Between Elsewhere and Here

Mirror's Edge

The best thing to happen to political design was Barack Obama’s campaign. The approach they took to their campaign was the same approach a corporation would take towards their brand. Everything had a coherent look and feel. You could tell from just their usage of font and typography that it was a Barack Obama “Change” sign even if neither his name or logo appeared on it.

The Obama campaign’s dedication to their brand DNA is making my job easier. Instead of trying to convince a client of the importance of brand coherence, I now have clients coming to me saying, “Do for us what Obama’s campaign did.” Sure! I’d be thrilled to. Moreover, the level of design that came out of the Obama campaign has pushed myself and others in this business to do even better. In so many ways, the success of Obama has elevated the job I do, and in the regard, I’m inspired and influenced by the Obama campaign.

Benjamin Netenyahu, on the other hand, has decided that instead of being inspired by Barack Obama, he wants to BE Barack Obama. His new campaign website is a mirror image of Obama’s. Now, unlike most copies, Netenyahu’s site captures the overall feel of Obama’s (it’s painfully clear), but it missed on the details. The icons used around the site don’t see to fit into the deign. The gradients don’t flow as nicely as they do for Obama and the silhouettes feel forced. The most noticeable different between the two sites is the sidebar for Netenyahu is on the left, whereas its on the right for Obama giving it a “mirroed” look (see below) when placed next to the Obama site – but that’s not a design choice since Hebrew is read right to left, opposite of English.

I do like that Netenyahu’s tie and hair match the coloring of the site. That’s a nice little touch. It was great working with Kay because we used her favorite color in our site design. That made it really easy to use pictures of her in a light blue jacket, sweater or scarf on the site since she wore them all the time.

Netenyahu Obama Site Comparison

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By Christopher on 11/18/08 02:46 PM | | Link | Comments [0]

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Mirror's Edge

Benjamin Netenyahu basically steals the campaign website of Barack Obama. Or maybe Obama gave it to him to use. He is a friend of Israel, right?

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