Barack Obama Poster
This Shepard Fairey acrylic paint is the most widely distributed version of Barack Obama poster and came to represent his 2008 presidential campaign. Design was created in one day and Fairey sold 350 of the posters on the street immediately after printing them, and the image became iconic, one of the most widely recognized symbols of Obama's campaign message. In 2009 Fairey's Obama portrait was feathered in the book Art for Obama: Designing Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change.
Interestingly, the poster was more often associated with autocrats and dictators, just like Lenin. There is an opinion that Fairey transformed the photograph and created a powerful new, radically different meaning. These trivial changes makes creation process not clear and are behind the poster. Fairey found ab photograph of Obama using search and creating the original poster design in a single day. In interviews, he has said that he made various alternations to the image he used and that the poster is hand-illustrated image. In fact, Fairey produced two other versions, based on different photographs, officially on behalf of Obama campaign. He himself was commissioned to create a number of works in the same style.
According to Steven Heller, graphic designer, the poster was inspired by Social Realism and, while widely praised as original and unique, can be seen as part of a long tradition of contemporary artists drawing inspiration from political candidates. Doubtless, Fairey primary objective was to depict Obama in a way that would increase his chance of winning. Using patriotic palette such as red, white and blue, and eyes gazing upward, create political pose that would elevate him to iconic status. Eyes on the horizon and soaked face in red-and-blue create optimism that Obama could be a constructive figure enough to build hope.
Interestingly, the poster was more often associated with autocrats and dictators, just like Lenin. There is an opinion that Fairey transformed the photograph and created a powerful new, radically different meaning. These trivial changes makes creation process not clear and are behind the poster. Fairey found ab photograph of Obama using search and creating the original poster design in a single day. In interviews, he has said that he made various alternations to the image he used and that the poster is hand-illustrated image. In fact, Fairey produced two other versions, based on different photographs, officially on behalf of Obama campaign. He himself was commissioned to create a number of works in the same style.
According to Steven Heller, graphic designer, the poster was inspired by Social Realism and, while widely praised as original and unique, can be seen as part of a long tradition of contemporary artists drawing inspiration from political candidates. Doubtless, Fairey primary objective was to depict Obama in a way that would increase his chance of winning. Using patriotic palette such as red, white and blue, and eyes gazing upward, create political pose that would elevate him to iconic status. Eyes on the horizon and soaked face in red-and-blue create optimism that Obama could be a constructive figure enough to build hope.
REFERENCES:
Heller, S. Vienne, V. (2012) 100 ideas of Graphic Design, London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
law.marquette.edu/.../the-obama-“hope”-poster-case
www.gq-magazine.co.uk/.../shepard-fairey-obey-hope-art-posters-interview
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