The Green Party has long been the scrappy underdog in Canadian federal politics. They’re only invited to the occasional leader’s debate, and they only win seats very rarely, but they’re still there, making their presence known and pushing their issues to the forefront. Hanging around Twitter while the rest of the parties actually get to debate is hardly ideal, but they’re still doing what they can.
As the scrappy underdog, they are not going to have the same campaign budget as the other parties. While the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP can hire expensive campaign advisors, graphic designers and all that fun stuff. This is obvious when you drive down the highway and see their respective campaign signs. The three big parties have signs with nice, easy to read bold fonts, eye catching colour combinations, everything you need to have a good sign. You’ll know immediately who is running and which banner they’re running under. You won’t know much beyond that, but you’re also driving at 100 km/h so you can’t do light reading about politics anyway.
The Green Party, by contrast, cannot afford the same level of graphic design as everyone else. They cannot afford the same number of signs overall, but that’s not really a big deal, just a few well placed ones and you remind voters that the Green Party exists, and they can vote for it if they want. However, the Green Party has made a major mistake in their sign strategy, because their signs are absolutely terrible.
The first time I saw one, it was outside a field near Theodore. I initially thought it was advertising a seed treatment that was used on the field, rather than a political party that was running for election. I don’t even know what made me give it a second look, but it took a while before I realized what was going on. It was probably made of nice, kind recycled materials and used less ink than everyone else, because it’s the Green Party, but the sign itself was a bit of a waste because it was useless.
First problem, it’s light green on white, which it turns out is very difficult to actually read when you’re driving by. Second problem, the font is very small, which is also difficult to read in only a few seconds. Third, it kind of looks like the signs that the great enemy of the Green Party, Monsanto, might use to advertise their new varieties of crops. You’re not going to mistake the signs of anyone else for anything but a political sign, but the Green Party could be advertising anything, especially since you can’t really read them.
Since the party can’t actually afford a good graphic designer, I will give them some free advice for next time, so they manage to get at least something presentable out there. Step one, pick a nice shade of green, not too light, maybe just a couple shades off of actual street signs. Given that it’s the Green Party they will want to find a green that is made of environmentally friendly ink, but that exists. Second, pick a nice bold font, it doesn’t matter which one but it should be easy to read at a glance. Third, put the name of the candidate in the bold font on the green background, and there you go. It’s what everyone else does because it’s what works, and while I respect the party for going a different way, in this case the scrappy underdog should look to the big ones.
