A Deep Dive Into the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates' Branding (Color Palettes & Typography)
Since I had already done a deep dive into my thoughts on the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ branding in another blog, I thought I’d follow that up with a (slightly nerdier) foray into the color palettes and typography choices of each campaign. This blog includes links to access the fonts and typefaces used on each of the candidates’ websites, as well as links to access the hex codes from their sites.
Although I’m not providing commentary on each of these, there were a few interesting overall notes:
It was fascinating to see which teams utilized open source and/or free fonts, compared to those that purchased from big name type foundries. I will note that pricy isn’t always better, and definitely isn’t a hinderance to having a great campaign website.
As diverse as this field has seemed in regards to branding color palettes, I was surprised by how many palettes showed up as red, white and blue heavy. Although small steps are being made, very few candidates veered completely away from this classic combination.
A couple quick resource shout outs to the tools I used to create this blog:
WhatFont: An awesome Google Chrome extension that allows you to hover over web fonts to find out what they are.
Site Palette: Another great Chrome extension that scans websites an exports their color palettes, including to Coolors (below).
Coolors: A color palette generator. You can make an account and save color palettes for free, which is what I’ve done to link all of the palettes below. Click on any palette to open it in Coolors.
MICHAEL BENNET
Source Sans Pro, designed by Paul D. Hunt. Open source, also available on Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts.
Source Serif Pro, designed by Frank Grießhammer. Open source, also available on Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts.
JOE BIDEN
Brother 1816, designed by Fernando Díaz and Ignacio Corbo. Available on Adobe Fonts.
CORY BOOKER
Dapifer Book, designed by Darden Studio. Available on Adobe Fonts.
Conductor, designed by Frere-Jones Type. Available on Adobe Fonts for $$$.
PETE BUTTIGIEG
(Updated April 2019)
Aktiv Grotesk Ext, designed by Dalton Maag. Available on Adobe Fonts.
Industry, designed by Mattox Shuler. Available on Adobe Fonts.
Domaine Text, designed by Klim Type Foundry. Available on Klim’s website for $$$.
*Note: Check out Buttigieg’s website for an in-depth Design Toolkit, which includes reasonings for type and color choices.
JULIAN CASTRO
Mallory, designed by Frere-Jones Type. Available on Adobe Fonts for $$$.
Fedra Serif, designed by Typotheque. Available on Typotheque for $$$.
BILL DE BLASIO
Gibson, designed by Canada Type. Available on Adobe Fonts.
JOHN DELANEY
Source Sans Pro, designed by Adobe Type. Open source; also available as a Google Font.
ITC Avant Garde, designed by Monotype. Available on Adobe Fonts for free.
TULSI GABBARD
Harmonia Sans, designed by Monotype. Available on MyFonts for $$$.
Neue Swift, designed by Linotype. Available on MyFonts for $$$.
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Navigo, designed by CSTM. Available on Adobe Fonts for free.
Mike Gravel
Bureau Grot, designed by Font Bureau. Available on Adobe Fonts for free.
Ivy Journal, designed by Ivy Foundry. Available on Adobe Fonts for free.
JOHN HICKENLOOPER
Proxima Nova, designed by Mark Simonson. Available on Adobe Fonts for free.
Bold Uniform, designed by Miller Type Foundry. Available on Fonts.com for $$$.
JAY INSLEE
Montserrat, designed by Julieta Ulanovsky. Available on FontSquirrel for free; also a Google Font.
AMY KLOBUCHAR
Avenir Next, designed by Linotype. Available on FontShop for $$$.
Note: I really like Klobuchar’s serif used for headers, but it’s embedded as an image and seems to be custom.
Wayne Messam
Montserrat, designed by Julieta Ulanovsky. Available on FontSquirrel for free; also a Google Font.
Tim Ryan
Effra, designed by Jonas Schudel. Available on Adobe Fonts for free.
ELIZABETH WARREN
Cormorant Garamond, designed by Christian Thalmann. Available on Adobe Fonts and FontSquirrel for free; also a Google Font.
Poppins, designed by Indian Type Foundry. Available on Adobe Fonts and FontSquirrel for free; also a Google Font.
ANDREW YANG
Awesome Font, designed by Dave Gandy. Available on FontSquirrel for free.