were first written with a brush, then carved into the stone. These forms provided the basis for this Adobe Originals typeface designed by Carol Twombly in 1989. Trajan is an elegant typeface well-suited for display work. “<\/em><\/p>\n Trajan Pro just looks \u2018Elegant and Wealthy\u2019 doesn\u2019t it? You fancy, huh?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gotham for the People<\/strong><\/p>\n Take a look at the Obama\/Biden campaign logo from 2008<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Obama “O” logo was designed by Chicago-based design agency Sender LLC\u2019s Sol Sender.\u00a0 They actually created more than just a logo, they created an identity which began with the \u201cO\u201d and creating a \u2018rising sun\u2019 to symbolize a new day. According to Sender, The power of the logo a lot to do with the \u201cpower of the candidate\u2019s\u2019message\u201d<\/p>\n The particular campaign logo above uses the serif font Perpetua, which is fancy, but later on it was changed to Gotham, a sans-serif font designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gotham as a font is supposed to evoke a sense of common, every day, non-ethnic and understated sophistication. According to Jones, \u201cits not the kind of letter a type designer would make. It\u2019s the kind of letter an engineer would make.\u201d Its no frills, it\u2019s shown here in this Obama \u201908 campaign slogan:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a funny poster I found in a Google image search using Gotham:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And even more Gotham:<\/p>\n And here is the new 2012 Obama Campaign Logo:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWe use Gotham at our firm all the time. Its clean, its simple, its strong. It doesn\u2019t have the regal, rich, wealthy baggage that comes along with the elegant Trajan Pro because its just here to get the job done. It reaches the masses. Gotham, like the city that shares its name, should be for the people! (Channeling the character “Bane” from Dark Knight Rises)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n