One of the most important design questions to answer early in the brand development process with political clients: How much risk is the candidate willing to take?
“That’s one really important thing that we try to get a read on,” Robert Arnow, the founder and creative director of Incitement Design, told C&E in a recent interview. “How much do they want to seem young, diffrerent, fresh, progressive versus how much do they want to seem stable, mainstream?”
That answer gives Arnow’s team a foundation to build upon. Once designers have a sense of the candidate’s tolerance for design and color schemes that may be less traditional, the team sets about finding the right balance in logo and brand creation, often mixing different elements:
“So maybe you have a safe font, but the color palette is a little bit out of the ordinary or vice versa,” he said.
As for the willingness of clients to work outside that more traditional design box, Arnow said it has increased markedly over the past few cycles, especially on the Democratic side of the aisle where his company works. And that’s a trend that’s likely to endure: “It’s become much more diverse,” he said. “Much less red, white and blue — more interesting palettes.”
Arnow’s company recently launched a campaign website builder, largely aimed at campaigns that don’t have the resources to justify a larger custom build, and as part of that process has been developing varied color palettes for campaigns to utilize.
“We’re doing some that are more traditional red, white and blue, but there’s quite a lot we’re doing that are much more out of the box to fit the myriad of styles people want to present these days,” Arnow said.
Watch the full interview above for more tips on navigating the design process and getting the user experience right for campaign websites.
