These selected covers are from the table of contents from Newsweek’s post presidential issue. Here are some of the things that are fascinating to me about this selection:

1. Hillary Clinton’s portrait cover is fairly close to the camera, followed by Michelle Obama’s slightly farther away portrait, and Cindy McCain’s most remote portrait. Sarah Palin’s portrait photo is so large/close up that it’s actually larger than life.
2. Once Sarah Palin entered the race, she appeared on no less than three covers.
3. John McCain is rarely smiling in his cover photos. Barack Obama is smiling widely in three of his covers.
4. John McCain is significantly taller than Sarah Palin on their joint cover. However, most photos show the two candidates as much closer in height. For example:
   
5. The cover of Barack Obama is the only one completely in black and white (emphasis mine)
6. The symbols shown with the candidates are: McCain: Naval uniform; Palin: Rifle; Obama: Flag.

Is there a discernible bias here? I find this especially interesting because I designed covers for Newsweek in 1995 during the Clinton/Dole race. We were tasked with remaining absolutely objective, including not retouching Bill Clinton’s cover photos (he had noticably bad skin and bloodshot eyes with dark circles underneath), and making sure that the matching covers of the presidential/vice-presidential teams were the same size. I am sure that those directives remain today.

I think this collection shows how hard it is to design in a completely neutral way, especially when the subject is so loaded for the designers. I think the Newsweek designers are excellent. I also think that there’s a lot beyond what meets the eye.

See more 2008 election covers: http://www.newsweek.com/id/166340

I can’t seem to resist designing these desktops. My “Thanks Gratitude Wonder” is up there with 49 more free desktop designs from designers all over the world.

Thanks again for including me, Smashing! www.smashingmagazine.com

via cnn.com

Now that’s what I call an information graphic. Clear, concise, easy to read and understand, and it includes all of the information you need. CNN really nailed it with this Flash-based design.

And it’s a total sign of how geeky I am that I was so blown away by graphics on one of the most historic nights of my life. I try not to be political on this blog, but today is a good day.

Do Robert Altman’s films inspire unusually good design? It seems so. The promo fliers for the local Altman film festival caught my eye recently:

That’s what I call excellent one color design! If you know about design production, you can tell that there must have been some severe constraints put on this project: one color printing, no bleeds, an unusual size and apparently no budget for artwork. However, nothing about this piece feels forced to me at all. It’s arresting, easy to read (a real feat considering how much information is on there), and memorable. I wish I knew who the designer is, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to find out.

While researching this poster I came across a couple of other back and white Altman posters which were beautifully designed. It’s always nice to be reminded that great design doesn’t require large printing budgets or fancy computer tricks.

Polish poster design for Altman’s Three Women by Mieczyslaw Wasilewski, 1978. Via theartofposter.com

A poster concept for the Robert Altman Film Festival by julyanne. Via contentshot.com

I linked to Smashing Magazine’s monthly free desktop designs before, but I’m doing it again because this month one of the entries they posted is from… me. Yippee! Scroll down more than halfway to find my “Halloscene”.

Even if you don’t want to download my desktop (and really, I’d never know), you should check it out to see the other 39 designs chosen this month from designers all over the world.

Thanks for including me, Smashing! www.smashingmagazine.com