CORY 2020

Cory Booker’s 2020 Presidential Campaign

As candidates began to announce their candidacy for the 2020 presidential election, we thought to ourselves, “If Cory Booker runs, we want to design his campaign.”

As Mayor of Newark, NJ and as U.S. Senator, he has a track record of championing the needs of the public and delivering real change. Early in 2019, we got the call.

The challenge was to differentiate him from a wide field of candidates (and from Obama), to capture his singular voice, and to get people excited. In speaking with the candidate, he gave us four key words to describe the 2020 campaign: Love, Defiant, Black, and Young.

Brand strategy, Launch, Digital, Interactive, Visual Identity, Implementation, Merchandise, Type & lettering, Guidelines

Agency
The Original Champions of Design

Design Partners
Jennifer Kinon
Bobby C. Martin Jr.

Design Team
Michael McCaughley
Taylor Hale
Talia Cotton
Rebecca Matt
Carina Sandoval

2019

Moments of intense hope or defiance in American history have a similar vocabulary of the vernacular. Bold condensed letters. More text, less iconography. Lots of immediacy.

The system includes four distinct layouts structures: Stacked, Vertical, Kinetic, and Lyrical. These options enabled the campaign’s design team to support messaging while expressing a range of tones, from joyful to somber.

Naming each layout provided an easy reference point while quickly churning out large amounts of materials on short turnaround times. These were used across everything from placards and rally signs to social graphics and t-shirts.

Stacked Layout

Most flexibility across touchpoints, with a modular approach that maximized efficiency.

Vertical Layout

Brought key campaign messaging to the forefront, ideal for hand-held rally signs.

Kinetic Layout

Created expressive moments of celebration through layering and pattern.

Lyrical Layout

Achieved a visual tone
to match emotionally charged messages.

At the 2016 Democratic Convention, Senator Booker referenced “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. In his emotional speech, he promised, “America, we will rise.” This became a rally cry for supporters.

To reinforce the message, Champions worked with Jesse Ragan to create a specialized mark that referenced the shape of the iconic marquee at the Paramount Theater in Newark, representing the candidate’s relationship to New Jersey.

You want to bring the fight– bring people together.

Cory Booker

Project Credits

Custom typeface
Frere-Jones Type

Lettering
Jesse Ragan

Photography
Jason Tanaka Blaney
Kevin Lowery

Cory 2020, Client
Addisu Demissie
Jenna Lowenstein

Cory 2020, Design Director
Meena Yi