Obama Hope Poster — Shepard Fairey (2008)
As a designer his goal was to design a piece of artwork that would significantly increase the likelihood of Obama winning both the Democratic nomination and the general election.
The stylised stencil portrait of Obama was created using an array of both digital and analogue design techniques. Fairey began with a suitable reference photo, he improved the image by manipulating it digitally: improving definition, lighting and separating the shadows into four individual layers. He printed out each layer and illustrated them separately through the screen print processes “amberlith” and “rubylith.”
Once stylising and idealising each layer, the resulting image was then returned back into the computer and further manipulated digitally. In addition to alluding to american patriotism, Fairey chose to illustrate the poster in only three colours as he believed the high contrast layers would yield a “streamlined, iconic image.” The additional benefit of flat-colour illustration is that reproductions created using screen printing would be easy.
The slogan printed under Obama’s image says the word “HOPE” in a bold, modern, san-serif typeface. Fairey’s use of type is another key and crucial element within the design. Through this slogan the reader is encouraged to form a correlation between the three-quarters pose and the implication/concept of hope.
Above: Andy Warhol 1972 George McGovern Poster
Many believe the Hope Poster was inspired by such works of Andy Warhol and Ben Shahn. Each show the impact of colour and composition and its importance when bringing an image to life.
Above: Ben Shahns 1968 Eugene McCarthy Poster
Something interesting about the Obama ‘Hope’ Poster by Fairey is that the word hope was actually originally the word ‘Progress’. There were 700 posters made with this original slogan before production was halted while Fairey took a further look at his work before deciding to change the word to ‘Hope’. This decision was made as a result of concerns about the troublesome connotations of the original wording.
This whole process not only informs me about the technical processes used by Fairey from his reference image, colour selection, layer separation and screen-printing down to his final poster, but it also confirms that in order to really stand behind your work you must first investigate its elements and continue to push ideas and developments so that you are not just accepting of your first rendition but proud of what conclusions you have come to at the end.
