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We got the assignment almost two years before the election.
And I had a small firm at the time.
We were just, I think we were about four or five people.
And the way we got it was that I had a former classmate, actually,
so pay attention to your classmates.
And he was working at a motion design studio in a video agency.
that had a strong relationship with David Axelrod,
the chief campaign strategist for Obama.
And they were already assigned a bunch of work in preparation for the announcement of his candidacy.
And they were asked if they could do the identity.
And they said that they didn't do identities,
but they could bring in a partner.
So my former classmate, Steve Juras, gave me a call...
and said I've got this project but you can't tell anyone about it.
And can you send me a few logos that you've done recently.
They needed something within a couple of weeks.
Everyone was leaving for the holidays,
so we worked as a team remotely.
The only campaign work that the campaign pointed us to,
was Harold Washington's campaign for the mayor of Chicago.
Which I believe was in the late 80's.
And he became the first African American major of Chicago.
And was an important figure in Obama's career early on.
Coincidentally, in the end, the motif of something rising, or a sun, we did share that with this.
But it wasn't purposeful.
And I didn't even realize that we shared that until much later.
When we look at developing an identity,
there's three criteria that I really look to.
And this isn't necessarily the way in which all people approach logos,
but the first one specifically is somewhat unique.
In developing logos we look to tell a story.
And it's a story that the criteria for which we don't want to put CEOs, for example, in the position of having to describe their logo.
By talking about color, or talking about typography,
or talking about geometry.
You'll find that most CEOs are not comfortable talking about those things.
What we want them to be able to say is,
things like: It stands for a new day, it stands for a new beginning...something that they can connect with,
and that's meaningful to their brand and to their message.
So we definitely look for that, we also look for stylistic resonance.
And that's a little tricky, because things go in and out fashion.
And what you really need to balance is something that resonant currently, but also has a timeless potential.
And we did that, I think, to some moderate degree of success we captured a kind of web 2.0 sensibility,
in some versions of the mark, but it also, I think, will stand the test of time in a more fundamental way.
And then finally impeccable execution.
And this is very, it's tricky to know what this means in a lot of ways...
But a mark, I was just telling one of your classmates that I always found that book designers and logo designers...
are very different because book designers think more broadly and think about systems, and pacing, and how chapters work, and grids.
But logo designers have to focus on this little mark that has to be perfect.
And making it perfect, and making it balanced, and making it really sing is a real, real art.