Hotcards, Full Color Printing In The Nation

"Size does matter."

There comes a time in every election season when campaigning comes down to a contest over who has the biggest…signs. In the case of election campaign signage, the old adage holds true: size does matter. Right or wrong, the larger a campaign sign, the more support a candidate appears to have. And we all know that appearing to have support, creates support. To throw a few more favorite maxims at you: there’s no point in beating around the proverbial bush. Go big, or go home.

Two very different candidates that have been taking this philosophy to heart in recent weeks are Ron Paul and Hillary Clinton.

To be fair, the Clinton campaign has always had a reputation for not sparing the competition’s feelings when it comes to huge, full color printing. And nowadays, voters attending Clinton events can expect the area to be dominated by huge signs boasting regionally-appropriate slogans, i.e. "Rebuilding the Road to the Middle Class," in Iowa and New Hampshire.

And then, of course, the Clinton campaign rolls with the largest full color printing tool of all, that is, vehicle wrapping on a huge tour bus. The “Middle Class Express,” as it’s named, in a giant floating island, barreling its way through middle America with the message that as President, Hillary Clinton will reclaim the middle class for us all. While this strategy might seem pretentious from the perspective of a critical design observer, there’s no denying that tour buses play very well in this area of the country.

Meanwhile, on the wild, dusty stretches betwixt Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Ron Paul supporters are taking a very different approach to giant signage. Campaigners are hitting the road, but they’re doing it with billboards rather than tour buses. This brings to mind yet another old chestnut: it’s not the size that counts, it’s how you use it. Except in this case, size does count, and how you use it? That counts, too.

The folks who put together these giants signs also posted a great tutorial on how to assemble your very own enormous, full color campaign signs. However, in watching the video, I had to wonder: were the efforts of 10-odd people, spread out over four days, plus the cost of materials, really less expensive than the cost of the Clinton campaign’s expensive-looking, full color printing?

As I always point out, full color printing looks expensive, but it has gotten cheap, people, cheap! Even enormous, custom banners are less costly than the materials and man-hours required to paint and erect billboards. This is not to undermine the efforts of Ron Paul supporters, who did an amazing job on their billboards. However, for all those candidates who don’t enjoy the benefits of Ron Paul-style grassroots enthusiasm, remember that even the smallest campaign can get ahead with jumbo-sized full color printing!