TYPOGRAPHY OF ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
autхor: Olivera Batajić
February, 2007

translation into English: Danijela Tomazović
November, 2009

Last year, more precisely on October 28th and 29th, the referendum on the new Serbian Constitution was held in our country. As soon as the referendum was over, many political parties started their election campaigns by placing billboards all around the city. I remember that the first one I noticed was the billboard of Democratic Party, quoting the murdered Prime minister and former leader of the Party, Zoran Djindjic. On the surface in blue – the trademark color of this and any other democratic party in the world – it was written: “People, we have one life only…” The Prime minister's autograph was below the quote. Somewhere below, there was a slogan in fine print.

Besides this one, I also noticed the billboard featuring Dinkic, G17 Plus Party leader, but very strange looking. Some commented that some agency performed inadequate picture editing in terms of “facelift”, so the billboard disappeared soon thereafter.

Then it seemed as if the calm period was there, but after it came the true election campaigns euphoria. It seemed as if the all parties agreed on how to run ad campaigns or as if they all had the same trainer and attended the same preparation classes. It is interesting that the billboards of all parties were initially posted without any pictures. At that point, the letters dominated. Occasionally those were election slogans, briefly describing party's goals. Some parties had several similar slogans depending which level of the population they were talking to. This may appeared to you as if the same billboards were placed next to each other, and when you would stop to look, you would have noticed that a word here and there is actually different.

The only party that came out with a large picture of its leader (not in the portrait though but in the moving, perhaps simulating the action ahead) was the Liberal Democratic Party. The slogan was “It depends on us”, and besides this one, there were no others.

Thus, election campaign billboards were mostly typographic. On one hand, it is very encouraging because it gives a lot of freedom. On the other, it is much harder because the message has to be said clearly and swiftly, while among the number of competition parties. I wondered if the designers of these billboards, thus the parties themselves, leaned towards the belief that each slogan, message or anything else on the billboards will be for sure read, understood and that each voter will associate the message with a particular party. Truth is that each one of them had a number written, but this demanded (unless you did not know right from the beginning who will you vote for, and remembered the number) that everyone needed to get to know the order on the ballot paper. Although, all were already circled on the billboards. Worn-out form of suggesting. Besides all that, the problem was not only the fact that all the billboards were textual, but also the fact that the text forms on all of them were the same. They all used sans-serif typeface families of very similar shapes and weights. The text on all billboards was simply written, in order, without any attempt to play with the form. Without any suggesting through the form. The only difference was that some used italic fonts and some used normal fonts. Whether the ones using italic fonts believed that they are more persuasive in their wish to bring better days to Serbia , is something to be seen in the times ahead.

And while some letters were suddenly facing us from all around the city, some messages we were supposed to absorb and understand as something definitely representing the right choice, while we were unable to decide which typographic choice seems to be safer and more persuasive, the new billboards featuring the leaders of the racing parties emerged. Just when I started hoping that we will no longer have to watch these characters that we got to know too well in the years that passed, the characters we really no longer needed to study to details, they smiled to us. However LDP, or should I say, It depends on us! because it was the coalition representing itself as such, believed that the face needs to be removed exactly then, and that they need to be represented by persuasive slogan letters only while keeping the background filled with many faces of 1996/97 demonstrations participants.

Again, these new old faces were all engaged, and were not just like some Mona Lisa looking at us from the billboards, anticipating bright future only in case we circle the number next to their party. And this is how we got the city filled with words and pictures. It was all black on white, or something…

I researched the authors of all those campaigns only to find out that the most of them had the same agency for such original campaigns creation. It was strange finding out that the same ad agency dealt with opposite parties. It is also interesting that the election campaign for the biggest local patriots was done by an American agency, which additionally only applied its existing experiences locally. Neither had they get to know the situation nor made difference between the countries – the same pattern applies to all.

Finally, the Election Day came on January 21st and finally the results were as they were, and the “colorfulness” could disappear from our city. However, only a day after, a few billboards with messages of gratefulness emerged. But not all of them rushed to say that they are grateful. Some did it by celebrating in the streets on the first night of elections. And some continued to be diligent in covering all uncovered poles with what Serbia should never forget. There is no celebration for as long as one question remains unanswered.

Today, if you take a walk around the city, you will notice more empty and white covered billboards then the ones with ads . All together, it looks very interesting – many canvass to be yet painted. Even if only white, they give me more hope in some possible future of our country than the ones filled with many promises. There, down the street, I even found a few of those written by the hand of an unskilled graffiti-artist. But again with some political content. As if the political virus is spread through them and now they are predestined for the messages of that nature only. Maybe this is why the billboards are white covered, so that the massive boards are purified and can rest for some time, before they cheerfully take some other kind of typography on them.

Theme: BRANDING SERBIA
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