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

[rbryanh]

Wretched - without doubt the worst use of color I've seen since I attended a 1978 luau on Long Island. It's like watching some alien apparatchik vomit on a parrot.

Holy Judy! What are homosexuals coming to? Revoke Shepard Fairey's fairy card, now.

[jesuslovesObama]

Go away, troll.

[myangeldog1]

More like this?

http://thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Bush_Hell

[myfatherschild]

Hee Hee. That one is spot on!

[HeIsTheOne]

THAT'S THE ONE!!!!!

You go angel.

[xevioso]

Fairey is married with two kids, by the way.

[paulalex]

Too...Many­...Facts..­.

[jalapeno]

There is no good way to do a political poster, it's fine.

[Kartoffel]

What kills me is that Shep Fairey is still widely described as a counter-cultural or street or guerilla artist or whatever. How the hell can he be the official artist of The President of the United States -- the most powerful man in the world -- and still be part of the counter-culture? At this point, how can he be regarded as anything but the mouthpiece of authority? He's about as far removed from being counter-cultural as an artist possibly can be.

[poochytown]

Well, he started out that way, and through his hard work he's changed the way people look at things to the extent that he's the purveyor of new and widely admired fashions in graphic design. In short, he's fed people his stuff and made 'em like it. What are you, jealous?

[Kartoffel]

Shep Fairey and the Obama organization need to understand that the type of propaganda imagery that was bold and exciting for a longshot "insurgent" political candidate looks creepily authoritarian for a sitting president of the United States. Shep's posters look like he hasn't figured out that his guy won the election.

[karinova]

New?
Not exactly.
Fairey is, and always has been, a rip-off artist, and he has the lawsuits to prove it.
I find it actually a little nauseating that he's gotten such Obama-related prominence lately.

[SammyD]

He's friends with Axelrodsky and Ayers...that's counter culture.

[Culturemaven]

Be the ball. Na na na na na Fa fa fa fa fa

[sonambulanthorde]

Caddyshack ref. hahaha...

[rhettisha]

Ah, yes, recalling bumper sticker philosophy to set our troubled country back on its course. Be the Change, indeed!

[WaitingforJanuary]

Does anyone know where I can find the posters from 2000 and 200?

[WaitingforJanuary]

Oops... I meant 2000 and 2004.

[SueMVetforObama]

Try the National Archives. It is where we as a country, send the past.

[Sweetbay]

All the little minded tr0.lls are out tonight. No treats for any of you.

[Eric-in-the-Red]

The poster reminds me of the old (circa 1969) Star Trek episode where there was one guy who was white on the right side of his body and black on his left and another who was the reverse. They were the only remaining survivors on a planet Kirk discovered and they spent their time trying to chase and kill each other. It was kind of sci-fi's foray into civil rights.

[myangeldog1]

Check out this Obama print

http://thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Yes_We_Did_-_Victory%21_%28Unsigned_Edition%29

I could spend all evening on this guys site.....AMAZING!

[monicaangela]

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!

[HeIsTheOne]

Thanks for that link. This is the one I want:

http://thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Evolve_Devolve_Stencil_Collage_on_Paper.jpg

[monicaangela]

Great site, love the Obama progress poster and the Bob Marley stencil. Thank you!!!

[myangeldog1]

I wonder if there are T-shirts with some of these images??

[fumes]

that's beautiful angel could you show that to barack please and say hi for me?

[MPeter]

What about Ashley Byers....the 23 year-old girl in SC who did so much for our campain? Please do not forget her. we need her faith, generoristy and spirit. If the elderly African American man who said she inspired him is still alive, we need to honor them. And while we are at it, we should recognize the small woman; the councillor who gave us the slogan, 'Fired up? Ready To Go?' These were important voices without which, it is not easy to think we would be here...

Please, let's show them our appreciation.

[myangeldog1]

**CHEERS!!** to these people ona and all!!

[QueenOfViolets]

Obama has gone to great lengths to make a lot of people feel included. But I don't feel included. I'm a medical marijuana patient and his drug policy transition team is stacked with people who don't even think of me as human being let alone a citizen, a Democrat or anyone else they plan to include in their magic all-inclusive government.

Obama -- if you don't do or say something to make medical marijuana patients feel included in your all-inclusive land of inclusion, I'll make sure to "Be the Change" in 2012.

