Barack: The T-Shirt
by Nadia Pflaum
In 2005, a graphic designer friend printed up 100 tiny buttons. They had a face on them that my friend thought was funny -- a political-looking guy with one finger held pensively to his lips.
"You know that's Barack Obama?" I asked him.
"Who?" he said.
Four years later, and the Illinois senator's face is everywhere, no explanation necessary. The same guy who kicked off the Democratic National Convention with such a bang in 2004 is now inspiring amateur and professional T-shirt printers all over the country to screen his face onto 100 percent cotton.
Last night, I was wondering why McCain's face hasn't launched similar shirts from the other side of the aisle. Are Republicans just not into the graphic-design thing? Not possible, right?
So I looked for McCain designs. The first one I found isn't exactly supportive of the septuagenarian candidate.
That's, of course, a spoof of Shepard Fairey's great poster design:
There's another McCain shirt being printed by KC's own company, 200 Nipples, which prints limited runs of 100 shirts per design, then sells them on a sliding scale, from $1 to $100, until they're all sold out. Here's Younger Than McCain, designed by Geoff Ponnath:
It shows pictures of things that are, yeah, younger than McCain.
Seen other great 2008 political shirt designs? Post pics or links in the comments.
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