With Zohran Mamdani, have progressives found their counter to MAGA branding?

"In the most recent episode of the By Design podcast, Fast Company spoke with Tyler Evans, the designer who took Mamdani's brand identity -created by the creative studio Forge-and turned it into an instantly iconic campaign visual. Evans, currently the creative director for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has also led design for the Teamsters and Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. His work tackles a question that lingers for many: why do so many campaign aesthetics fall flat with voters?"

"Liz Stinson: I think we have to start with just a really simple question for people who might not understand what you do. Can you tell us what it is that a creative director on a campaign does? Tyler Evans: Design is the bread and butter bulk of it. That's how I spend the majority of my time basically weighing in on anything that visuals touch, which in this day and age is the majority of things."

"Amid a crowded field of candidates, New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has managed to cut through the clutter-with a campaign poster that challenged every convention of visual design. New Yorkers found that the poster's colors struck a chord-MetroCard yellow, Mets blue, and nods to classic bodega signage. But a hasty glance could easily have missed just how deliberate every choice was, from typeface to shade to layout."

Zohran Mamdani's campaign poster used MetroCard yellow, Mets blue, and bodega-signage references to resonate with New Yorkers while subverting conventional visual design. Every design choice, from typeface to shade to layout, aimed to communicate identity and essence. Tyler Evans translated the brand identity created by Forge into a striking campaign visual, drawing on experience with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Teamsters, and Bernie Sanders. Design cannot alone win elections, but visuals shape political perception and play a central role in modern campaigns, especially as visual culture grows more influential amid shrinking attention spans.

Read at Fast Company