The (photographic) source of all hope.
So you’re an intrepid journalist seeking to find out the source photo of that classic ‘HOPE’ poster, you find one photo you think matches, and you persue and try and prove it to the world, writing an epic article about your struggle to identify the original photographer. An interesting article it sure is, and the author promises to open up an exhibition with the photograph neatly displayed with the poster.
Only one problem really. You are wrong, and thanks to your enterprising nature, wrong on an epic scale. Turns out that a single Flickr user, stevesimula found the actual photo which matches about a thousand times better.
The diagram below was made by stevesimula and shows our intrepid journalist’s theory up against this much more sensible Flickr users:
It just goes to show, mistakes happen, and also Obama has had one too many photos of him taken. Also, a quick TinEye search reveals this is an AP photo, so I hope that helps in your continuing search.
On a more personal note I’m hoping (no pun intended) to pick up one of these posters when I’m in New York next week. Will I succeed?
This truly is unreported news, so as the only reader of my blog, it is your responsibility to spread it!
Obama’s Logo Options
If you want to see what Obama’s logo options were for this election, which, as you can see, could have looked very differently, check out this article on the LogoDesignLove blog: here.
Will Obama rebrand the Presidency?
Well a lot of people were hoping for an Obama victory (including, on occasion myself), and it looks like they got their wish. Obama obliterated his rival John McCain, through what is undoubtedly the most expensive largest and most well managed presidential campaign in American history.
What many are wondering though, is since his campaign was so marketing based, can Obama live up to the hype? Others have asked, since the campaign was so well managed, will the presidency be as well?
Well it seems that we already have some indication, after only a couple of days since Obama became ‘President Elect’, there is already ‘Change’ afoot, albeit in website form, it seems Obama’s campaign team has not abandoned him now he’s won the contest, and the slick design aspect of Obama’s approach continues. His team, now called the ‘Obama-Biden Transition Project’ has set up a website that may point the way forward to how he’ll manage the presidency, Change.gov
This website, seemingly as well designed as his original BarackObama.com site, sets out what Obama plans to do and continues several aspects of that site, including a blog. Now the last person I want to sound like is the guy who told John Oliver that it was incredibly important that the next president be able to use Flickr and Twitter. But online seems to herald the most changes, at least in the short term.
It seems that was for the best that I wasn’t addicted to Obama’s social presence, (at least for the moment), since Obama’s twitter has been dormant ever since he (or once of his staffers) thanked those who helped “make history” on the 5th, and Obama’s flickr was last updated on the 6th with photos of Obama with family of before and during Obama’s victory, and later speech. From the looks of it, these were used simply campaign tools to gather support from an internet savvy audience, and there is no sign of those earlier tools (apart from that blog) on the President Elect’s new site.
Does this abandonment of internet tools mean that when Obama becomes president, even this blog and site will go? Or should we see the Change site as a sign of something more?
I mentioned earlier the slick design that the original BarackObama.com site and the Change.gov site both share, however I don’t know much about how much power the President gets over their identity or that of the white house, but I would bet that if Obama’s team could change it, they would. This from the team that caused such a raucous by giving Obama a seal before he was even elected (see image above).
Will Obama rebrand the Presidency? And will his online efforts change politics forever? I don’t know, but there’s always the… hope.
Presidential Campaign Poll: Who won?
Well we are several months away from knowing who will win the election, and the respective parties haven’t even finalised who is their candidate. However I have dared to ask the impossible question, who do the amazing audience of this website think should be the next president of the United States of America?
And you didn’t disappoint.
This was very interesting, as we had many votes varying from party to party. The winner was Barack Obama, as you can see, he had my vote.
One vote below hoever, Ron Paul proved to be everyone’s favourite grand-pa with his libertarianism, which you know is pretty inspiring, but still, has he got much of a chance? No offense.
The last few days saw stragglers votes with Hillary Clinton getting one vote and then, strangely, perhaps, Huckabee getting a vote today. All I can say is wow. If McCain becomes president, we didn’t see it coming.
Thanks so much for voting, and we will have a new poll later today!