The Package and Presidential Politics
What goes on in the White House can be a little unseemly at times. The President’s image gets a bit tarnished occasionally, many think that Washington could use some cleaning up, and increasingly politics, as practiced by all sides, is viewed as a dirty business.
So I was intrigued to see the NY Times use illustrated spoofs on well-known household cleaning products to illustrate a series of Op Ed pieces, from an all-star cast of folks like Harold Ford Jr, Elizabeth Edwards, Robert Shrum, Ari Fleisher and Jonathan Alter, with suggestions from on how Obama could rebound in the last half of his term.
It is just another indication of the visual power of brand identities and the packages that represent them. Just too bad the on-line version only had the B&W illustrations by Abbott Miller and Kristen Spilman. The printed paper had glorious color versions of the them . . . much nicer.
The editorials aren’t too bad either.
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About Richard Shear
Richard Shear is a Founding Principal and Creative Director of The Shear Partnership. He founded the firm, in 1993, to establish a design organization focused on strategic design excellence and the hands on interaction and management of the creative process.
He brings over 25 years of international consumer brand identity experience, with a wide range of clients such as Ahold, Coca-Cola, Hasbro, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Pernod Ricard and Procter & Gamble. He began his career with Lois/Chajet Design Group, a joint venture of the legendary advertising art director George Lois and the British design manager Clive Chajet. In his next design management position at Lippincott & Margulies, he learned the complex skills of international corporate identity.
During the late eighties he was a Creative Director and Partner at Peterson & Blyth, one of the premier package design firms of the time. Richard is a current Board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ MetroNorth Chapter, past President of AIGA‘s Brand Design Association, President of the Package Design Council and a member of its Board of Directors. He is a graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, has written widely on the vital role of design and the creative process in the retail marketplace, and has been a guest lecturer at colleges including FIT, Trinity College and Tyler School of Art. He is a nationally ranked masters bicycle racer.
