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Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?
Image by nimboo
From the NYT
Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?
By NOAM COHEN
STYLES make fights — or so goes the boxing cliché. In 2008, they make presidential campaigns, too.
This is especially true for the two remaining Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Reporters covering the candidates have already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices, manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online.
On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC.
That is, Mr. Obama’s site is more harmonious, with plenty of white space and a soft blue palette. Its task bar is reminiscent of the one used at Apple’s iTunes site. It signals in myriad ways that it was designed with a younger, more tech-savvy audience in mind — using branding techniques similar to the ones that have made the iPod so popular.
“With Obama’s site, all the features and elements are seamlessly integrated, just like the experience of using a program on a Macintosh computer,” said Alice Twemlow, chairwoman of the M.F.A. program in design criticism at the School of Visual Arts (who is a Mac user).
It is designed, she said, even down to the playful logos that illustrate choices like, Volunteer or Register to Vote. She likened those touches to the elaborate, painstaking packaging Apple uses to woo its customers.
The linking of Mr. Obama with Mac and Mrs. Clinton with PCs has already become something of a theme during the primary. Early in the campaign, a popular YouTube parody of Apple’s “1984” Super Bowl ad made Mrs. Clinton the face of oppression. This week on The Huffington Post, Douglas T. Kendall, the founder of the Community Rights Counsel, a public interest law firm, made the connection more explicit.
But the designers believe the comparisons — but not perhaps the Orwellian overtones — are apt. In contrast to barackobama.com, Mrs. Clinton’s site uses a more traditional color scheme of dark blue, has sharper lines dividing content and employs cookie-cutter icons next to its buttons for volunteering, and the like.
“Hillary’s is way more hectic, it’s got all these, what look like parody ads,” said Ms. Twemlow, who is not a citizen and cannot vote in the election.
Jason Santa Maria, creative director of Happy Cog Studios, which designs Web sites, detected a basic breach of netiquette. “Hillary’s text is all caps, like shouting,” he said. There are “many messages vying for attention,” he said, adding, “Candidates are building a brand and it should be consistent.”
But Emily Chang, the cofounder of Ideacodes, a Web designing and consulting firm, detected consistent messages, and summed them up: “His site is more youthful and hers more regal.”
Mr. Obama’s site is almost universally praised. Even Martin Avila, the general manager of the company responsible for the Republican Ron Paul’s Web site, said simply, “Barack’s site is amazing.”
But the compliments are clearly double-edged.
While Apple’s ad campaign maligns the PC by using an annoying man in a plain suit as its personification, it is not clear that aligning with the trendy Mac aesthetic is good politics. The iPod may be a dominant music player, but the Mac is still a niche computer. PC, no doubt, would win the Electoral College by historic proportions (with Mac perhaps carrying Vermont).
While Mr. Santa Maria praised barackobama.com for having “this welcoming quality,” he added that it was “ethereal, vaporous and someone could construe it as nebulous.” He said there was a bit of the “Lifetime channel effect, you know, vasoline on the lens” to create a softer effect on the viewer. The “hectic” site that the Clinton campaign is offering could actually be quite strategic, exactly in step with her branding. After all, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly emphasizes how hard she will work for the average American “starting on Day 1.” If she comes across as energetic online, that may simply be her intention. If she shouts a bit more, typographically speaking, that may be the better to be heard.
Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic contenders have incorporated social-networking tools to their sites — allowing supporters to create their own groups, for example, though Mr. Obama is considered the pacesetter in that regard.
“Obama’s campaign gained attention here in the Bay area tech community early on when he launched the My.BarackObama.com portal that allowed for personal blogging from the public, messaging with other supporters, and a host of other tools,” Ms. Chang wrote in an e-mail message.
On the big Internet issues like copyright, Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor who is supporting Mr. Obama, said there was “not a big difference on paper” between the two Democrats. Both tend to favor the users of the Internet over those who “own the pipes.” He is impressed by Mr. Obama’s proposal to “make all public government data available to everybody to use as they wish.”
In the long run, however, Mr. Lessig believes that it is the ability to motivate the electorate that matters, not simple matters of style. And he’s a Mac user from way back.
Valentine tango, Feb 2011 – 09
Image by Ed Yourdon
Some of the early onlookers and spectators, who began arriving about half an hour before the dancing began.
Note: this photo was published in an undated (Feb 21, 2011) Everyblock NYC neighborhoods blog titled "Battery Park City – Lower Manhattan." It was also published in a Jun 14, 2011 blog titled "“BLOGGING TO THE BANK IN 2011 EBOOK” | PRINT MONEY FROM YOUR BLOG."
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As I’ve pointed out in previous Flickr albums (here, for example), I do not dance the tango, and I know little or nothing about the history, the folklore, or even the steps and rhythms of the dance. But after accidentally stumbling upon a local gathering of tango aficionados on a business trip to Washington in the summer of 2009 (see my Flickr set Last tango in Washington), I subsequently learned that there were similar informal events throughout New York City. When I got home, I searched on the Internet and found a schedule of upcoming tango events at several different NYC locations — including Pier 45, where I made my first visit in mid-April of 2010, which led to this set of photos.
I subsequently returned in mid-July, even though I knew it would be much hotter … and indeed, it was so hot that the music did not even begin until 6 PM. But then the dancers began to appear, one after another, until there were a few dozen couples filling a large space under a sheltering canopy, as the sun went down. And since it was the end of a hot summer evening, tango wasn’t the only thing going on: there were people sunbathing, watching the boats on the river, playing frisbee, or simply enjoying themselves. I photographed a little of everything; you can see it in this Flickr set.
There were three more tango gatherings at the edge of the Hudson River in late summer and early autumn of 2010: one was further north, up near 70th Street (here), and two more back at Pier 45 in September and October (here and here). And though I occasionally received email notices of planned events even later in the fall, I assumed that for all practical purposes, it was over — at least until next spring or summer.
But I had forgotten that the tango does not always have to be danced outside, in the open air; it can work just as well indoors. So when I received yet another email notification, announcing the details of a 2011 Valentine’s Day tango event down in the Winter Garden plaza of New York’s World Financial Center — complete with a live orchestra — I decided that it was too tempting to pass up. There was a mid-day event, which I skipped; but that was followed by an evening event, which lasted from 6 PM to 9 PM. Many of the same dancers I had photographed in the spring, summer, and fall were back once again; I have no idea who they are, or what part of the city they live in … but tango is obviously a big part of their lives.
I only stayed until 8 o’clock, but that was enough to take some 700 photos of the dancers, as well as the tourists, and office workers, the romantic couples, and the curious onlookers attracted by the sound of music, and who wondered what on earth was going on. As usual, I deleted about 90% of what I shot, and have uploaded only the best 10% to Flickr; there are also two short 30-second video clips included in this collection — partly because Flickr has a limit of 90 seconds for video clips, but also because I thought a short clip was sufficient to convey the mood. Beyond that, I’ll have to let the pictures speak for themselves.
If you’d like to watch NYC tango dancing on your own, check out Richard Lipkin’s Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.
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