This was a postcard I received in the mail a few months ago. I have been wanting to review it for some time. This is a great example of Leftist virtue messaging.
Let’s take a moment and look at the design factors which went into the imagery.
Does this imagery check intersectional boxes? Yes.
What are the obvious boxes it checks? Old person with cane. Check. Student. Check. Two men holding hands. Check. Disabilities. Check. Single mother with child. Check. African-American female as primary character, plus another clearly identifiable African-American female in silhouette.
There’s nothing wrong with any of this. This is basic, to be expected cultural messaging from the Left. The implied message is that “we represent you.” That’s good messaging, even if the secondary implied message is “the other team hates you.” This postcard can be seen as a sign of demonization through implication, but we are all used to that. I might go so far as to say that we are all conditioned to that treatment.
The Left cannot simply tell a thing as it is. It must always be a narrative of victims and victimizer.
Let’s look deeper.
The primary figure’s mask, and the background behind the silhouettes. The sun, rising sun. The rising sun imagery is deeply connected to Marxist beliefs. The idea that “the new reality is just around the corner.” This consistent urging of their ideological followers that if they all just do their part, no matter the cost, the new shining utopia is JUST around the corner. Just one more liberty. Just one more sacrifice. Just do your part, comrade.
Finally, let’s look at the single biggest design consideration on this postcard. Those silhouettes.
It’s a long line of people going to those three curtained voting booths. What are the design considerations which went into each?
The obvious demographic box-checking. Those are subtle, and secondary. The eye is carried primarily to the highest-contrast details, the ballot envelopes each one carries to the mailbox or the voting booth. Stark white, standing out against each with that strong deep blue to contrast it, each ballot is like a little note on a music sheet. A heartbeat rhythm moving all us fellow-travelers forward to… the new reality! (It’s just around the corner).
My final observation about the design considerations of the blue silhouette people is this. The white contrast details for the ballots is obvious because this postcards is about voting specifically. However, there is another detail which received the same attention, and I would state also that it received significantly more logged time by the designer. Those little masks.
They all have little masks. They aren’t the same one, copied and pasted, either. Someone spent a lot of time on the client’s buck drawing each of those separate little masks. Now, are the masks supported by the text as the ballots are (and the ballots should be). No. No, there is not one mention of those masks or the importance of the masks in the text. The masks are inherently tied to the sunrise imagery subconsciously through the juxtaposing nature of the primary character’s mask imagery and the background sun imagery. The blue figures and their masks are all a part of the glorious new reality.
The masks are subconscious to the reader of this marketing. This serves more powerfully as mask propaganda than it does as voting information.
The primary purpose of this postcard is the masks. The voting message is the secondary purpose of this postcard. This is a great example of Leftist virtue messaging.