President Barack Hussein Obama, United States of America

The first official photograph of President Obama. By Pete Souza.

Victory

The photo used in the banner below is by Mark Seliger for GQ.

I am writing this post today, November 27th, 2008, a full 23 days after Sen. Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States. Today, Thanksgiving, among all the things I am thankful for, my family and friends et al, I am very thankful that Barack Obama was chosen to be the next President of the United States.

As any who read this blog might have guessed, I have not posted in a while. It seems after the election, not quite as interesting. But I will maintain the blog, so hit subscribe or check back to see some of the stuff I will put up (there is still so much more). Finally, there's always 2012.

Obamagazines - Rolling Stone Changes With a Little Help From It's Friend

Rolling Stone 1064, October 30, 2008

Seems the Stone needed to evolve. They've switched from the nostalgic squarish format they've championed since God-knows-when, to a standard magazine size. But don't despair, their adding more content to all their sections. And in the spirit of change, their first issue with a new format features the Champion of Change himself, Senator Barack Obama. As Jann S. Wenner, the editor of Rolling Stone, points out: 

... we are featuring (Barack Obama) on the cover for the third time in seven months—a record equaled only by John Lennon.

So, that makes three total Rolling Stone magazine covers featuring Obama on the cover. The other two can be seen in the post here.

The Best of Design/ers for Obama

As the countdown to Nov. 4 continues, more and more designs are being uploaded to Design/ers for Obama. Check out all the goodness. I have included some of the coolest ones below.

One Vote for Obama by alexgriendling

Obama Type by gonzaman

Obamarama by Jess

Change for a New Day by Rogaziano

44 by eddiephicks

I'm With That One by palino

Tristan Eaton Votes for Change

The good people over at the Obama campaign tasked artist Tristan Eaton, designer and founder of Thunderdog Studios, to design a number of posters advertising their new site Vote For Change to encourage potential voters to register and/or confirm their registration. This is in part due to an aggressive campaign by the Republican party as well as pro-McCain groups who have been successfully challenging the legitimacy of the registrations of, likely pro-Obama, voters.

Comics Industry for Obama!

Another independently run site has cropped up in the past couple weeks in support of Barack Obama's bid for presidency, it's Comics Industry For Obama, a site begun by writer Sarah Grace McCandless and featuring photos, videos and blog entries. The welcoming text reads as follows:

Whether you’re an artist, a writer, a publisher, an editor, a retailer, a fan, or all of the above, this is the place to show your support. In the words of Senator Barack Obama, let’s bring about the change we need by helping to elect him as President of the United States this November!

Obamagazines Part II - "Time" Magazine

Today, more evidence of the media's love affair with Obama: the number of times he has appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Barack Obama has been featured on the cover eight times since joining the United States Senate on January 4, 2005, approximately once every 0.47 years. McCain has been featured five times since joining the United States Senate on January 3, 1987, approximately once every 4.35 years. That means Obama has been on the cover almost six times more than his Republican opponent. When counting the number of times someone has been featured, for the purposes of this article, I am considering only times wherein the individual has appeared alone or with only one other person, therefore covers featuring the candidate in a dog-ear-style teaser or for "list" articles do not count. Below are the eight issues of Time in backwards chronological order that have featured Barack Obama.  

 

 

 

 

Obamagazines Part I - Music & Culture

The media has had something of a love affair with Barack Obama, despite the claims of innumerable liberal bloggers. A number of  left-leaning magazines catering to presumed Obama supporters have printed covers featuring Barack Obama. In addition, Obama has appeared on a wide variety of covers for publications targeted towards predominantly African-American audiences as Ebony, Jet, and Vibe (a pop culture/music magazine that has pushed for a broader audience than it's rap-centric counterparts The Source and XXL). No one publication has as much affection for Obama than Rolling Stone. The Stone has featured Obama on the cover twice as of this writing. Below are both covers as well as a very Obamaganda-ish cover for URB.

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Rolling Stone 1048, March 20, 2008. This cover was painted by Brooklyn-based illustrator Tim O'Brien, depicting Obama as a messiah-like figure standing boldly, gazing bravely into the future with the text "A New Hope" (Star Wars reference). The contents of the issue were primarily concerned with Obama's groundbreaking grassroots campaign and editor Jann S. Wenner's endorsement of Barack Obama as the democratic presidential nominee over rival Hillary Clinton.

