Obama 5280 Magazine Cover by Shepard Fairey
While in Denver, CO last week visiting family I saw this August 2008 “5280 Denver’s Magazine” cover. I recognized it right away as a Shepard Fairey design (or a ripoff off of his work…which happens quite often). Note that my iPhone seems to have distorted the red to an orange….which is actually more appropriate to Denver, since their Bronco’s colors are orange and blue!
Denver is getting ready to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention this month and 5280 hired Fairey, (supposedly at a discounted rate, according to foliomag.com) to create the cover image.
You would have to be living under a rock, or perhaps just not interested in politics to have missed the posters created by Fairey for the Obama campaign. The posters are in this same graphic style; “Progress” was sold directly through Fairey’s website and sold out the same day, “Hope” was created by direct request of the Obama campaign and sold through the Barack Obama campaign site and appears to no longer be available as well.
Campaign posters:
Fairey is a graphic designer who has a very controversial style, he is described as a “street artist” and has been arrested many times for his art (mostly for posting it in places where it was not allowed), much of his artwork is politically motivated and there is clearly a very communist propaganda poster look to some of his work, he even uses the words “propaganda engineering” on his own website… not that there is anything inherently evil or wrong with that.
I experienced two immediate reactions to the cover: I like it and it made me uncomfortable. If you’ve seen any of my own paintings or graphic design work you’ll recognize that I am drawn to the “poster art” look and have a graphically bold style, so I am of course a fan of Shepard Fairey, at the same time I feel conflicted by the use of what I consider to be a design style that is derived from communism in support of a democratic nominee.
The content, colors and context are all appropriate for the magazine cover image: Obama IS the Democrats nominee, the Rocky Mountains and City of Denver are in the background, (the mostly) Red and Blue in the design are colors associated with USA and the elections, and Obama seems to be in mid sentence, which is appropriate as he will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention.
I’m not saying that I think this style should not be used during our elections, but this poster is supposed to be in support of Obama as a candidate? Isn’t this style more appropriate to use as a question of authority or suggestion of excessive control? Do the Democrats really want to send this message?
Communist posters:
It seems slightly ominous me to use a style that conjures up communism….isn’t this a conflict of interest? Fairey has definitely attained pop icon status bending communist propaganda to his will, but can the Obama camp use this pop culture twist on a idealistically opposing political idea to their advantage?
Downloads:
- 5280 Tabloid poster, letter poster & iPhone wallpaper of the magazine cover.
- Obama paster download from Obeygiant.com
Links:
- Great Newsweek article Expertinent: Why the Obama “Brand” Is Working, by Andrew Romano – interview with graphic designer and critic Michael Bierut, about Obama’s marketing & branding.
- Article from The Washington Post by William Booth Obama’s On-the-Wall Endorsement, with more background info on Fairey and his support of his design decision and a collection of some great observations about the Obama poster from different sources.
- If you’re an artist and you want to get involved in the Obama campaign, Moveon.org is sponsoring a contest.
