Obama Logo - Process

Process

The logo was designed by Chicago-based Sender LLC (a brand development and design company) on assignment from Chicago-based mo/de (a motion design studio). The latter had been brought on board early on by David Axelrod, Obama’s chief campaign strategist, although it had never done a political identity before. Creative director Sol Sender, now a partner at VSA Partners and founding director of the IBM Design Lab, led the design team of three which included Amanda Gentry and Andy Keene. Project managers at mo/de were Colin Carter and Steve Juras.

"We were looking at the “o” of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day,” according to Sender. “The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope." "The design expression was so constrained and so bland for so many years in politics," Sender says. "I think we had a fresh approach because we’d never worked on a campaign before” — and, of course, the power of the logo had a lot to do with “the power of the candidate’s message."

The final design was decided among seven or eight options in the first round. "In terms of our internal process, though, I believe the logo — as we now know it — came out of a second round of design explorations. At any rate, it happened quite quickly, all things considered. The entire undertaking took less than two weeks."

The design began late in 2006 and the finished logo made its debut when Obama officially announced his candidacy for president February 10, 2007 in Springfield, Illinois.

John Slabyk and Scott Thomas, designers with the Obama campaign oversaw the customization of the logo for 12 different identity groups as well as for each state with 50 additional versions. There was also identity for Republicans and Independents supporting Barack Obama.