SWASTIKA REDUX – Trump and His Fools-Gold Branding

The front-page story in a recent Minnesota Star Tribune about Donald Trump’s attempt to stamp his brand on everything brings to mind something I used to tell my graphic design clients about the value of a good logo. 

The design, I explained, must be thought of as an empty vessel. It should be unique and pleasing to the eye, of course. And the really good ones employ devices to make them especially memorable (like strong, confident forms, a unique color, the illusion of movement or an interplay between positive and negative space).
         

But filling the vessel with meaning, connecting the visual appeal with feelings that build a favorable impression, occurs over time. It comes from repeated association of the symbol with customer experiences. 

It’s the way the receptionist answers the phone, the quality and pricing of the organization’s products or services, the integrity of its personnel.

          He’s pushing a one-dollar coin with his profile 
          (showing his one remaining ear).

OLD (TRUMP) GLORY
It’s quite obvious Trump believes he can slap his brand on all things American. (Just wait, renaming of the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America was just his testing the waters, as it were, for a future Gulf of Trump.) He’s commandeered the Lincoln Center (and then lost it, which makes him want it even more), and a whole class of U.S. Navy ships

He’s taken a literal wrecking ball to venerated public landmarks, from the East Wing of the White House, to the now infamous Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pond to Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

He’s already okayed the design for his godawful Arch de Trumph, and eagerly awaits the pending circulation a new U.S. one-dollar coin featuring an image of him evidently drawn from his mug shot.

Just like his most-admired despots, he aims to co-opt revered national and religious symbols for political reasons: the flag, the Bible, the bald eagle, historic monuments and national holidays. Not to mention his ambition to monetize them all for personal profit. 

   The design evinces a range of design acumen from A to B.

FOOLS-GOLD FILIGREE
So, back to the empty-vessel aspect of branding. Trump’s idea of his “container’s” appearance is everything but confident. It’s the hallmark of a monumentally, aggressively insecure man, memorable only for its excess. 

Take his horrid redesign of the Oval Office. Its swirly, fancy-pants embellishments reek of real-housewives pretentiousness, evincing a range of design acumen from A to B. 

The monotonous color palette (gold, gold and gold), and awkward discomfort with any empty surface all reek of the man’s—and, by association, our nation’s—deep insecurity. 

              

Somehow, he’s managed to convince his base that the fool’s gold he dangles hypnotically in front of their eyes is real and that it’s theirs. And the poor suckers won’t let themselves believe that they’ve never seen—and never will—a gram of it.

And the “content,” those all-important emotions and behaviors he hopes his brand will stir in his constituents? Fear, anger, greed, intolerance, retribution… It’s a chilling nod to Adolph Hitler’s swastika, a checklist of Pavlovian conditioning for fascism.

PHOTO: Science History Images

                    It will cost American citizens billions 
                    and billions of dollars to repair the damage.

GRAPHICS INFAMY
Somewhere around 200,000,000 Americans dream of the day—and it will come—when this monster overestimates his base’s tolerance for his countless obscenities. When they come to detest both the vessel that is the Trump brand and its putrid contents.

Whatever the reason, his eventual sacking and our country’s transition back to competent, honorable leadership will likely be one of the costliest makeovers in U.S. history. Not least, the expense of removing all that fool’s gold filigree. It will cost American citizens—including the saps who elected him—billions and billions of dollars to repair the damage.   

History will not look kindly on the Trump brand. Alongside the swastika, the U.S. Confederate flag, USSR hammer and sickle, and Ku Klux Clan cross, it will be relegated to the shithole of political, moral...and, yes, graphics infamy

THE UN-T – New Symbol For the American Resistance

As a graphics designer and sloganeer by trade, I’ve been looking for ways to employ the power of symbols in my resistance against this ridiculous little man and his loyalists who're about to take their second shot at desecrating my country.

Political resistance needs a powerful symbol. Think the Don’t Tread On Me snake, the clenched black fist or that time-honored posterized likeness of Che Guevara.

Our Resistance to Donald Trump’s second anti-democracy regime deserves such an icon. And here it is: a big, bold, brown upside-down “T” (⊥). I'm calling it the Un-T.

        It’s logic's symbol for a proposition that is always false.

There’s more to this graphic than just turning the guy’s precious brand on its head. It’s actually the symbol used in the mathematical field of logic for a proposition that is always false (often called a "falsum" or "absurdum”).

False. Absurd. Isn't that just perfect? What better battle standard for the Resistance! Let’s make the Un-T (⊥) go viral! Will you help?

We must spread the word—or should I say letter. Share it on social media and in our correspondence. And display the graphic on signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts…whatever.

It’s simple—easy to do and not necessarily expensive. Above is a piece of reproducible artwork if you need it for print applications. But even just a couple of strips of duct tape or some bold swaths of paint or marker on a t-shirt or banner will do.

        Maybe we could get a few NBA or NFL stars to
        feature the Dump-T on their shoes.

OUTBRANDING THE BRANDER
After saturating the social media we get it on people’s shirts and caps, on banners draped from porches and freeway overpasses, on placards for protest marchers, then on billboards and transit. (Any litho or screen printers out there willing to help develop Un-T merch?)

One effective way to get the movement moving is simply to set an example. If I display a nice-looking lawn sign or bumper sticker we hope folks will ask or scan the QR code for how to get their own.

Thinking a bit bigger, why not go even further underground with graffiti strategically painted along the routes of the presidential limousine. (Banksy, you in?) And maybe crop symbols placed in sight of the flight path of Air Force One. Hell, maybe we could even get a few NBA or NFL stars to feature it on their shoes. 

ILLUSTRATION*

The Un-T is a simple, powerful, instantly recognizable statement. Imagine our little orange Putin wannabe assaulted with it every-
where he turns. And the best part? By out-branding that egomaniac with our bold stamp of disapproval, it’ll unify and empower us goody-goody liberal elites…and drive him (even more) nuts. You in?

        C'mon folks, let's do this!

I'd love to have your input! Do you know of ways to get a lot of exposure quickly for a subversive brand? Politicians or celebrities we might recruit as allies? Printers who might volunteer their services?

* Crybaby Trump illustration – I spent nearly an hour searching for the artist of this wonderful image, with no results. It's signed: GR '11. Anyone know who did it? I'd like to note proper credit.