Rolling Stone 1056/1057, July 10-24, 2008. In July of 2008, Rolling Stone devoted a good portion of a special summer double issue to the recently announced democratic presidential nominee. Adopting a less is more philosophy the Stone published a simple portrait by photographer Peter Yang, without the usual text teasers that seem to be a necessary evil of the design industry (although Esquire has been doing great stuff with teaser text since September 2006 incorporating it a great deal into the cover photos, check out the Esquire cover gallery). Instead, Obama's head takes up a great deal of the cover, extending above the nameplate. The cover is an instant classic featuring Obama, eyes downcast, Jim Carrey grin plastered across his face as if smiling bashfully at a comment made by an adoring photo shoot assistant.

URB 155, Sept/Oct 2008. Illustrator Ron Wimberly provided this beautiful Roy Lichtenstein-inspired art for the cover of URB's Power Issue. From URB: The Power Issue explores the various definitions of power within the escalatingly closer worlds of independent and "mainstream" music and culture. The illustration features Obama juxtaposed with hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and french electronic music DJ/label owner/manager Busy-P, both influential artists in their chosen field of craft.

Update: Manifest Hope At IMEEM

Check out the Manifest Hope Gallery at IMEEM featuring art, video and music from the DNC, as well as some cool articles. Click the IMEEM logo below to visit.

Hope Manifested in the Mile High City

The Manifest Hope Gallery at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO this past August was the mecca of Obamaganda. From the About section on the website:

Art plays a pivotal role in creating cultural momentum. The Manifest Hope Gallery celebrates that role and shines a spotlight on artists across the nation who use their voices to amplify and motivate the grass roots movement surrounding the Obama Campaign. The Manifest Hope Gallery highlights the central themes of the progressive grass-roots movement- Hope Change, Progress, Unity and Patriotism.

The gallery featured art submitted from entrants all over the country and judged by a panel featuring none other than original Obamagandist Shepard Fairey who leant his print-made Obama portrait to the gallery's nameplate. Check out some of my favorites below or visit the Manifest Hope Online Gallery to see art and read more about it.

Unite America by Larissa Brown Marantz - Finalist

Obama/Hope '08 by Shel Starkman - Winner

United/Change by Shawn Hazen - Winner

Unite Us by Nicholas Rock - Winner

Stars and Stripes by Phil Fung - Winner

Additionally, a variety of works from famous artists was featured at the convention gallery, a great deal of which can be viewed here at the blog Supertouch. 

Another Piece of "Progress"

Another entry from Obama's store, Artists For Obama. This one titled Progress and created by artist/designer Scott Hansen. It seems appropriate as Obama has built his campaign primarily on grass roots (or tree roots, its all metaphorical anyway).

Yes We Cantar Dayal

Today's entries are posters (one of which that was available for sale on Obama's Artists for Obama section of his online store) by German-born artist, Antar Dayal. Yes We Can is sold out (like all the posters at Obama's website), but the second of the pieces, Change We Can Believe In is currently being sold at Dayal's site.

  

Air Force Obama

Another day, another awesome looking piece of Obamaganda. Today's entry comes from artist Van Taylor Monroe, whose chosen medium, a pair of Nike Air Force Ones, is only appropriate considering Obama will soon be doing a lot less soaring slam dunks in his Nikes and a lot more soaring aboard Air Force One. Check out Van's Myspace site here to see some of his other beautifully painted custom kicks.  

Obramaham Lincoln

Next up is Abraham Lincoln, an exceptional painting by Ron English. the pop artist who has recreated Picasso's Guernica on frequent occasion in a variety of styles. This work is an attempt to tie Obama to Lincoln comparing the two men's approach to bipartisan politics as a way to facilitate positive change. The painting appears to be an amalgamation of these photos of Lincoln and Obama. 

Design/ers for Obama

Recently, this website was brought to my attention via the excellent design blog Design You Trust, The site is called Design/ers For Obama and can be reached here. According to their website: 

"Design/ers for Obama is a community for Obama supporters, whether visually inclined or not, to aggregate and rate Obama poster art that is available for download in a variety of sizes that can be easily printed by any and everyone."

The website allows people to upload their own artwork as well as viewing others'. This should prove an excellent contribution to the fast growing body of Obamaganda currently out there. Check it out.

Shepard Fairey's "Hope"

Similar to Progress is Shepard Fairey's Hope.

The First Article of Obamaganda

The first recognized piece of Obamaganda: Progress by Shepard Fairey of the Obey Giant campaign, it would be followed shortly by Hope. The stark contrast of colors combined with the iconic image of Obama inspire comparisons to socialist propaganda art of the sixties. For example the famous photo turned relief image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara or paintings featuring China's communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong.

The Definition of Obamaganda

o∙bam∙a∙gan∙da

Pronunciation: ō-bäm-ə-ˈgan-də

Function: noun

1 : ideas, information or (in this case) art distributed with the intention of supporting the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama.