annieholmes97-blog

[annieholmes97-blog]

What is the importance of design in politics within digital culture?

Within the digital culture realm, politics plays a major role. Whether this be through the use of political memes to make statements and express personal opinions  or through campaign design that is used online to promote or demote parties, policies and politicians to a broad, digitalised medium. Political design is something we see online everyday in our everyday lives whether it’s realised or not. Political campaigns rely on sophisticated marketing techniques which draw on impactful design as party’s work on trying to promote their candidate in a positive way whilst also seeking to exploit the opposition’s weakness. This is achieved via various design approaches and is illustrated over several decades by campaigns in the U.S and Australia. From eye catching posters to jingles and slogans, political parties rely heavily on design to portray their party’s messages and promote themselves to the public. Design and branding is an integral part of politics and plays an important role in campaigns. Digital culture is harnessed in this way as politics uses it as a platform to put their own design branding out there to audiences they hadn't been able to reach prior to the digitalised age that we’re currently living in. I’m a designer who would like to one day branch into the world of design in politics particularly on digital mediums as I believe it is the only way to access such a large audience and make an impact. I’ve done thorough research on this topic of and am speaking from my own experiences online with design in politics as well as information I have sourced online.

Within political design and branding there has been numerous accounts of iconic and unforgettable campaigns throughout the years. From Barack Obama’s ‘Hope’ poster to Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan, design divulges into the good, bad and ugly of politics. All of these campaigns are ones that took place online and really had the most effect online. It was hard to scroll through Facebook or other social media platforms back in 2008 without coming across people uploading images of themselves in the Obama ‘Hope’ poster filter to express their opinions on the up and coming U.S election that was taking place at the time. This is an example of impactful and good design that really used digital media to it’s advantage. The focus on Obama’s identity and his simple promise of hope showcased to the consumers/voters of this design that they could put their trust into this man. Shepard Fairey himself states that “Most campaigns rely on photographs because the moment you do something that is a graphic interpretation where any artistic license has been taken, I think a lot of people are scared that it’s going to be perceived as propaganda” (Fairey. 2009). This statement supports that graphic design and graphic interpretation in politics is always growing and evolving but also has a heavy focus on the notion of identity within design online. This successful campaign by Obama is notable because of this unforgettable poster that went viral during 2009, which makes you wonder how his campaign might have gone if it wasn't for this poster by Fairey. The ‘Hope’ poster went viral on social media and was one of the first political posters to ever do so. Politics, design and the online world are three things closely tied and held together occasionally by the notion of identity. Political campaigns and the expectations for them were changed forever after this bold poster became famous and circulated the digital world. Fast forward to the most recent U.S election where ‘Make America Great Again’ was gaining traction online because of the controversy it stood for. This slogan, and the Obama poster would not have been made without designers and other creatives who really established a name for the campaigns in the online world reaching bigger audiences world wide had not been achieved before prior to politics coming to the internet. Both of these designs were successful against the oppositions campaigns which leads us to believe that good design really does play a vital part of politics.

Design and design trends are forever changing, which brings us to how design trends within in politics are also forever changing. Social media is a predominant part of our society that designers must make room for when they are designing logos, posters, slogans and other political branding related design. As discussed before, Obama’s ‘Hope’ poster went viral online and all over the world thanks to the help of social media. Designs and political campaign branding can now be put on a platform that is more easily accessed by millions of people world wide. Taking advantage of this platform is essential in todays political branding world in order to spread the campaigns message to a broader audience that it could never reach offline. Taking a look at the last U.S election, it is obvious that the use of social media is essential in the latest political game. This can be seen via Hillary Clintons logo that suggests the idea of moving forward with its democratic colour palette. The logo was made for a new digital age and according to Jacob Little from Fiasco Design “…Brand identities have to be shifted, repurposed, resized for social media and fit into a number of different conventions with ease.” (2016). Taking advantage of social media is essential so designing specifically for it is a huge part of political branding and has been for the past several years. A good design will cater to the needs of social media as supported by the statement from Little. Clinton’s website and other social medias are designed in a contemporary way to portray her modern ideals that she was trying to get across to her audience. Her website features an array of images, so much so that it looks like it could fit under the category of a ‘blog’, appealing to the current day’s online trends of blogs and people’s popular usage of photo media online. Although Clinton was unsuccessful when it came to winning the election, she still had good design and branding that ticked all the necessary boxes to potentially be successful in the current day where digital culture is essential for success.

