Newswise — "The posters promoting Barack Obama are innovative and differ from the usual designs seen on such printed material. Yet many of them incorporate some past visual ideas. Shepard Fairey designed a poster for the Obama campaign with imagery depicting the candidate as a 'visionary,' looking into the distance. But posters for Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter (and even Adolf Hitler) posed these candidates similarly," says Dr. Steven A. Seidman, chair of the Strategic Communication Department of Ithaca College.
"The winner of the McCain poster contest this year used design techniques that have been employed dozens of times before. For example, it put a flag behind the candidate, something that was done in a poster for Ronald Reagan. Patriotic symbols appeal to voters' emotions, and are always evident in election campaign material. This year is no different."
An expert on visual literacy, Dr. Seidman looks at political propaganda with special interest in the visual aspects of campaigning including: design of political posters, t-shirts, yard signs, and bumper stickers. He is the author of the recently released book Posters, Propaganda and Persuasion Around the World and Through History, a multidisciplinary look at communication media in election campaigns with an emphasis on posters. The book examines posters, broadsides, and other campaign material as media of propaganda in key countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America—as well as the United States—and historical periods.
Dr. Steven Seidman is the chair of the Strategic Communication Department of Ithaca College.
RSS