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Color & Design In Politics: Obama

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It's no big surprise that the art world tends to favor the left leaning candidate during a campaign, but what might be more surprising about this years election is the sheer number of artists who are rallying around and using their talents to support Barack Obama.

Well known artist like Shepard Fairey, Ron English, and so on... have brought the most attention to the 'Art for Obama' phenomenon, which is documented nicely in this Wall Street Journal Article, but it's not only well known artist showing their support with great design and art. The Obama camp itself brought in 29 pages of great designs in an open submission for their Tees by the People campaign, and Etsy has nearly 2000 items tagged Obama, not to mention the almost 10,000 items on Ebay. Obviously campaigns are big business for everyone, but the outpouring of support by the U.S. art and design community has made this one of the most colorful campaigns in history.

Here are 12 palettes inspired by many of these wonderful prints. By the way, today is the last day to register to vote.

3336.jpg
Obama_by_Ron_English

4665.jpg
Obama_by_Cody_Hudson

4628.jpg
Obama_by_Burlesque

1131587598_f01ce6958a_o.jpg
Obama_by_xtrapop

4164.jpg
Obama_by_David_Choe

obama.jpg
Obama:Shepard_Fairey

hansenprogress.jpg
Obama_by_ScottHansen

unknown-3-6.jpg
Obama:_Tristan_Eaton

dsc_0009.JPG
Obama_by_GoTellMama

obamaupper.jpg
Obama:_Date_Farmers

obamasharifi.jpg
Obama:_John_Sharifi

obamayeswecan.jpg
Obama_by_Antar_Dayal

Editor's Note from COLOURlover:
This is a color and design blog. This post is not meant as an endorsement of either candidate. What the post is commenting on is the creative movement that has produced a number of artistic works for Obama. There are many more, better and informative websites for political information and commentary. It is unfortunate that we are in a time where anything relating to politics incites such aggressive comments from both sides. We encourage you to limit your responses to the creative works above and to remember to treat your fellow COLOURlovers with respect no matter where their political leanings fall. Any comments that are about the politics, are hateful or mean will be edited or removed.

7 October, 2008
Comments 22
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Comments

Showing 1 - 22 of 22 Comments

seashelle…
seashelley wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
this is an awesome blog post!!! beautiful images and gorgeous palettes...thanks so much for creating this, evad!!!

leslie
leslie wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
Thank you for posting this! Each of these portraits are beautiful. I especially love the last palette.

Auset
Auset wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
This blog is about color and design not defaming the character of others.

Excellent palettes and artwork, evad.

R3V0LUTii…
7 Oct, 2008
I'm more of a Conservative if I do say so myself, but I must admit these are really nice palettes. (:
Especially the sixth one. I love that yellow-y color.

manekinek…
manekineko wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
pff are you really going to make a post centering around politics and then add a footnote that any commentary on the politics displayed will be edited or removed? booooo

*Response from COLOURlover*

Yes. I know that is probably not the best thing to do, but I did not write this post and felt it important to note that it was not an endorsement from the site itself. My hope is that we can sometimes post design focused items that relate to current events without having to fully endorse the issues.. I recognize that is a very delicate challenge for us and something I take very seriously. We have probably one of the most supportive and positive communities online and I'm trying my best to keep it that way. I suppose the fair thing to have done would have been to showcase the artwork created for both candidate rather than just Obama... lessons learned.

manekinek…
manekineko wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
*Response from COLOURlover*
Yes. I know that is probably not the best thing to do, but I did not write this post and felt it important to note that it was not an endorsement from the site itself. My hope is that we can sometimes post design focused items that relate to current events without having to fully endorse the issues.. I recognize that is a very delicate challenge for us and something I take very seriously. We have probably one of the most supportive and positive communities online and I'm trying my best to keep it that way. I suppose the fair thing to have done would have been to showcase the artwork created for both candidate rather than just Obama... lessons learned.


Cool I can dig it, thanks for the thoughtful response, you're the man

aleja2306
aleja2306 wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
Love your blog, the images and the palettes!!!!!!! Great Work!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karmaveri…
7 Oct, 2008
I love Obama.

This was based on Shepard Fairey's work, as well.

VOTE!

I made it a while back.

Mitternac…
7 Oct, 2008
Excellent post from every point of view. This is surely a unique campaign in many aspects, and the movement you are pointing is a symptom of the historical nature of the period. I'm very impressed by the political involvement of these artists. They seem to have an extremely strong awareness of the role they have to play in their time.

Also thankyou for your great selection. I particularly love the work of Scott Hansen. I had seen this poster before and thought the colours were gorgeous. I'm very impressed by the political involvement

Mitternac…
7 Oct, 2008
The last words of my comment managed to make their way out of the selection before I pressed Ctrl-X. Sorry, it's a bit late here ;)

The Coole…
The Cooler wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
I made this palette last year. Great post.OBAMA_in_2008!
ps: go OBAMA
pss: sorry, had to

Lulu 05
Lulu 05 wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
great post -- i love how the Obama campaign is so fresh, hip, and updated -- definitely a change from previous presidential campaigns. i think the O with the little field is just so pretty, too

Miaka
Miaka wrote:
7 Oct, 2008
Hot Topic!

Very interesting though, it would be interesting to see past campaign posters too.

TheColgat…
8 Oct, 2008
Hope

Aw shucks.

x_1013_x
x_1013_x wrote:
8 Oct, 2008
I'd just like to say, there are some who prefer another candidate, but okay.

Lulu 05
Lulu 05 wrote:
8 Oct, 2008
yeah, but that "other candidate" needs a good graphic designer.

Neropatti
Neropatti wrote:
8 Oct, 2008
^ I see we need divine intervention again.

Neropatti
Neropatti wrote:
9 Oct, 2008
Now my last comment looks funny...

flashtrac…
flashtrac3 wrote:
9 Oct, 2008
Congratulations! :)

delic8
delic8 wrote:
9 Oct, 2008
its_presidential!

boxcarstu…
9 Oct, 2008
Those are awesome pieces. Now that I think of it, there aren't many McCain artistic pieces.

smorgan86…
smorgan865 wrote:
9 Oct, 2008
Fabulous article and finds of those poster and such.


Trackbacks
5 Trackbacks So Far...Hooray!

obama - a colourful campaign | make time to design. if only it were that simple.
7 Oct, 2008
[...] the full article here>> spread the [...]
hindsight » colours for Obama
8 Oct, 2008
[...] site colourlovers breaks down the colour themes used in some of those [...]
Political Art: Sort of scary, sort of funny « Sleepy Time Gal
9 Oct, 2008
[...] http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2008/10/07/colors-for-obama/ [...]
Ryan Shull » Blog Archive » Political Design
9 Oct, 2008
[...] Colour Lovers has a great blog post that show cases many fine examples of artists taking the Obama campaign and running with it in their own creative way. [...]
Friday Focus: 10/10/08 | Devlounge
10 Oct, 2008
[...] - Color & Design In Politics: Obama The unofficial design-centric campaigns for US presidential nominee Barack Obama is nothing short [...]
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