IT’S BECOME A staple of every Irish election: the towns and cities of Ireland get painted with posters for weeks as candidates beam down from every lamp-post and pole in the area in the hope of increasing their name recognition and picking up some votes.
But how effective are these posters when it comes to politicians selling themselves? Are the designs outdated? Are there better ways for candidates to get themselves out there?
The Journal spoke to graphic designer Aaron Fahy, of Aaron F Design in Co Waterford, and Paul McBride, the creative director of graphic design studio Detail, to give their thoughts on some of the posters that have been zip-tied all over Ireland’s European constituencies in recent weeks.
Fahy said that while some posters during this campaign have broken the status quo and opted for a more modern, classy look, the majority of designs come from “the classic copy and paste”.
“A more modern approach is badly needed for some,” he said.
McBride and his team said that while most posters are quite similar, not all are “examples of design excellence”.
The Detail team said each poster needs to communicate just four pieces of information effectively to be impactful; the candidate’s name; their party; their portrait photo and a call to action.
“It’s a tried (and tired) and tested recipe and when a candidate moves out of this format the message can be lost,” McBride said.
So what do the designers think of these following examples?
In every constituency, the graphic designers found the posters fell into the same categories: one very poor poster, one middle-of-the-road one, one ticked-all-the-boxes poster and one they believed brought a modern flare to the old tradition.
Fahy believed that while Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews’ poster had “the right idea”, there were still a few elements missing.
“It would’ve been nice if he wasn’t cut off and instead if his picture went right down to the bottom,” Fahy said.
On styling, he added: “I’m not too keen on the green Europe flag, but I get the idea.”
The Waterford designer rated Andrews’ poster a 6.5 out of 10.
McBride and the team at Detail said the hierarchal use of information on Andrews’ poster makes the details clear to the people who look at it and the colours on the poster make it easy for the public to identify the party as well.
The group also highlighted the stars, emulating the EU flag, but also noted that they added a distinction onto the poster so that observers know what election they are running in.
The Detail team gave the poster a 6 out of 10. Average score: 6.25/10.
Elements certainly were not missing on independent candidate Conor Murphy’s poster, according to Fahy. The designer said that there was “way too much going on” and “way too much information” on the banner.
“It’s an absolutely dreadful poster,” Fahy said. “Conflicting colours, there’s just so much wrong with it. It looks like it was made on Microsoft paint,” he added.
The designer, who has worked with two-time Grammy-award-winning artist Lil Nas X and the BBC, gave Murphy’s poster 2/10.
“It’s definitely memorable, I’ll say that much.”
The team at Detail.ie said: “[This is] difficult to read from a distance. It’s like a poorly designed flier.”
While Fahy thought it may have been made in MS Paint, the Dublin-based design company said the candidate may have used another one of Microsoft’s softwares: “It looks amateur and cobbled together in PowerPoint.
“But the non-design aesthetic could be deliberate to indicate an unconventional candidate,” McBride and his team said.
The Detail team gave the poster a 1 out of 10. Average score: 1.5/10.
Social Democrats’ Sinéad Gibney’s poster scored high with our critics and was commended by Fahy for getting away from the boxy, unoriginal design with its rounded edges.
“It’s a pleasant design and I don’t really have any criticism,” Fahy said, scoring it an 8/10.
The team at Detail.ie said Gibney’s design was “probably the cleanest, most minimal layout” and importantly stripped back the information on the poster to party, name, Europe and a simple numeral.
McBride said: “There’s a good use of party colours and branding and the Dublin background image brings additional meaning.”
The Detail team gave the poster a 9 out of 10. Average score: 8.5/10.
The vast constituency of Midlands-North West makes it very difficult for candidates to get to every doorstep and engage with the electorate. A good tactic is to have enough big and attention-grabbing posters to get your name out there.
So, continuing with the high-scorers, Fahy said the poster for Fine Gael’s Nina Carberry was the gold standard that other candidates should look to.
“I actually really like this design, it’s kind of like a reimagining of the classic posters where the person is boxed off and their name is under it,” he said.
