I had been wondering when Hoefler & Co.’s Decimal would see some high-profile usage since its release in September 2019; nearly a year later it seems this qualifies as “high-profile.”
Seemingly now the typographers of politics, Hoefler worked directly with Robyn Kanner, Senior Creative Advisor to the Biden campaign for the campaign’s typography identity. Kanner comments on the typeface choices:
Decimal finds its roots in wristwatches – it’s true as time. Mercury, with its roots in the written word. Put simply, our typography is bound by the truth.
Jonathan Hoefler elaborates on the assigned roles of the sans and the serif:
Words of action would be set in Decimal’s declarative small capitals, while the supporting syntax would rely on Mercury Text Grade Four.
Biden Harris merch including T-shirts, buttons, mugs, and tote bags.
Biden Harris lawn sign.
Campaign website.
Social media cards explaining the caregiving agenda, featuring all-caps Decimal and Mercury Bold Italic.
Video stills combining bold styles from Decimal and Mercury Italic.
Biden Harris logo.
Earlier version of the campaign logo, designed by Aimee Brodbeck using Brother 1816.
Earlier version of the campaign website.
Buttons with “Biden President” and “Jo 2020” logo variants.
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The way the red, abstracted ‘e’ falls back in the blue makes it read like “Bid n’ Harris”.
On the blog of typography.com, Jonathan Hoefler comments on the logo he created for the ticket, based on Decimal. It’s “a collaboration with Senior Creative Advisor to the campaign Robyn Kanner, which evolves the earlier mark by Aimee Brodbeck at Mekanism.”
The previously used logo as well as the surrounding campaign used Brother 1816. I’ve added some of the images from this earlier phase to the post above.
The Brother 1816 version had a bit more pep.
I like the use of Decimal with Mercury in the advertising spots but find the logo pretty lackluster and uninspired. Lucky that 2020 is probably the least important logos will be in a US election