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Hillary Clinton has a new logo to accompany her through her campaign for the Democratic nomination for US president in 2016. In most cases a new logo should be met with a ho-hum kind of apathy among most news-watchers. It seems this logo is not most cases, and has been the focus of reactions ranging from severe criticism from designers to roasting by critics on the internet and elsewhere.
The design features a blue “H” superimposed with a red arrow pointing to the right. Those looking for meaning in the logo wonder if the red is a hint at Republican “red” states while an arrow pointing ‘right’ also signifies a move to the ‘right’ on the political spectrum. This interpretation has left many wondering if Hillary, with a ‘blue’ ‘H’ is after more conservative voters by projecting a somewhat more right-wing image through the use of her logo.
Aside from the pure politics of the logo’s symbolism, designers have been playfully parodying the kind of bizarre symbol. One spoofer has created a new facsimile of the letter design called “Hillary Bold.” Someone else has created a widget in which users can design their own Clinton-style logo. On another plane altogether one interpretation sees the logo as abstractly representing an airplane crashing into the Twin Towers in New York.
The director of design for the Obama campaign of 2008, Scott Thomas, said: “I think the Hillary logo is really saying nothing. It’s just a red arrow moving to the right.”
A spokesman for the Clinton campaign, Josh Schwerin, stated in an email:
“We’ll leave it to others to read too far into our logo.”