Back to the Obama Drawing Board

What if the Sol Sender, principle of design agency Sender LLC who also joined VSA Partners as a strategist and led the design team for the Obama '08 logo, had chosen a different identity for the campaign?

Sender was in charge of the design strategy and directed a team of designers on the project, which began in late 2006. In just two weeks, Sender and 2 other designers developed 15 or 16 options (usually they only develop 2-4, maybe 5) and then focused on 3 finalists (which included the chosen identity). The team’s refined chosen Obama logo made its official debut in February, 2007, when Obama announced his candidacy for president in Springfield, Illinois.

Here are a few that I found inspiring and just as innovative as the chosen design:
About one of the other finalists: “There was a lot of excitement about this. People felt this was really something new, something different. It was a kind of populist expression — everyone’s excited about Obama, people are talking… (but) it was a little too far out of the box. We felt that having a little more tradition in the mark was the smart way to go.” I definitely agree with Sender's view. The identity below works extremely well for outdoor advertising (especially since it has 3 different versions), but the shapes would be too awkward for a button/sticker.