Washblog

A reminder: these candidates don't have to appeal to thousands of registered voters in the 34th District. They only need a majority of votes from less than 100 Precinct Committee Officers, who are the only Party officials elected by the general population (or appointed). The PCOs of each district vote to fill any vacancy that occurs during their elected official's term.

For once, we lowly footsoldiers are afforded a shining moment to relish our Power over these slavering would-be legislators. Sweet!

If ony candidates could always court the voters like this, instead of spending all their time fundraising. (And it WILL be like that, when we have Public Campaign Funding. )
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Three of the candidates handed out fliers outside of the monthly 34th meeting recently. I will compare these, plus one of the several letters that I received in the mail.

TONI LYSEN
Toni Lysen has served in office before, and understands a few things about campaign lit, I see. She has made up a full-color flyer on nice quality paper with a distinctive logo and a photo. It could be better, but she's trying.

PHOTO: The photo depicts Toni with her extended family. Unfortunately it's so small, you need a magnifying glass to figure out which one is Toni. But we get the idea: Toni is the matriarch of a big happy family.

LAYOUT: On the main area of the page, I dislike the logo overlapping the first line, but the use of red headers and bullets organizes the information well.

Some of the text is so small, however, probably 8 point, it would be difficult for some people to read without magnifying glasses.

The gray sidebar looks like an afterthought. The text is inexplicably justified right-rag left, and worse, is bumping up against the edge of the bar with no margin on the right and too much space above and below. The sidebar is a visually disturbing, unprofessional element that does not go with the rest.

EDITING: That sidebar quote is from a
 "Former State Su-
preme Court Justice..."

That's right - the word "Supreme" is hyphenated to bump it onto the next line. Sorry, there's no excuse for glaring editing errors like that! Obviously, the auto-editor function in Word did that hyphenation; probably did the weird justify-right alignment accidently too; and no one proofread, otherwise they would've caught it. Wouldn't they?

LOGO: Toni's logo could work better, I feel. She's used two contrasting fonts for her first and last names; it's tricky to design well. I think Maria Cantwell uses this form for her logo.

Original logo: "Lysen" is a classic Roman font, intending to communicate dignity and reliability. "Toni" is a handwritten look, (maybe based on her actual signature?) meant to express personality: I'm a woman, I'm friendly, I've got a stylish flair.

To me, the "Lysen" font looks weak, with a narrow shape and hairline strokes; there's too much space between the L and the y; and the long thin tail of the "y" dangles rather helplessly into the next line.

"Toni" looks like an intoxicated party girl, with a wildly uneven baseline and differing sizes and shapes of letters.  Weaving and giggling, she's accidently bumped into "Lysen," a skinny nearsighted nerd, and splashed her drink on him. Now she's leaning on him, and he doesn't quite know what to do with her. It's an odd couple...

New version: I think it works better when the names in different fonts are on separate lines., yet close together.

For "Lysen" I've chosen a stronger, wider Roman font. The "y" is important, so it has a strong terminal on the tail and is tucked neatly into the L.

The handwritten "Toni" was a tough choice. The letterforms need to equal "Lysen"in weight and proportion. My font is more upright, so it harmonizes with "Lysen". The crossbar on the T should be strong and graceful, yet not too swashy.  The "T" needs to appear decisive, not  overly dramatic or girly.

I'm not entirely satisfied with this, but hey - no one's paying me - it's an example of how to think about a logo.

JACK BLOCK
This is a nice letter with a note from Jack Block, a Burien city councilmember who recently ran for Port Commissioner, so he was ready with a logo. Someone had realized that the name "Jack Block" has a strong connotation and the logo should utilize that imagery.

What's made of blocks? Well, college student's bookcases use cinderblocks, but that's not impressive. Baby Blocks - nah. How about Pyramids? Huge. Iconic. Blocky.

There we have it - Jack Block and pyramids, get it? But...aren't pyramids kind of ...Egyptian?  Well, yeah, usually. But our pyramids are blue and they're next to these real tall triangles resembling evergreen trees, so they must be in the Pacific Northwest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UPDATE: My husband tells this logo represents MOUNT RAINIER, not pyramids! Sorry, I missed that completely. Am I the only one? Maybe I've spent too much time around bellydancers, immersed in Egyptian themes?

Nevertheless, if a logo Mount Rainier can be mistaken for pyramids, maybe it could be drawn a little differently.

Besides - Mount Rainier is NOT in the 34th District!
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The designer didn't do much with the words "Jack Block" - they appear to be in Arial font, only stretched taller to fit into the, umm, mountain, and with a tiny white outline so you can SEE them (barely) against the blue background. If you have a good light and a magnifying glass, you MIGHT be able to read the line underneath, "34th LD Representative".

The rest of the letter is in Times New Roman, except the footer - it's Arial. And as we all know, there are only two fonts: Times and Arial. Oh, I forgot Courier. And a couple thousand others, which are interesting to use sometimes.

Back to the logo: when I hear "Jack Block," my first thought is to use a font that's blocky and strong - something like THIS. The font is "Rio Grande." It's blocky all right - yet the spaces around the "o" keep it from being TOO blocky. A slight bevel gives it that popular 3-D look.

KIM BECKLUND

PHOTO:Kim has included two nice photos big enough to recognize her. The candidate's willingness to put his/her face in front of the voters is a plus. BUT -

COLOR: Kim's flier is printed on that repulsive shade of green that always bugs me, but especially when someone's picture is on it.

How could anyone not notice it's not flattering to the subject to be depicted with bilious green skin and hair? It's kinda hard to get past that bad choice.

LAYOUT: The layout is a bit cluttered. Overlapping of tables is okay, but the design lines should be arranged a little more harmoniously.  

LOGO: There is none. The Header and footer are reverse-printed - white on a black bar - and someone's probably proud of that, but the whole thing's in Arial.

The best way to call attention to a headline, title, or logo is NOT to make Arial or Times font bolder, italicized, underlined, or reversed, but choose a DIFFERENT font. Experiment with those on your Word editor program (except Comic Sans - NEVER use that!). Augment those with decent quality free fonts from Da Font, or buy some professional quality ones from MyFonts (not likely, hmmm?).

Or, ask a graphic designer for help.

Example: Kim's name in a heavy italic font with wedge serifs, Daitona  (in green, since she likes green). The second line is also italic, but a simple but stylish sans serif (NOT Arial!).

SHARON NELSON
Sharon is our King County councilmember Dow Constantine's assistant. She's very experienced, but not well known to the 34th members because she doesn't attend meetings. So she has a name recognition (and face recognition) challenge, when lobbying the PCOs.

Has her flier addressed that? You tell me: no picture... no logo... forgettable name... white on black... all Arial text (not even a bolded line anywhere)!

This has all the personality of a ...what? I can't think of anything with this little personality. Sharon, you need help, you are graphically challenged.

Later, I received a letter from Dow Constantine, endorsing Sharon of course, and relating her exceptional qualifications. That's nice, but again...no picture. A picture of her and Dow together would've been good. But she remains faceless...

Almost any logo would be better than NO Logo. Something like this? Okay, it's not my best effort, but I was getting tired of designing stuff for nothing late last night.

In case you were wondering: Candidate Ivan Weiss, Chair of the 34th Dems, does NOT have a logo, as far as I know. But maybe he doesn't need one. Every single PCO knows Ivan.

Please RECOMMEND this story if you want it to stay on the front page for awhile!