Barack Obama is Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC?

Style makes the fight - such is the boxing saying. In 2008, the style defines the presidential campaign in the United States.

This is especially true for the two Democrats who continue the race - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Reporters have already resorted to all the traditional means of analyzing style - the selection of clothes and possible accessories, the nature of speech, even the manner of laughing. Now the turn has come to the websites of candidates. Sites are designed to collect money, recruit volunteers and online campaigning. But design experts say that the websites have a clear imprint of the candidates' personal style - and, moreover, through the sites you can look into the hearts of the candidates.

In one, the experts agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summarized as follows: Barack Obama is Mac, and Hillary Clinton is PC.
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Overall, the Obama site is more harmonious, with more white space and a soft blue palette. His taskbar resembles a panel on the Apple iTunes site. In many different ways, this site signals that it was designed for a younger and more technically oriented audience. The branding methods used are similar to those that made the iPod so popular.

“On the Obama website, all components and functions are seamlessly integrated, working with him is like working with a program on the Macintosh,” said Alice Twemlow, head of the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program on design criticism at the School of Visual Arts. Alice is a Mac user.

“This is thoroughness in design,” she continues, “extends to full game logos, for example, Become a volunteer or Register for a vote.” Alice likens these elements to a carefully crafted design that Apple seduces its customers with.

The parallels between Obama and Mac, Clinton and the PC were already played up humoristically during these primary elections. But designers consider such comparisons quite appropriate. In contrast to the Obama website, the Hillary Clinton website uses a more traditional dark blue color scheme and icons such as "Become a volunteer", as if stamped with a cookie cutter.

"Hillary's website is more excited, much of it looks exactly like parody commercials," says Alice Twemlow. She is not a US citizen and will not vote.

Jason Santa Maria, creative director of web design studio Happy Cog Studios, notices the problems with netiquette in Hillary. "Hillary's texts are written in all capital letters, she seems to be screaming," he says. “A lot of messages (messages) on the site vie for the attention of the visitor. Candidates are building a brand, and everything in it must be coordinated. ”

However, Emily Chang, co-founder of web design and consulting firm Ideacodes, finds both sites quite consistent and summarizes it like this: "The Obama website is more youthful, the Clinton website is more regal."

The site of Barack Obama praise almost everything. Even Martin Avila (Martin Avila), director of the company responsible for the website of Republican Ron Paul (Ron Paul): "Barak has an amazing website."

But these compliments are clearly double-edged.

In its ad campaign, Apple attacks the PC rather hostilely, waving it off with an irritable man in an outdated suit. But it is not at all obvious whether the use of Mac fashion aesthetics is good politics. Although the iPod has become the dominant music player, the Mac is still a niche computer. The PC would undoubtedly win the election with a record result (although Mac would probably have won the upper hand in Vermont).

Although Santa Maria praises barackobama.com for high quality, he adds that this site is “ethereal, unreal, and some may even seem vague ... The site creates a blur effect for the viewer”.

Hillary Clinton's “exciting” site may turn out to be strategically more advantageous, and will definitely correspond to its branding. In the end, Clinton constantly emphasizes how intensely she will work in the Inter-American average "from day one." And if she overdoes the energy online, this can be done quite deliberately. If it “screams” more, typographically speaking, perhaps it will be better “heard”.

Unlike Republicans, democratic candidates have integrated social networking capabilities into their sites. For example, they enable their supporters to create their own communities on the site. Obama is considered a pioneer in this regard.

"The Obama campaign attracted attention in the technology community of the San Francisco area even when launching barackobama.com ," says Emily Zhang. "He immediately offered his supporters the possibility of running personal blogs, messaging and many other means."

Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig, who is an Obama supporter, says that there is not much difference between the two candidates regarding the legal regulation of the Internet. Both promise to take the side of Internet users, not "pipe owners". However, he was impressed by Obama’s promise to "make all government unclassified data publicly available."

Ultimately, according to Lessig, the decisive factor for victory will be the ability to convince voters, not questions of style. By the way, Lessig is also a Mac user.