I’ve always been very interested in graphic design.
I’m not that great at it, but hey, it’s fun for me.
One thing I’ve always been interested in is typefaces, and how your emotions can be influenced by the way words look when they are printed or written.
This article is going to go in depth about how type influences people and it will make you think a little differently about the IMPACT your font choice has, and how different companies are trying to make you feel with their font choice.
You may even have an impulse to re-do your own font after reading this.
Without further ado:
There are four main candidates left.
I’m going to take a look at their choices in fonts, and interpret the feeling and meaning behind their choices.
First, Ted Cruz.
So, I’m not really sure a whole lot of thought was put into his font.
It’s a “serif” font (look for the little extra lines attached to the longer strokes in the character). These types of fonts aren’t often used as headlines, which a logo, ultimately, should be. Serif fonts are typically used to increase readability in body text. Cruz’s font is “Electra,” and was created for that exact purpose – body text. The color is a bit drab for my taste.
So, ultimately, I’m not in love with his choice. The type is decent yet there isn’t anything memorable or interesting about it. Even the color is boring.
The choice strikes me as a bit questionable, TBQH, much like his use of the little flame that supersedes his name.
As I was looking around a bit to identify the fonts being used, I ran across this gem posted in a Business Insider article:
Ted Cruz’s campaign logo looks so familiar. pic.twitter.com/XsWYau105R
— clydetheslyde (@clydetheslyde) March 23, 2015
Which is pretty funny. This made me laugh. Seriously, is he trying to depict a burning flag? Not a great chose there, pal.
OK, up next, Bernie!
I really don’t like this choice. It looks… childish. The font name is “Jubilat.” I don’t like that curl of the r, or how it meets the n. I also am not a huge fan of the lower case or the serif font choice.
He may have chosen this less than powerful font on purpose simply as a marketing tactic, I don’t know.
Think about it: doesn’t look friendly? It’s probably the most friendly looking font of all the candidates. Now, imagine for a minute this font representing a world leader. The leader of the largest economy and most powerful military in the world. Doesn’t really seem like it fits, does it?
It does match Bernie’s personality I think. Not sure if that’s a good thing.
Before I get into the final two, the heavy hitters who will likely be facing off this November, let me show you a logo I like a lot yet isn’t one the top four contenders.
Rand Paul
I like this logo a lot. I like the bold type, I like the italics. Italics make you feel some action, some dynamism. I chose bolt uppercase italics for my chiropractic logo and for the Practice Domination logo. The blue is too dark IMO, and I would have looked for another bold font that left less gap between the AR and AN, or just spaced the letters out a bit more. Either way I like it.
Hillary
Hillary has some stuff going for her, logo wise, and some stuff that I don’t like. First of all the H with the arrow looks like a subway sign, and the geometrically uniform H is lazy. Ever part of the H is the same size and has no style. I do like most of her color choices the bold blue and red, however on her other banner the red print over the blue background makes it hard to focus.
I like the modern type (font name: unity) for her first name Hillary on the banner, however I think it would be more powerful in all caps, plus it would be more uniform. That drop after the lls doesn’t look great.
The reason sans-serif print isn’t used in body text is because the letters have more variance in width which makes it hard to read. See how narrow the ill is compared to the rest of the letters? If that were smaller the readability would go way down. If she put her name in all caps it would look a lot better and be more powerful. At the very least she should have increased the spacing between the letters.
In summary, I like the font and the colors, however it doesn’t really talk to me; it’s not saying anything. It looks corporate.
I don’t know why this years candidates seem to shy away from bold typefaces. Many are using lower case letters, when in the past the trend was for bold caps. Remember the Bush Cheney nascar style logo? THAT was bold. Big and bold. Which leads me to:
Next: Trump
Some people around the web have said his logo is boring. While the typeface, Akzidenz-Grotesk Bold Extended doesn’t say much in itself, the character uniformity with the spacing in between creates a bold and powerful statement. If the letters were closer together it would not have the same impact.
Backing up the logo is Trump’s campaign slogan, which is also bold and powerful.
On a scale of 1-10, I think it’s a definite win. It’s not trying to be cute, it’s not compromising, it’s not going anywhere.
It’s big, bold and in your face.
It’s… presidential…