Design is persuasive. It is used in advertising to make people want to eat a certain food, dress a certain way or wear a certain type of lipstick. The same design techniques apply to politics, as it works on trying to convince people of a certain way to vote. Not only does design have the ability to promote a particular personality and candidate but it also has the potential to get people out there voting. This can be supported by the digital world where the persuasive designs are being placed online on websites and social media platforms in order to convince people or persuade them of certain things. An example of this is the most recent plebiscite Australia had which was for the Yes or No vote for same sex marriage. All over social media people were posting ‘vote yes’ with pride designs which got people enthusiastic to vote ‘Yes’ in the plebiscite or to just vote at all. I believe that the resounding yes vote wouldn't have been achieved without the help of digital culture and social media that really lets people express themselves to a broad audience. It is essential as a design practitioner interested in political design that you are up to date with current affairs and keep a consistent message when designing for these issues and events for the digital world. The consistency of the ‘Yes Equality’ website and branding was essential in keeping its message straight and persuading the people of Australia to vote yes in the upcoming marriage plebiscite. It received positive feedback and was increasingly prominent on social media during the lead up to the results and voting.

Design is a tool being used in every aspect of politics, from the little guys protesting and designing their own posters to share at protests or over the internet all the way up to the major political parties in each country. Design and creativity is being used as a common ground for people from different political backgrounds to express their opinions to others which is achieved via using digital media as a platform to express these opinions. I personally began designing political based art back in 2016 in my first year of uni as I took to Instagram to share a photo of an illustration I had done for International Womens Day. I found that expressing myself through art and design and uploading it to a social media platform such as Instagram was a great way to express myself to my friends, family, followers and who ever else would stumble across the piece on my page. I liked that combining digital culture with my love for design in politics meant that there was a way for me to share my expressions and for people to physically see what I stood for. The success of individuals and candidates in the political world comes down to the designs of branding that they put out to the public. I think this can be heavily tied to up and coming designers who put themselves out there on social media to get notice and gain traction, especially in regards to controversial topics such as politics.

Design plays an integral role in politics and this is supported by digital platforms that allow political designs to be exhibited to a large, broad audience. Social media is also something that needs to be greatly understood by design practitioners such as myself in this field as it as a platform that needs to be used now a days as designs would not reach a such vast audience without the help of social media. The individuals designing their own protest posters or political posts to share online need to understand good design as well although they do not have to design as professionally as the big parties but they do need to have an eye catching design that can convey their message just as well as the more professional and clean cut government branding that we see exhibited on governments/political parties websites and social media accounts. As a graphic designer in third year Visual Communication Design, I love the way politics is interpreted online visually as everyone has different opinions and everyone expresses these differently but with the use of the internet it is easy to share these visual opinions which can help people gain new perspectives on politics. I hope this post enlightened people on how important design is within politics especially in regards to the way it is used online. I hope to one day be designing viral political campaigns as successful as Shepard Fairey’s ‘Hope’ poster for the Australian political online world. I end my post with a quote from An Xiao Mina who discusses the importance and effectiveness of memes in politics, which is something I think can be heavily linked with design in politics, “With rich visual language and a culture of creative remix and communal participation, meme culture has provided an outlet for new forms of public conversation and community building.” (2014) Rich visual language plays a significant role in the designs we see for political culture online.

Bibliography

Gambino, Megan. "Shepard Fairey: The Artist Behind The Obama Portrait." Smithsonian. N.p., 2009. Web. 1 June. 2018

Little, Jacob. "How US Election Campaigns Are Designed." Digital Arts. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 June. 2018

Launder, Mimi. "13 Wonderful US Election Posters Designed to Inspire People to Vote." Digital Arts. N.p., 2016. Web. 2 June. 2018.

Lysakowski, Lukasz. "The Design Of Political Movements – Freecodecamp." freeCodeCamp. N.p., 2017. Web. 2 June. 2018.

Mina, A. (2014). Batman, Pandaman and the Blind Man: A Case Study in Social Change Memes and Internet Censorship in China. Journal of Visual Culture, 13(3), pp.362-375.