These are the signs that are near where I live, so I’ll be talking about the one for Maxine Waters, and Jason Gromski. I don’t love or hate most election signs, and still find myself indifferent to these two. I lowkey feel like most election signs have the same color scheme and use of their last name to take up most of the sign.
Let’s talk about Maxine Waters. It’s interesting to me that she uses a deeper, more navy blue and orange – neither the traditional shade or color that’s seen in Jason Gromski’s. What’s more important is the content strategy she chose – “Re-elect” in a small box separate from “Congresswoman”, and the phrase “She Fights For All of Us”. She is the most senior of the 12 African American women in Congress, so the choice in words reaffirm and establish her authority as an incumbent in the area. The area that she is running in is mostly made of minority ethnicities, so the phrase that “she fights for all of us” makes a lot of strategic sense, especially in this political climate where the President chooses to denigrate the very minorities she represents.
Visually, she uses a harsher, serif font, with the smaller font set against white. I find that there’s a lot going on here and it doesn’t look like she is using any gridded columns to figure out spacing and margins in the sign. In addition, “re-elect” is askew and quite small, making it difficult to read. Her name and her quote on the bottom is the most visible when driving past. Perhaps it doesn’t matter for her, since she is an incumbent with a long history or service.
Jason Grom is simply running for city council, but I find his sign to use the stereotypical blue/red colors that are bright (but not overly saturated). He doesn’t capitalize his name, and the font he uses is serif but has much more rounded/curvier edges, which speaks more relaxed, less formal, perhaps more relatable to voters. For the role he’s going for, it makes sense – it’s not a seat in Congress. His name is left-aligned, which helps for left-right reading, and the little quote beneath him is right-aligned. It was probably done to avoid the little bit of awkward empty space that would occur if placed right below the ‘G’ in his last name.