John Slabyk, Obama for America’s Art Director and Scott Thomas, the campaign’s New Media Design Director were the panelists for Designing Change in America. Both men were introduced to the campaign in a quick meeting. The campaign said they wanted to take advantage of both print and web platforms. They said they knew they would be working on tighter, faster deadlines than ever before — and have a smaller budget. Slabyk and Thomas said they had to get things out fast. Sometimes they wouldn’t see the final design until it debuted on CNN. It was interesting to hear about the process. They couldn’t do brand standards or test anything out. One of them said it was “like building an airplane while in flight”.

Slabyk and Thomas said they had to deal with a lot of people outside the new media department. They had to convince a lot of people that design was important. They said they used imagery from the past to convey the historical atmosphere of the Obama campaign. They used content to get an emotional response from constituents.

Both men discussed the importance of the campaign. They understood the magnitude of the event — they said designers usually design things that are temporary but this time, they would be designing history. Slabyk and Thomas said they were aware of the fact that their designs would be plastered across American classrooms.

Some of the design issues they ran into were establishing consistency and balance. They wanted to use the same colors throughout the campaign. They used a constant shad of blue and changed the original typeface. The first Obama for America posters didn’t have a balanced type face. They used gotham, requiem and liberation typefaces for the final design. This gave it a more consistent look. Slabyk and Thomas started with Requiem and thickened it out. They used the “m” in Obama as the fulcrum of the design.

Overall, the panel was great. It was interesting to see how the Obama for America logo morphed over time.