[vjoseph]

Funny, did he name a Drug Czar yet? Oh and when did he ever said he was for legalizing pot?

[MsLiz]

I certainly am no expert, but I think the executive branch can shift cannibis from one schedule of controlled substances to another schedule with the stroke of a pen, thus allowing medical marijuana. That would not "legalize marijuana," although my preference is to put it on the same footing as alcohol, except allow people to grow small plots in secure locations.

[pundit27]

but it's not a matter of ideological bent any more, it's dollars and sense: no transparent obama budget is going to cover federal enforcement against medical cannibis communities -- growers, providers, patients -- in more than a dozen states . . . . after you've seen several terminally ill people choose medical cannibinoids over prescription opiates and other potent pharmaceuticals, you will never doubt the cause . . . . and, besides, it is the serious drug violence issues south of our border where we should be spending more to assure real progress . . . . .

[Hank007]

Well I think the change will be the way the feds interfere with teh states. Here in NM, Richardson supports not only allowing cannabis for medicinal use, but wants a program for the state to provide. Until now, he has been butting heads with the feds, who come in to arrest state employees if they carry it out. Something tells me Obama will be a little too busy to send the feds out to the states over this.

After 6 years in Amsterdam, the smartest thing Obama could do, would be to support states that want to decriminalize. It is a state issue, though under Bush, the feds declared fed law to over ride the states, and they would therefore prosecute at the fed level, even if it were legal at the state level. Pot is America's #1 cash crop. It's just plain foolish to keep it in the hands of criminals.

[SammyD]

You really didn't think he meant YOU, did you?

[myangeldog1]

I LOVE this artists.....Some remind me of the Jugendstil Art Nouveau movement.

http://thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Peace_Girl
http://thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Peace_Goddess
http:http://thegiant.org/wiki/index.php/Arab_Woman

[nodirectionhome]

Cant wait for Jan 20, already purchased tickets. But i would have to agree these industrial style prints are beginning to get a little creepy. It was intriguing during the election, surely a bold statement; but now that Obama has won the election the image certainly takes on a different message.

[Kartoffel]

"now that Obama has won the election the image certainly takes on a different message"

----------­----------­---------

Agreed. The message is entirely different post-election. We're no longer fetishizing a political candidate. We're fetishizing a head of state.

[BabsfromKansas]

Now why is this picture not the Official Inauguration Poster ????

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/57076/thumbs/s-BAUER-large.jpg

[monicaangela]

That one or the one to the right would be just fine with me.

[myangeldog1]

LOL!!

[Sweetbay]

You're the best. Love it.

[BabsfromKansas]

I collect them ;)

[Rudderman]

I eagerly voted for Obama. After all, he's extremely smart, articulate, well-educated, well-read, and world-wise…in other words, a long-overdue change. However, from the time he appeared at the DNC in front of those fake Greek Ionic columns, I've questioned his judgment (and ego) regarding public displays. This inauguration thing is spinning way out of control. With millions out of work, wasting millions on a giant party is not exactly the change some of us had in mind.

“When in doubt, choose humble to glib. Not everyone likes the cut of your jib.”

Quote from Rudderman’s logbook, 2002.

[SueMVetforObama]

Those greek columns represent the western world.

[monicaangela]

Thank you, I completely missed that, it looks a little better now ;)

[Rudderman]

Of course they represent the Western World. That was not my point. Since you're so knowledgeable tell me, which columns support the Parthenon: Doric, Ionic or Corinthian?

[OrwellianJones]

Interestingly, this seems to be half of a quote attributed to Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see." MLK also used the expression. Obama better start living up to the ideals of these giants if he's going to use their expressions.

[TheHankMan]

Creepy

http://kapirasongkritika.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/mao-warhol.jpg

[Knowitall]

Is that who you admire? We're talking about Obama here..

[camcat]

Knowitall, we're talking about art here and the power it can have to convey an idea and mobilize a movement for change. Music and films also have that ability, more so, as they are more accessible to people. The Mao image is just that-an image. I think Warhol took the power out of that particular one with his multiple silkscreens. After he was done Mao's face was on the level of a Campbell's soup can.

[camcat]

Be afraid, very afraid, little man....of a POSTER! The squigee is mightier than the sword!

[Tom Joad]

even creepier: http://www.memeticians.com/2008/08/15/andy-warhol-campbell_soup-can-121207-1.jpg