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| Client: | Badnarik for President |
| Category: | U.S. presidential campaign |
Background
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lthough given the de facto binary choice for president in 2004, I was strongly supporting President Bush, I feel a strong affinity for core libertarian principles. Learn more here. It was in this context that when I heard the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, software engineer and constitutional activist Michael Badnarik, was going to be speaking in my hometown of Charlottesville, VA, in the early fall of 2004, I was eager to hear what he had to say.
(2015 note: In recent years, the libertarians and Libertarian Party have constructed national security and foreign policies that are egregiously stupid, and are constructed atop various false premises. For reference, see “The Grand Deception” and “The Third Jihad” documentaries. It is for this reason that, given the choices available to us, I cannot support the Libertarians, and instead usually find myself on what is loosely termed the “libertarian wing” of the Republican party, with the exception of my opposition to anything having to do with Ron Paul; example; more.)
While I was pleased with many of the things Mr. Badnarik had to say, about our Constitution and the urgent need to return to the principles it conveys about individual rights, and to prevent America from going bankrupt, I was shocked by the ugly, disjointed his marketing media his campaign was employing. This was not a big surprise to me, in that from my observations, libertarians and conservatives are, in general, extremely inept at the most basic aspects of quality marketing media (as evidenced by the horrifically bad Romney-Ryan logo).
Below are a few examples of the media tools I observed at the Badnarik event:
My offer to redesign the Badnarik bumper sticker
After the event, and thanks to my friendship with James Lark, Ph.D., former chairman of the Libertarian Party of America, who was in attendance, I was invited to join Mr. Badnarik and a few of his key supporters for dinner, and to express my concerns about his marketing media. I made clear where my loyalties were for that election, but felt that even though the time was short, I could help to at least help to “brand” him more effectively than his existing media permitted.
After discussing it, and his reviewing of some of my other logos, he agreed that if I could come up with something better, it could be implemented for the final leg of the campaign.
The most important thing, I said, was to create a graphic that was simple, provided for clear, logical eye flow, and make it easily readable. The main mission from the campaign’s standpoint was to get a more effective bumper sticker produced.
This was the result, which was rapidly implemented by the campaign: