There’s a bit of a dustup about the set design of Obama’s mile high acceptance speech location. If this picture that’s been making the rounds has any hint of truth to it, then I can only gasp in horror.
A few months back I gushed about how nicely team Obama had framed his visit to the Excel center in Saint Paul. The warm colors, the sea of faces surrounding the candidate, the amazingly integrated it all left me eager to see what they could do with the national convention.
So far, the convention has been a design bust as far as I’m concerned. The DNC logo projected behind the speakers is awful, poking them in the head and shoulders with its sharp N. The logo on the front of the podium is even worse, combining the harsh DNC with a lopsided 08 that looks wrong in every way. I will grant that the rest of the “blossom” at the front of the convention is very nice, when cameras open up a wide enough shot, but 98% of TV time is spent either on the awful close up or the drab rest of the hall.
So I had some hope that at least Thursday’s night down the road at the football stadium would give the team a chance to bring back the warm, engaging, people centered look of the Saint Paul event. Then I saw the picture above. It reminds me of the worst graphical misstep of the primaries, that silly Obama presidential seal. You remember…
Now they will give us an Obama capitol or White House? An Obama monument? What Obama needs is to be surrounded by people, to be conducting a movement, body surfing a wave. Enshrining him prematurely is the last thing we need. As Indy would say: “I have a bad feeling about this.”