Official Inauguration Poster Released By Obama Team: Exclusive

The Barack Obama Inaugural Committee is releasing an official inauguration poster playing off past themes and marking the history of January 20th in a uniquely Obama fashion.

Designed by famed street artist Shepard Fairey, the print, created especially for the 2009 Inauguration, boldly declares "BE THE CHANGE."

It is the next step in the branding of the presidency -- a development that is not unique to Obama but one that he has used better than any other politician in recent memory.

Fairey's initial design -- a guerrilla style, dark-colored portrait of the then-candidate -- proved to be a political and cultural phenomenon during the campaign. The current edition plays heavily off those themes and it seems likely to be a major symbol during the inauguration festivities. The image will be available on buttons, lapel pins, stickers and t-shirts.

The poster will officially be released tomorrow on the Inaugural Committee's online store.

Comments

[NeoLatinoVanguard]

The artist who created almost pulled the poster from being used by Obama at a financial lost to him self !

You see the artist is a Gay American and he felt his poster represented an ideal that the minister Warren did not meet, to say the least.

The Irony!!!

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

WRONG! learn to use "the googIe".......

from wiki.....

Fairey currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Amanda and daughters Vivienne and Madeline.

[jojizzle]

NewLatinoVanguard,

Shepard Fairey is NOT GAY! He is long married to a woman and has kids.

He is a strong proponent of gay rights and wasn't happy when Obama picked Rick Warren to be

at his inauguration.

[NeoLatinoVanguard]

Really how about reading this

http://obeygiant.com/headlines/stopobama-time-stop-intolerance

[MomfromTexas]

I love his statement! Thanks for posting that.

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

how 'bout YOU read it????? where does it say that shepard is gay????

*crickets*

supporters of gay rights DOES NOT EQUAL gay.......sheesh!

[Horus45]

You don't know what you're talking about!
Shepard Fairey is NOT gay, he supports Gay Rights.
Shepard is happily married with two children.
I am so sick of you people who spout nonsense when you don't know the facts or the truth!

http://obeygiant.com/headlines/stopobama-time-stop-intolerance

[cyb1851]

Thank you for showing the world more of the typical, ignorant neocon mindset. Now, go crawl back in your hole.

[Xgal08]

The poster looks great! cjay889, what do you mean you don't know what kind of man he is?? Still mad that McCain lost huh? I think it's time to move on now.

[cjay889]

This is the United States of America..........not the United States of Obama. He should tone down the "Savior" thing. He's a man, and we don't even know for sure what kind of man he is!

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

or if he's even a man.......

[flymic]

save it. This is what it feels like to have a REAL leader.

[MeloMelo66]

Maybe just Maybe he's a martian, or a hermaphrodite, or just maybe he is half black in which case we could say he is a biracial man, or maybe is an educated man, or a well spoken man, or maybe just MAYBE he is the man chosen by the american voters to be the next president.... wow, so many maybes as to what "kind" of man he is..... oooooohhh, scary,......

[GavinJackson]

It'd be great if you can afford the $500 price tag for the signed and numbered version or the $100 numbered version. How many of the grassroots Obama base can afford that?

[KrystynM]

there will be replicas made, I wouldn't worry.

[yearlin]

love it

[hortonhearsawho2]

I bought two, sending one to the mccains...no bad feelings there johnny.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Make a great flag of our nation...

[flymic]

lol. nice. agreed.

[sasson]

A flag with a leader's picture on it? that's messed up.

[Poldolino]

Living in Austria I find the red-white-red stripes interesting.

Much in evidence here on any national holidays, skiing events etc.

Well, Obama can be my president any time. I got the calendar on the wall already ;-)

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

just purchased one @ 5:08am CST.

[lizziekw]

I like the poster and I want one. I'm not surprised they sold out online but I'm sure they'll have some in DC.

[Marcospinelli]

It's already sold out.

[paulalex]

Link?

[several]

Not sold out as of 2:15am PST:
http://pic2009.inauguralcollectibles.com/optimizer/product/J0501.html

but $100! ouch.

The $500 signed and numbered version is however already sold out.

[iswideopen]

The poster is absolutely wonderful and beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you, PE Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LaHenche]

...in a "Big Brother is Watching You" , cult of personality, "Great Leap Forward" kind of way.

[Beachrunner]

Exactly! Just like the posters found here:

http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/sovintro.php

[racetoinfinity]

I think it's ugly, aesthetically.

On a more substantive note, with all the stale neoliberal staus quo nominations and appointments (the latest being Merck associate Sanjay Gupta - see - http://www.counterpunch.org/martens07202007.html ) - and status quo corporatist triangulating going on, I have to say, "Be the change? Ok - someone has to."

