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Editorial Review Product Description
The Obama presidential campaign was an innovation in American politics and American design. For the first time, a candidate used art and design to bring together the American people-capturing their voices in a visual way. The Design Director of the Obama campaign, Scott Thomas, has collaborated with artists and designers to create Designing Obama, a chronicle of the art from the historic campaign. Get the inside story on how design was used by the campaign, trace the emergence of ideas and images over the course of the election, and scope out the amazing art created by artists and grassroots supporters. It's the definitive account of the vision of thousands of people across the United States -- all in one volume. Using the same grassroots fundraising model as the campaign, the book was created through Kickstarter, a new company dedicated to funding creative endeavors through small donations by committed individuals. Using the Obama fundraising model was the perfect way to insure the book's quality and integrity. People around the country supported the book, funded its creation, and changed the way we think about publishing. Now you can be part of the revolution. The 336-page hand-crafted book is hardbound with an embossed sleeve, and printed in a vivid six-color process. ... Read more Customer Reviews (4) 
This design book makes me proud to be an American.
This book is worth every penny of the $79.99. In addition to the book's aesthetic value, it probably has major historical value as well. How likely is it that we'll get another president who cares about design?
The attention to detail that went into the book production of Designing Obama is like nothing I've ever seen. It comes encased in a silver sleeve, which has a little window where you can see the Obama logo which is foil embossed straight onto the navy blue bookcloth. There is no tacky book jacket. There are no blurbs, quotes, taglines, or barcodes to be seen on the outside of this book.
The inside is full of information and images to inspire anyone who cares about design and/or America.
Everything about this book is completely first class. I love it.
Simply stunning
I had the pleasure to hang out with Scott when he came to Vienna, Austria in April 2010 and brought 5 (!) books with him. One of them had to be mine instantly, and Scott was so kind to sign it for me. Designing Obama is an exclusive look behind what is still shaping our world's history and it has been a great honour to meet the author. Thanks, Scott.
The ultimate Obama campaign time capsule
Designing Obama is the definitive insider account of how the famous "Obama brand" was created. From the origins of the famous "O" logo to the assembling of an all-star New Media team, to the strategic and creative processes that led to bold and effective design decisions, to an exhaustive record of the incredible outpouring of citizen-created expression in support of Barack Obama, this book is the campaign time-capsule item to have.
There's also no possible way to write about Designing Obama without mentioning the quality of the book itself. This book is a work of art - the layout and typography are minimalist and gorgeous; the quality of image, the engraving, the foil seal on the cover, and the slipcover are sophisticated and perfect, and the fabric around the book itself is the exact right shade of Obama-blue. In short, it feels (and is) valuable and substantial.
There are some absolutely amazing bits in this book, including:
* A forward by Michael Bierut (!)
* Scott's alternate layouts for the Obama website, including the first draft of the actual Obama site, which is a stunning breath of fresh, open, air
* Scott's sketches of the site with CSS margins penned in
* The full listing of the underused "Vote for Change" artists' series, which are funny and cool and brilliant
* Sol Sender's original drafts of the Obama "O" logo
This book is a treasure and an artifact. Measured in what I have learned from Scott's work on the Obama campaign and the sheer density of brilliant, minimalist ideas contained herein, this book is worth its weight in gold. I cannot more highly recommend that you get your hands on a copy ASAP.
Beautiful
The book shows a loving detail to the craft of design.This is best exemplified by the transformation Obama himself went under with the author's help and this book documents some of the basic ideas behind the redesign of Obama and documents the groundswell of grassroots designs that ran with the Obama logo and made it their own.
This isn't a pro-Obama propaganda piece and isn't a how-to manual for wannabe politicians, but it is a wonderful record of all the design details that were observed and obsessed over by the people that did the obsessing.
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