Archival Project

Center for American Politics and Design (CAPD)

Project Website


The Center for American Politics and Design (CAPD) is a research group founded in 2018 that maintains an archive of every logo for candidates running in Congressional and Presidential races in the United States.



The archive initially was built only weeks before the 2018 Congressional elections by extracting logos from each candidates' campaign websites and social profiles and manually entering in design atrributes. We used FiveThirtyEight and Cook Political Report designations for political attributes such as competitiveness of district and incumbency data.

This project is done in collaboration with Lukas Bentel, Will Denton, Seth Kranzler, and Kevin Wiesner. The branding and website design are inspired by the U.S. Bicentennial design by Bruce Blackburn and iconic symbols of Americana including the firecracker popsicle.

Over the years, members of the project's team have spoken to a number of outlets about the project and on the subject of design in politics. We maintain social media profiles for the group to share recent news or inspiraton on the topic of design in politics:
@politicsndesign Instagram
@politicsndesign Twitter

Title Outlet Year
In a year of political logos, campaigns of all stripes preferred blue The Washington Post 2018
Test Your Ability to Pick Out a Democrat From a Republican Based on Their Campaign Logos Bloomberg 2022
What is the best political branding of all time? Experts weigh in Fast Company 2020
What the 2020 presidential candidates’ logos tell us, explained by design experts Vox 2019
Campaign Colors: How candidate diversity impacts color diversity The Pudding 2020
As two women compete for Boston mayor in historic race, it’s purple vs. pink The Boston Globe 2021
Reading the Tea Leaves in Every 2020 Campaign Logo Print Magazine 2020
The logos of all 11 Democratic presidential candidates, ranked Fast Company 2019
What’s in a name? When you're running for president, a lot Los Angeles Times 2019
The colors of the midterm elections? Purple, green, and gold Fast Company 2018
What does the design of a political logo say about the candidate? KCRW 2019
A brief history of opposition branding, a tradition as American as apple pie Fast Company 2020
Where Political Graphic Design Goes Post-2020 Campaigns & Elections 2020
The real politics of type Fast Company 2020
How the right GIF could transform the 2020 race­­­–and beat Donald Trump Fast Company 2019
What campaign design reveals about the race to 2020 Fast Company 2019
The 2020 Democrats' campaign logos, in graphic detail NBC News 2019
Listen up, 2020 candidates: The design director of Hillary for America has some advice Fast Company 2019
Democratas fogem do azul e ousam em campanha para atrair eleitor jovem Folha De S.Paulo 2019
Why are Political Campaign Identities Generally So Forgettable? AIGA Eye on Design 2018
A Database of Campaign Logos Is a Window into Our Politics Hyperallergic 2018
US Midterm logos compiled into a searchable database DeZeen 2018
Democrats vs. Republicans is Not Blue vs. Red: The Role of Color in U.S. Political Logos Core77 2018
Here Are the Campaign logos of Every Candidate Running for Congress in 2018 Muse by Clio 2018
The Centre for American Politics and Design explores the graphic vernacular of American politics It’s Nice That 2018




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