What do campaign logos (or "brandmarks," as they say in corpspeak) say about the candidates themselves? Some quick deconstruction:

First off, Clark:



You gotta hand it to whoever thought of the stars thing. I notice the "04" is quite large here, as if to subtly drive home the point: Four-star general in '04. Actually uses "for President," unlike Kerry:



One of my pet peeves these days is the omission of the word "for" in what should be "for President." Do candidates who do this really think they're fooling anyone with this pseudo-subliminal silliness? If you ask me, eliminating the "for" doesn't create an aura of inevitabilty -- it creates the aura of a fake-ass.

Also, the Kerry logo is lower-case, conveying a tone of dull understatement... not surprising in this case.

Edwards:



Edwards also does the damned "President" thing. But at least the font is solid. A so-so sign.

And finally, Dean:



Big, fat capital letters make a strong, assertive statement. Ever notice the Bush-Cheney logo also uses fat caps? "For America" in handwritten-style font a nice informal touch. And, lo! A touch of daring: an actual color other than red, white, or blue.