Here we go again! As Iowa Republicans brave sub-zero temperatures to caucus for their next presidential nominee (spoiler alert: it will be Trump), it’s once again time to take a judgmental look at the campaign logos the campaign plaster all over yard signs and T-shirts in hopes of convincing voters to look them over. This is one of the smallest crop of primary logos I’ve seen since starting this series in 2008, but there’s still a lot to see, so let’s get started. As always, any aesthetic assessments of campaign logos do not imply support or lack thereof of the candidates themselves, obviously.
Starting with the best logo of the year according to me:
Well, this is a pleasant surprise. As I noted four years ago when discussing Pete Buttigieg’s excellent primary logo, I’m a sucker for logos that look like the insignia of minor league baseball teams, and Ron DeSantis nails the aesthetic here. The primary and secondary fonts are both perfect for their jobs, and the graceful arc that forms the baseline of DeSantis’s name is elegant and understated. The flag device at the top expertly straddles the line between excessively corporate and insipidly literal. I have a few quibbles—the E is the same size as the other letters, for one thing, and I don’t like it—but overall this is a quality effort that strikes the right tone without clobbering you over the head with it. Grade: A-
I hoped we’d have all learned from Tom Vilsack’s abortive 2008 presidential campaign that there’s really no way to design a logo around a giant letter V without making it look like a prop from the film version of Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Vivek Ramaswamy’s logo is certainly no exception. The man didn’t choose his own name, of course, and like other candidates with problematic last names—yes, Pete, I’m looking at you again—Ramaswamy made the prudent decision to lead with his first name instead. And despite it being terrifying, I like this logo. Good font choices, good flag device, and the overall effect is an artful one. I’d have centered the middle V in Vivek directly underneath the logo even if it means departing from perfect symmetry otherwise, but I can see both sides. Grade: B-
In years past I used to ding candidates by a half grade for using the same logo they used the last time around, but I think the time for that is over. Since Barack Obama’s first election the importance of personal brands has increased significantly, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore to throw away equity in an existing successful logo just for the sake of coming up with a new one. However, that doesn’t obligate me to give this logo a higher grade than I have in the past. The E is doing a wavy thing that it didn’t do before, and I guess the blue is a bit lighter, but it’s still basically the same. Go read the 2020 primary and general election roundups for my previous impressions of this one. Grade: C
Nikki Haley’s logo is fine. That’s it. Just fine. It sits there inoffensively, making very little impression of any kind. We saw a lot of logos like this in 2016, when several candidates thought it would be enough to type their names into Word and maybe play with the colors a little. The font choice is kind of nice, but otherwise this is about as perfunctory as a campaign logo gets in the current era. Grade: C
Yes, despite not getting anywhere near a debate stage for several weeks, Asa Hutchinson is still inexplicably in the presidential race! And it’s a good thing he is, too, because nobody brings that 1984 primary season feel like Asa! The porky serif typeface just screams “I’m Fritz Hollings and I want to be your next President”! And the exclamation point is borrowed from previous luminaries like Lamar! Alexander and Jeb! Bush, who used it in failed efforts to give their campaigns all the verve and elan that they themselves lacked! I kind of love this logo a little bit! It looks so bad, but it feels so good! Grade: C
I’m only doing this one because we’re short on candidates this year. (I’m not doing RFK Jr. because he’s not a major party candidate anymore, and I’m not doing Marianne Williamson because fuck Marianne Williamson. Also, fuck RFK Jr.) Anyway, this is a terrible logo. I can only assume this is an effort to recapture some of the magic of the Howard Dean campaign from 2004. Even if that were a good idea to begin with, that election was 20 years ago. Even the logo doesn’t want Dean Phillips to win. It’s more of a statement, a footnote reminding you that Phillips is in the race, or was, or whatever. If Asa Hutchinson can use an exclamation point, Dean Phillips should use a period. Grade: D
I guess we have to cover this one again, though there’s nothing I can say about it that I haven’t said countless times over the past eight years. It’s loud, uncouth, and unimaginative, just like Trump himself. The only difference this time is the year and the fact that Mike Pence isn’t mentioned anymore, which only means it’s going to get a little bit worse when Trump picks Marjorie Taylor Greene or whoever as a running mate. Grade: D
So that’s it, then. If this year’s go-round is a little less exciting than others, I’m sorry. I don’t pick the candidates or the logos. Please do cast your vote below for the logo you like the best, and check back sometime this fall for the general election roundup.