[ObjectiveRealist]

Informative. Bad-mouthing Michael Moore looked suspicious,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/07/sanjay-gupta-problem-paul_n_155888.html
... but I felt that to presume him innocent until proven corrupt, I should suppose that he probably got bad information from an intern researcher and parroted it innocently on air, then apologized properly when the facts were clear to him. But your link suggests that he is all too willing to knowingly lie to millions of viewers, to inflate his investment portfolio. I still want to read more sources' accounts of his promotion of Gardasil(TM), but I promise you, I'm no longer assuming that any of my hope and enthusiasm for the Obama administration are applicable to that person, Sanjay Gupta.

[ObjectiveRealist]

PS
You're wrong. It's beautiful, aesthetically.

[several]

You're both wrong. There is no right or wrong in aesthetic matters. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Glinda]

You are ... if this comment is any evidence ... all over the place. Cogency, coherence nor communication is your strong suit.

Could you rephrase this with a modern well-constructed English sentence? I'm specifically requesting sentences that show a grasp of noun and verb, accompanied by adjective and adverb, where the words aren't used as masks of emptiness.

To understand what I'm seeking, for instance:

"On a more substantive note ..." [ a hopeful sign of an attempt at the commentator's substance?! ... which is unfortunately followed by the usual right wing gibberish and empty jargon (exquisite though it may be from a mere entertainment perspective) } :

"... with all the stale neoliberal staus (sic) quo nominations and appointments (the latest being Merck associate Sanjay Gupta. [Does the commenter know the meaning of "neoliberal"? And if he does, does his hash/crack pipe let any air in? A cleaning may be in order.]

[ And the sentence gets even more incomprehensible] " ... and status quo corporatist triangulating going on, I have to say, 'Be the change? Ok - someone has to.' "

I would like a coherent one-line summary of what this ... er ... "opinionator" ... is trying to say? Anything intelligent ?...Please inform me.

[racetoinfinity]

Part 1:

1) My post is grammatically sound enough, having all the necessary subjects, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Where did you learn grammar and syntax?

2) Get a dictionary (or go to Wikipedia) and look up the words "neoliberal", "status quo"("staus" is a typo - I accidentally left out the "t" [which any fair-minded person could infer]), and "corporatist".

3) As to the verb "to triangulate": the word was commonly applied to Bill Clinton's strategy of playing to both liberals and conservatives, the left and the right, in an attempt to play straight down the middle and get as many votes and as much muddled agreement to watered-down policies as possible, while, unfortunately, abandoning principles he had advanced during his campaign. "Don't ask, don't tell" is an example of this cynical weak-willed policy.

An example of Obama's doing this is his backing down from a robust stimulus package lately, and advocating tax cuts that won't be spent, but will be put into savings by the public, and thus won't help, but will actually hurt the economy in its present state, this in an effort to get 80 votes in the Senate, when all that are needed are 60 votes for his stimulus plan to avoid a filibuster. This is typical Democratic caving in to the Republicans, when there is no need. We won the election and are in control of the Congress and the Presidency. We have a mandate. Rachel Maddow said the same thing last night.

[racetoinfinity]

Any progressive, of which I am one, not a right wing reactionary, as you mistakenly assume, will understand what these words mean, and the meaning of my post. There is a more than a bit of comment in the progressive community now about how Obama's many economic appointments (all retreads from the Clinton administration and pro-Wall St. economists) and his choice of Rick Warren are disappointments, not to mention his support of monopolistic American communication corporations in granting them retroactive immunity for spying on Americans without court-ordered warrants.

If you have trouble with sentences of more than ten words, I'm sorry, but that's not my problem.

I'm not ashamed to be critical of Obama at this point, because only through honest critiques can we hold him accountable to progressive policies that can really heal all the damage of the last 28 years (from Reagan on.)
part 2:

The poster has the words "be the change," exhorting (you may need to look this word up) us to "be the change."

The meaning of "Be the change? Ok - someone has to" is:

Obama, you are not presently "being the change." although I want you to be. You ask me to be the change: Ok - I will; change is needed, and someone has to be the change. Get it now?

[racetoinfinity]

3. "substantive" (adj.) (from thefreedictionary.comm):

Of or relating to the essence or substance; essential: substantive information.

I meant it as "more important" I'll grant you "more important" may have been a better choice for clarity.

"neoliberal"- from Wikipedia - and I'm using it in this sense:

Neo-liberals advocate policies such as free markets, and free trade.

You'll find it used this way at sites like truthdig (by Robert Scheer), truthout, alternet, etc.

Peace.

[racetoinfinity]

4. "Cogency, coherence nor communication is your strong suit."

You forgot the necessary word "Neither" at the beginning of this sentence.

"Could you rephrase this with a modern well-constructed English sentence?"

"modern"?? lol. Last time I checked, I was not using old or middle English.

I won't stoop to your level of ad hominem (imagined and false) ("crack pipe") attack. I don't operate in that snarky, resentful way.

[LaHenche]

BIG BRO' IS WATCHING!

[LaHenche]

OBAMARAMA : CHANGE YOU CAN JINGLE