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ELECTION POSTERS ARE back on lamp-posts across the land.
But which of the posters we’ll all be looking at for the next four or five weeks has the strongest design?
And what are the candidates trying to convey to the electorate as they beam down on us from on high?
We caught up with graphic design expert Paul McBride, co-director of Detail design studio in Dublin, who previously assessed last year’s local and European election posters for us.
Let’s take a look first at Heather Humphreys of Fine Gael – although you’d need excellent eyesight to pick up her party affiliation from this poster. McBride describes the party branding here as “discreet”.
That’s probably no surprise – like all the candidates, Humphreys will need more than her base to vote for her if she’s to win this contest. Her ‘A President for All’ slogan nods to that too.
McBride notes that while this is, overall, a pretty standard design for an Irish election poster, there’s one choice that’s out of the ordinary – Humphreys has eschewed her second name.
Irish voters are usually presented with long ballot papers, so campaign teams often feel they “need to hammer home the name”, McBride says. There are, of course, just three candidates in this race.
Putting the electorate on first-name terms with Heather “softens the language, making it more personal, especially when coupled with the line ‘President for All’”, McBride reckons.
As The Journal’s politics team noted on this week’s The Candidate podcast, Humphreys has been leaning into a warm, somewhat folksy style in her campaign so far, with a big emphasis on community.
It’s a solid 7/10 for Humphreys’ (or should we say Heather’s) poster from McBride.
“Humphreys gets extra points for changing something by leading with her first name,” he says.
Like both his rivals, Jim Gavin’s poster presents an “upbeat, smiling face” – and like Humphreys, he’s gone for not particularly prominent party branding, McBride notes.
The Fianna Fáil candidate’s choice of poster slogan is somewhat on the nose: “For President.”
(The Candidate panel noted this week that Gavin’s big challenge is going to be articulating to the electorate who he is and what type of president he’ll be. This slogan may not be the best start.)
This poster “gets to the point with a clear hierarchy of information”, McBride says.
“Maybe the use of blue is a subtle nod to his time with Dublin GAA?”
The fact that Gavin’s team roped in former Dublin footballers Bernard Brogan and Paddy Andrews to pose with his poster for an Instagram post this week bolsters that theory.
Overall, McBride isn’t too impressed with this “standard” poster, and he’s giving it a 4/10.
The design for Catherine Connolly, an Independent backed by left-wing political parties, has a slightly retro feel, from the colour shades used to the choice of typeface.
“Connolly’s poster echoes the state’s past, with that shade of green coupled with an unusual, vintage slab serif [typeface],” McBride says.
A “slab” serif typeface is one with the blocky look seen here. Connolly is partly crowdfunding her campaign by selling a range of merch with similarly themed design.
Connolly’s poster “speaks to her Independent standing and a sense of tradition”, McBride says.
McBride isn’t sure what function the monogram in the top right is intended to serve, and suggests the designer may have felt it was needed in lieu of a party logo.
None of the parties backing Connolly are mentioned on the poster, but neither is the word Independent used.
“Her poster doesn’t mention the presidency but is about ‘raising your voice’, so like Humphreys’ it is speaking directly to the electorate, but saying something different,” McBride says.
(At any rate, the posters will be reusable if Connolly runs for the Dáil again. Many politicians reuse posters from election to election.)
Connolly’s poster ties with Humphreys for the top score from our adjudicator, who awards 7/10.
“Connolly gets props for the retro look and feel, but marked down for the extraneous monogram,” McBride says.
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