Fahy said that the poster was “powerful” as it stands out against others in the constituency. He added that if he were designing this poster, however, he would’ve gone with a darker blue for the Vote 1 and For Europe.
“It looks like the Centra colours,” he added. For that, Carberry’s poster lost one point, scoring a 9/10.
The graphic designers differed when it came to the top-scorer in this constituency. McBride and the team in Detail believed Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew’s posters displayed a “good, clear hierarchy of information” that was “easily understood”.
The designer said, in comparison to Fianna Fáil, the Sinn Féin logo was more prominent. McBride added that he has noticed that Government parties tend to make their logos less visible during election campaigns, when compared with opposition parties.
“The party branding usually scales depending on public perception of the current government,” he added. The Dublin designers scored the poster 8 out of 10.
While Fahy agreed that the poster was “effective”, he added: “It just seems a bit copy and paste of the majority of posters most years and, personally for me, I find myself glazing over them because they all look the same.”
“There’s clearly a tried-and-tested formula there but, to me, it’s just a tad bit outdated. I can’t really flaw the overall design, because it’s effective. I’d give it a 6,” he said. Average score: 7/10.
Both designers suggested that Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s name recognition was doing the heavy lifting with his posters. The roadside banner was not a hit with the critics who spoke to The Journal.
Fahy said the details on the poster were too small for the size of the banner and McBride suggested making his image and text “much, much larger” if he wanted a chance to be seen by drivers passing by. Both designers gave it a score of 4/10.
Continuing with our roadside banners, Independents4Change’s Mick Wallace’s posters have been a stand-out for their use of colours, slogans and presentation. But the designers said Wallace may have missed the mark.
“The overall design for this poster I don’t mind too much but I feel like he’s not really advertising effectively,” Fahy said. “If you were none the wiser you might look at it and think it’s a singer doing one last tour.”
McBride and the Detail team agreed: “This relies solely on knowing who Mick Wallace is with no other context; is it even an election poster? Add ‘Out Now” or “Live” and it could be Mick’s new album.”
The Detail team scored it a 3 out of 10.
Fahy said: “It just seems very out of place, I know that it’s trying to do something different but I feel like they’re trying too hard to be different, so far that the core message gets lost. It’s a cool idea but just has a poor execution. I’d give it a five.” Average score: 4/10
Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan teamed up with artist Yvonne Condon last week and used the portrait Condon drew of her for a spin-off poster. The idea was a great success with the designers.
Fahy and McBride said that the portrait sparks curiosity and makes for a nice change from the norm. Fahy gave her top marks on her poster.
“I love this idea a lot because it gets people talking and it has a nice message behind it too. It’s such a unique idea and it shows that there is a greater sense of community,” Fahy said.
McBride said that, even without context, the poster is “powerful” and could potentially raise O’Sullivan’s profile as a cause.
The Detail team did note that the placement of the dual branding on the poster, of the Green Party and Green European grouping logos, could confuse observers. McBride suggested placing O’Sullivan’s name at the top of the poster instead.
“Relatively clear hierarchy of information although leading with dual branding is confusing and difficult to read at a height,” the group added, scoring it a 7 out of 10. Average score: 8.5/10
Labour Party’s Niamh Hourigan’s poster was the last banner our graphic designers audited. McBride said while it was similar to Sinn Féin’s design, the colour would give it a “good impact on a busy street”.
The Detail designers said there was a clear hierarchy of information and a good use of colour, which communicates the party identity without having to see the Labour logo.
McBride added that the angled text gives the poster a “sense of energy and positivity”. His team rated the poster 8/10.
Fahy said that Hourigan’s poster was “straight to the point” and he believed her messaging was communicated well.
“In terms of the design, it’s simple, but effective. It’s clear her main message is ‘putting you at the heart of Europe’ and the pop of blue really makes that message stand out,” he said.
Though admitting that he liked the poster, he believed it was a bit too simplistic, rating it a 7/10. Average score: 7.5
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This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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