Steven MikulanIt didn't get the press that Shepard Fairey's iconic “Obama Hope” poster illustration received, but the Obama campaign's distinctive “O” logo remains one of the most effective images to appear on a peel-off sticker. Its curved red stripes suggested both the ploughed furrows of a field and a road to the future; the outer blue borders of the initial O, implied both the sky and a water sign, while the white circle inside the initial appeared as a rising sun. Its exact likeness may not be seen again until 2012, but we're getting plenty of imitations in L.A.'s March election campaigns.
Eric Garcetti's City Council re-election campaign employs a clever variant in which the “O” has become a blue “G,” with the red stripes now forming the tail of a shooting star and the horizontal line of the letter. While this logo doesn't appear on Garcetti's Web site or blog, it has made appearances on recent mailers.
Meanwhile, Garcetti's longshot opponent in the 13th District, Gary Slossberg, has somewhat awkwardly appropriated Obama's logo, though here those curvy stripes appear against a hemisphere drenched in red (somewhat maroon in the mailers), making it look a little like a Mercury car badge — or, perhaps, a snowball in hell.
Then there's L.A. City Attorney candidate Carmen Trutanich,
whose campaign is using a kind of “Obama marble” to tout its man — a
glassy Old Glory swirl incorporating those wavy stripes, but also —
just so you know he's a former Republican and has gun-owner backing — a generous blue field of white stars.
A more dark horse candidate for City Attorney than Trutanich, David Berger
also looks to the Obama logo for inspiration. However, his
straightening out of the wavy road stripes that terminate in a phallic
representation of City Hall, presents an unintentional pornographic
undertone to his message.
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