Election Campaign Irritation

It has been a vocal year of campaigning. Most of what we hear and see is in regard to the Presidential candidates as we approach a new term. So much more attention should be placed on local senate and house seats up for election though. This is where we will actually make a difference in the quality of our lives, if it is even possible. I won't go into my personal political views, mainly due to my own confusion and frustration with it as a whole. For many, Presidential election years are the only ones that they contribute a vote toward as if it were the only election to be concerned with. I believe that the men and women who are in the seats of the Senate and the House of Representatives enjoy this and it is why it remains so. The political focus is always placed on the President as if he were the one man running the country. So true is the exact opposite. This is why, in my opinion, President Obama has been unsuccessful in many of his goals, because of roadblocks and political nonsense designed to make him look unsuccessful. So, okay I guess I have let on a bit about my personal views.

We've all seen the yard signs this year for our local Congressmen (or women) blanketing our frequently traveled landscape. One sign gets me every time I see it. Every single time that I have come up on this sign, I have found myself struggling to be certain that I understood what I was reading and comprehending as the individuals name.

If this guys name was Smith or Jones you could probably pull an ultra creative and playful design like this off. In my opinion, all this does is cause confusion. If you want to effectively communicate your name, it must first be readable. Also, consider that most people viewing the message are traveling in a vehicle at a certain speed. The amount of time required to interpret the message is therefore reduced significantly. I find this problem with many large billboard ads as well. To me it would have been much more readable to forego the state shape inside the "U" of his name in favor of just simple Helvetica letters. Who in Illinois needs to know that he is running for an Illinois State Senate seat anyway? We are Illinois residents, seeing the signs here in Illinois. No one from out of state can vote for Illinois candidates, and we couldn't vote for candidates running for seats in any other state in the union. Granted the shape of our state is an identifiable one. I would bet money that no candidate running in Colorado "A perfect rectangle" would attempt this style of design. I think this design is both a failure as well as an apparent success. I have had so much difficulty reading this sign over the past few months, that I find it necessary to rant about it's frustrating design. So, then is it in fact a success?