McCain’s Optimum Look

Can a type­face truly rep­re­sent a pres­i­den­tial can­di­date? Yes­ter­day on the Times’ Cam­paign Stops blog, Steven Heller invited sev­eral design­ers and crit­ics to com­ment on John McCain’s use of Optima for cam­paign collateral.

Is it dated? Clas­sic? Does it convey strength? Or, quirk­i­ness? The replies run the gamut; many of them funny or tongue-in-cheek. Michael Beirut notes the font’s resem­blance to the one used to carve the names on the Viet­nam Vet­er­ans Memo­r­ial, and Matthew Carter muses about how the type­face will hold up with the addi­tion of a run­ning mate this summer. But, my favorite judge­ment comes at the end, from Rudy VanderLans:

What does Optima say about Sen­a­tor McCain? Noth­ing. It prob­a­bly says more about the designer than any­thing else. Who, except design­ers, would judge a can­di­date by the typeface?

Oh, and ear­lier this month, Heller did a sim­i­lar dis­cus­sion with brand­ing expert Brian Collins, on Obama’s Gotham-​heavy design scheme.