Presidential Typefaces

Presidential races are not only defined by the candidates they are also defined by the imagery and typography used.  One such campaign that is all still familiar to us are the Obama 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

Gotham

Gotham is the trademark font of the Obama campaign and now will be forever known as a presidential typeface. What I found interesting is how a typeface can take on more or a different meaning if it is used in a presidential race.

Whitney, Mercury

Mascot, Revolution Gothic

Also I found it interesting that in more current presidential races more typographical hierarchy is being used in advertising and campaigning. I think this is an interesting move in that although they are still political ads they can still be simple elegant and beautiful.

Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic, Futura

ITC Garamond

Franklin Gothic, Futura

Also in my research I came across these old buttons and I thought it was interesting how typography was used differently in the 1960's and the 1970's during elections. I also found the typography on this buttons to be much more iconic. All in all political typography can tell you a lot about the candidate and what they are trying to portray.

Here are some links I found to some other really great blog posts about the subject.

http://fontsinuse.com/tags/772/2012%20presidential%20campaign( Also great for looking up typefaces used on certain things )

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/01/27/what_font_says_change/