Does Super Tuesday = Super Branding?

Super (aka—very good; pleasant; excellent; extreme; huge; superficial)This Super Tuesday is "make it or break" for the Republican primary candidates. With elections in 10 states across the country they've pulled out all the stops and there's been a huge surge in branding for each of them.The budgets are definitely super — the ad spending alone has nearly topped $10 million with Romney having the most "super" budget with more than half that total coming from the Mitt Romney-backing Restore Our Future. (Read more about ad spending here.)But what about the design side of branding these candidates? Is it super, or superficial?Branding experts Steven Heller (author of Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State,) Debbie Millman (Sterling Brands, President Design Group), and Alice Twemlow (Design Critic) shared their thoughts on a School of Visual Arts Brief last month. All three offer humorous observations, especially Twemlow's comparison of the swash in Newt's logo to a slimy salamandar. Twemlow also remarks that the further right you get, the less care seems to have been taken with the visual presentation of a candidate’s image, with Santorum's logo looking like it could have been created by a DIY business card machine. (Read the full article here.)What do you think? Were the super budgets spent on super branding?Sources:http://jump.dexigner.com/news/24605http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/04/2674789/super-tuesday-ad-spending-nearly.htmlhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/super-

What are the most important ethical issues graphic design students will face in their careers?

As part of my research for my thesis I polled graphic design educators and practitioners and asked them the open-ended question "what do you think is the most important ethical issue is that graphic design students can expect to face in their careers?" The answers were wide and varied, some I had expected and some I hadn't even considered.Steven Heller, author, editor, and co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author Department at SVA (School of Visual Arts), gave an answer that captured the range of responses I received. He said, "Every individual will face different concerns with issues of ethics in graphic design. Some will be asked to serve a client they might not like or a product they might not care for while others might be faced with whether or not to undercut a competitor. There are no universal answers.”Designer and author Jessica Hefland's answer focused on honesty, kindness, and boundaries:“Being clear about boundaries — between friends and clients, money, and its perception being the complication that thwarts all successful achievement in collaboration.”“Honesty — because it is the single most important prerequisite for success in life AND work.”“Kindness — because you can, and must endeavor to be famous and successful and STILL BE NICE (an overstatement, but I'm serious) which is not only possible, but mandatory for true happiness.”Hefland said “It never ceases to amaze me that women, who continue to struggle, in millions of ways, to achieve equal status and pay with their male counterparts, do not help and support other women more than they do: worse, they prevent other women from achieving, when they should be mentoring them, period.”Other issues mentioned through email, phone, and social networking sites with over 60 graphic design professionals and educators included copyright, non-payment for services, font licensing, spec work, crowdsourcing, kickbacks, corporate sponsorship, sustainability, and working for someone you don’t like or whose product or service you don’t believe in. The responses were passionate and also filled with anecdotes about personal experiences and as Steven Heller noted in his response, there really were no universal answers.If you would like to see all the results please fill out the contact form or write me directly at info@ethicsingraphicdesign.org.What do you think are the most important ethical issues that graphic designers will face in their careers?