Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez + Tandem Design
Recently I had the opportunity to hear Tandem speak at Parsons School for Design. The Tandem team is responsible for creating the visual identity and communications collateral for the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez congressional campaign in New York’s 14th District. Scott Starrett, Principal and co-founder of Tandem, shared the process behind the concept and deployment of the Ocasio brand, including the studio’s friendship with Alexandria and how time and understanding led Tandem to a better outcome.
5 main takeaways
Good Design has a place in Politics: In the otherwise stale and boring stratosphere of Politics, the Ocasio campaign emerged as one of the most iconic and powerful pieces of visual identity ever to be seen in Political Design.
Historical research is important: The Tandem team looked to revolutionary posters and visuals from the past to inspire Ocasio-Cortez’s branding — particularly those of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, Latino labor activists and co-founders of the United Farm Workers in the 1960s — and union badges.
Make it memorable: If Obama’s wins taught us anything about design, it was the importance and power of a memorable and symbolic brand identity in an increasingly hyper-visual, digital landscape.
Get to know your client (or candidate): In the words of lead designer Arenas “She is a non-traditional candidate running a non-traditional campaign, and we wanted her visual identity to reflect that, to be true to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,”. The team did have the advantage of knowing Ocasio but nevertheless shows the importance of getting to know your material before embarking on branding a person, place or thing. Design is personality.
Typography: Ok are we all finally in agreement that typography is very important and we cannot use Arial and no it does not all look the same.
Here is a link to the talk at Parsons. Also check out Tandem’s work.
