The It’s Nice That Podcast investigates the design and context of political messages

Date
7 June 2017

Ahead of the snap general election this week (8 June 2017), the new episode of The It’s Nice That podcast investigates politics, looking at “any kind of design with a political message at the heart of it”.

Looking into historical and current political campaigns, It’s Nice That founders Will Hudson and Alex Bec begin by speaking to Steven Heller. The design critic and author gives an insightful overview on the history of political design, explaining how “over the last 100 years the political poster, or the political image, hasn’t changed all that much except stylistically”.

Next, Alex and Will speak to Pentagram partner and design heavyweight, Michael Bierut. Michael designed the logo for Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign last year, an unpaid position “done in complete secrecy”. The designer’s answers help to demystify Alex and Will’s questions on how you design a logo that will speak to both an 18 and an 80 year old. Michael explains how people don’t vote for a logo but the candidate, and therefore he tried “to do something that felt both familiar and surprising because there is no real demographic, the demographic is sort of everyone”.

Speeding up to the current election here in the UK, Alex and Will speak to CEO and founder of Creature of London, Dan Schute. Over the past six to seven years Dan and his team have worked on political broadcasts for the Green Party, “a client you work with because you believe in them and care about them and frankly, you get the chance to do amazing things with them,” he explains. In the previous local election and vote for the London’s mayor, Creature of London were the design masterminds behind the Secret Life of 5 Year Old Politicians campaign. However, in Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election his team were given just two weeks to innovate their recent broadcast, The Green Party: The Race for No.10.

The full episode can be listened to here, and don’t forget to vote!

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It’s Nice That Podcast: Political Design

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It’s Nice That Podcast: Political Design

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It’s Nice That Podcast: Political Design

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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