Designs of the Week: Political Campaign Posters

Although the US presidential election has come and gone, after seeing graphic artist and illustrator Shepard Fairey’s recent Obama “Hope” posters, we became curious about how past presidents portrayed themselves through the graphic design of their posters.

After tracking down campaign posters for every president since 1900, we found a few things that surprised us:

– Wow, the artwork on Theodore Roosevelt’s poster could practically have been used in this last election.

– Jimmy Carter so far is the only President in history to have not used red, white and blue on his poster.

Here are the posters:

Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909
SLOGAN: “We stand at Armageddon and fight for the Lord.”

William Howard Taft, 1909-1913
SLOGAN: “Vote for Taft now, you can vote for Bryan anytime”

Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921
SLOGAN: “He proved the pen mightier than the sword”

Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-1923
SLOGAN: “Back to normalcy”

Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929
SLOGAN: “Keep cool with Coolidge”

Herbert Clark Hoover, 1929-1933
SLOGAN: “Hoo but Hoover?”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945
SLOGAN: “I propose (to the American people) a New Deal”

Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953
SLOGAN: “The Buck Stops Here”

Dwight David Eisenhower 1953-1961
SLOGANS: “I like Ike” and “I still like Ike”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-1963
SLOGAN: “A time for greatness”

Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969
SLOGAN: “All the way with LBJ”

Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-1974
SLOGAN: “For the future”

This Andy Warhol poster campaigned against Nixon.

Gerald Rudolph Ford, 1974-1977
SLOGAN: “He’s making us proud again”

James Earl Carter, Jr., 1977-1981
SLOGAN: “A Leader, for a Change”

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989
SLOGAN: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

George Herbert Walker Bush, 1989-1993
SLOGAN: “Kinder, Gentler Nation “

William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001
SLOGANA: “It’s Time to Change America” and “It’s The Economy, Stupid”

George Walker Bush, 2001-2009
SLOGAN: “Don’t swap horses in midstream”

Barack Hussein Obama, 2009
SLOGAN: “Yes We Can”

This segment is a part in the series : Designs of the Week