Kieran Lawrence looks at autonomous weapons and the effect they could have on modern warfare
Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
Ben Bland examines the fallout from the Iowa caucuses and looks forward to the New Hampshire primaries.
In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
When designing campaign posters, I think it’s good to have a variation, but there still needs to be a feature of every poster that defines it as one of yours. There also needs to be a balance between the creation of a catchy slogan, and informing people of your policies. However often you put a website or email address at the bottom of an eye-catching poster, if you don’t give any indication of what you’re running for, on the poster itself, it isn’t likely to gather many votes: people simply can’t be bothered to follow things up if it doesn’t look like it’ll be worth it.
Likewise, while you want to look as though you’ve thought about your posters, you don’t want them to look too overdone – you may well end up giving people the impression that they are the be-all and end-all of your campaign. Graphics over policies is never the best way to go, unless you want your campaign to look superficial.
I have to say; out of the posters I have seen so far (this may well change tomorrow), Sam Daniels, running for Democracy and Services officer, has to have my admiration. Daniels has three different posters: one, a simple rectangle containing his name, hoped-for position and a simple slogan; other more detailed sheets with actual polices bulleted pointed on, and possibly the cheapest (yet effective?) posters I’ve seen – blank paper with the initials “SD” in black felt pen (or at least I assume those are for him). Daniels has the potential to create a brand with those initials, that will be immediately recognisable as a result of the other, more detailed posters: whether this’ll actually happen, who knows, but the potential is there.
Points should go to David Levene, running for YUSU President, for choosing to distribute bright yellow posters to stand out from the white of many of the others. Saying that, Nick Scarlett’s banners for Student Activities (the most tactically placed posters I’ve seen so far) make good use of the red name against the white paper to catch the eye.
Strategically, LGBT officer potentials, “Tom and Nell”, hadn’t fared so well in my eyes. While they may have been going for the blanket poster effect, five or six identical posters next to each other didn’t seem like the best use of the campaign fund.
Roberto Powell (potential YUSU President) appears to have achieved a pretty comprehensive postering of campus (although I’m not sure whether the implicit comparison with Elvis is relevant), while I saw only one Ollie Hutchings (poetential YUSU President) poster, although Hutchings seems to have pushed the boat (and the purse-strings) out with his campaign, and his full-colour poster is clearly one of the most professional-looking. However the impact of the bright colours and block letters was lost against the coloured clutter of one of the Derwent notice boards: again, a slight position “fail”. On that note, I will also have to deduct some personal points from Chris Etheridge’s Democracy and Services campaign: whoever put his posters up might want to think about putting the posters low enough for short people to read them: otherwise you just lose out on accessing a quarter or so of the campus population!
But congratulations nonetheless to Etheridge, Levene, “Tom and Nell”, Hutchings, Powell, Scarlett, Daniels and Dan Walker (potential Democracy and Services) for being so prompt with your posters: how will the rest fare? We shall have to wait and see…
I personally think credit should also go to Peter Warner 'Welfare' Medley. He has gone for large posters clearly outlining his three key policies rather then a ton of A4 things with name and position. I've also seen his boards moving aound campus. While he may not of plastered campus I've seen more people stopping to read his in Vanbrugh Stalls then any of the other posters.
It's nice to see some clearly explained policies in large clear print. It is policies not design that will b useful afterall. That being said i think they're also well designed and the little computerised version of him is pretty nifty too.
I know how I'm voting for Welfare.
I'm not so sure. A few people such as Jason Rose and Roberto Powell have outlined their policies much better. Laura Bo hasn't put any policies up and Levene has just put a big face on a poster. Marks to those with more words, I say!
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