Visual Design of Election Campaign Evolved Through Time?

SD2305_20171_A :  Design History

Member List:

CHAN Chiu Ka

CHAN Wai Hang Daniel

HO Chun Kit

KWONG Chi Wing

LI Tianhao

LUI Lok Man

YIU Hoi Kwan

Tutor: Clive Ng

      Topic : Visual design of election campaign evolved through time

Introduction

When you look at a campaign advertisement, have you ever thought of the use of elements and the historical background behind? From John Quincy Adams’ election in 1824 to the present Hong Kong election in 2017, the design works of election campaign has evolved drastically along with the change in time. This essay will be discussed along a timeline of campaign advertising history which is split into three stages. The first stage- the 19th century, visual designs were focused on candidates’ appearances and concept; the second stage- the 20th century, visual designs starts to take in consideration of public voices in shaping the candidate's’ image; the third stage- the 21st century, public voices and wants became the biggest concern of design. In each stage, visual element of design works will be described and analysed, and will then be supported by historical means such as design movement, social situation and technological level, hence cause designers to make good use of technologies to make relative design works in helping shape candidates’ images.

Stage 1 - 19th century

In 1824, John Quincy Adams included slogan, symbolic elements and his portrait in his campaign poster. For the slogan ‘Like John Adams, but Quincyer!’, John Adams is the 2nd President of United States, who was well known for his passion and love for the country, brilliant mind and his extreme political independence. His son, John Quincy Adams borrow the name and the positive image of his father in his slogan, saying he will be a lovable president like his father, hoping the public to project his father’s positive image onto him. For symbolic elements, the use of ribbon and serif typeface give viewer a feeling of elegance, formal and confidence. The bald eagle, the emblem of the nation. Shortly after the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4, 1776, the bald eagle was designed as an official seal for the new nation, which symbolised the strength and freedom of America. Since ancient times, the eagle has been seen as a sign of strength.

 
John Quincy Adams’s campaign poster

From these campaign posters, we can see that the bald eagle, candidates’ name, portrait and slogan is the essential elements in the poster.

1828 Andrew Jackson       1848 Zacharias Taylor      1868 Ulysses Grant

As for the historical background of technology, according to the book ‘Megg’s History of Graphic Design’ P.144, A steam engine is developed by James Watt in the time of The Industrial Revolution(1760- 1840), make energy generated increased a hundredfold. Huge investment was put in machines for mass manufacture and this became the basis for the conversion of agricultural society to an industrial one. A steam-powered press was invented by Koenig in 1814 and in 1820 the amount of paper generated by paper making machine has exceeded the amount of paper made by hand, this proved the wide use of machine in the society. Under the above three conditions, the printing of posters became more efficient, the expenditure of printing has decreased dramatically. Posters can be mass produced and spread for campaign advertising.

1814 Koenig, first steam-powered press

1820, first paper making machine

From the above we can conclude that in the 19th century, designers’ work focus on candidates’ outlook and appearances, concept and stance. Candidates’ name, portrait and visual symbols are included in most posters. The whole advertising design at that time is a one-way communication, the only sender is the candidate, the only way of spreading information is poster, the role of public is only to receive, the only action they can do as participating in the event is to vote. designer shape the candidate's’ image only by thinking of an ideal image of a president (powerful, with authority, can lead the public)

Stage 2 - 20th century

Stepping into 20th century, one of the most representative and successful election campaign in 20th century that must be mentioned is the Dwight Eisenhower’s campaign.  The slogan, ‘I Like IKE’, is promoted to emphasis Dwight Eisenhower (his nickname is Ike) likeable characteristic as he was labeled and praised as the World War II hero by Americans. Ike’s simple, cheerful slogan resonated with the times, and the pithy rhyme had the added advantage of fitting easily on campaign buttons and bumper stickers.

Analysing the design of different types of promotion items, some common visual element and features can be observed. For example, the colour of America flag, red, blue and white colour are widely used. Red, the colour with highest wavelength,is mainly used as the clear background colour. Matching with the Bold San-serif typeface of the text ‘I Like IKE’, the visual image is powerful and has high visual impact, The photographic image of Dwight Eisenhower is simply merged with the slogan, making the slogan as the only focus point for the audience while keeping the overall cleanness. The outcome is stimulating for the audience and leave them a remarkable impression about the message transmitted, which imperceptibly influenced the audience to ”like IKE” and support him.

The above analysis can be further explained with the background of the design movement at that time. International Typographic Style is clearly shown to be applied in the work of the election campaign of Dwight Eisenhower. According to Tony Seddon (2015), It is a graphic design style as a part of the modernist movement that emerged in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 1920s and was fully developed by during the 1950s. Sans-serif typefaces is greatly supported by the typographic designer at that time. Jan Tschichold, a German typographic designer is one of them who strongly advocating the beauty of sans serif fonts and clean.. As it also share the same concept of the International Typographic style, emphasizing cleanness, readability, and objectivity. Many of the early International Typographic Style works, include the IKE’ election campaign, featured typography as a primary design element in addition to its use in text.