Barack Obama: The New Hope

Like millions of our fellow Americans, we were inspired by Barack Obama’s historic 2008 campaign. In response to his message, and in support of his candidacy, we created an original poster featuring a stylized portrait of the then-senator and the words “The New Hope” echoing the campaign’s central message. The design was simple and direct, in dramatic contrasting blues and oranges, and a style that evoked the idealism of an earlier era of American politics.

In order to share our enthusiasm, we made the poster available for download on our website for free. Unexpectedly, hundreds of strangers downloaded the image. Many made their own prints and contacted us with pictures. Flattered, we made a limited edition silkscreen series, which sold out in less than a week. We found our image on sites across the web; it was featured in the news magazine Courier International; prints were used at fundraisers and campaign events all through that heady summer of 2008. The piece was shown in at the Manifest Hope exhibit in Denver during the Democratic National Convention where Obama was nominated.

We created more work on similar lines: a series of prints highlighting some of the electrifying rhetoric of Obama’s greatest speeches; an American flag composed of hybrid portraits of presidents and civil rights leaders; stark monochrome caricatures of the candidates and their running mates. These were shown at Flux’s elegant Dark Room gallery space in Carouge, where they drew throngs of Swiss and international admirers excited to partake in the political commentary around this historic election.

The posters were included in several books published after the elections that documented the artwork created for the Obama campaign by artists around the country.