Changethethought

In a way I feel like I should apologize for running a blog about creativity and culture, then speaking so much about politics. I can’t apologize though because the entire world is watching what is happening in the U.S. right now and I think it is one of the most important political moments in American history. The obvious reason is because for the first time ever we have a woman and a racially mixed candidate running for the most important office in the country. The second reason is because if they win the nomination they are strongly viable for taking office. The third and more ethereal reason is because America has faultered on the global stage. We have made horrible decisions in the past 8 years that have cost both ourselves and the rest of the world dearly. We have to change course dramatically and pick up the pieces. The whole world is hoping we do so.

Right now tonight as I type, Obama has decisively won the nomination in North Carolina and the final results in Indiana are too close to call. You can listen to his speech in North Carolina where he refuses to compromise his integrity and pander. He had done this all along and his speech tonight was again truly inspiring.

Indiana has historically been a racially charged state and despite this marred history numbers are rolling in that could potentially determine where this election will go. I personally feel this is very symbolic and it says a lot about where the American mindset is and our determination to turn things around and change course. The best I have hoped could come out of the dark days of the last 8 years is a renewed unification in this country to join together as a nation and turn things around.

Obama has maintained his integrity throughout this grueling campaign and if he does win this nomination I can guarantee you it will get much worse when (and if) he starts campaigning against McCain. I hope for the benefit for the country this is all weighing heavily upon Clinton’s psyche. I feel the people are speaking here and there are lines being drawn between all the polarities in America, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the urban, the rural, the working class and the elite.

Frankly, in my extremely humble, young and working class American opinion, it is time for something new. With that said, there is only one candidate left that to me still represents something new. By new, I do not mean just the physically obvious, I mean diplomatically, I mean philosophically and I mean politically.

The old Chinese proverb has come to fruition. ‘May you live in interesting times’ and here we are. Regardless of what happens, I believe in the American people and I will continue to hope for the best for all of us. These are important times we find ourselves in and I think we are beginning to realize that we are finding ourselves in these times together.

written by Christopher

The official national Obama for President campaign has asked enormously popular graphic artist Scott Hansen A.K.A. ISO50 to design the next poster for the Artists for Obama program. The last poster was designed by Shepard Fairey and has already sold out long ago. There will be 5,000 posters printed at $70 a piece. It should hopefully help raise a nice little chunk of change for Obama. I think this is a brilliant idea on Obama’s behalf and it shows how in touch and intelligent his organizers really are.

Hansen has written on his blog that the poster was one of the largest files he has ever produced. The final Photoshop layered file weighed in at 2.77 gigabytes and nearly a thousand layers. That’s pretty mind boggling if you ask me. I think the biggest Photoshop file I ever produced was close to 2 gigs but I have never gone over that.

It’s great to see that he was so inspired to create something so spectacular on Obama’s behalf. I am excited to see it and I am also very happy to see the money will be going where it should, into the hands of the campaign where it can be used to help Obama gain the nomination this summer.

The poster should be available at Obama’s online store sometime later this week or next. It may also be available at ISO50. I will post more when the news breaks.

written by Christopher | tags: Artists for Obama, Barack Obama, Iso50, Scott Hansen

I have created one last round of free downloadable vector-format posters for the Obama presidential campaign. I created these myself because of some of the recent problems and allegations that have been swarming around Obama. I still feel very strongly that he is the most viable candidate for president in 2008. It has angered me to see him being accused of being an elitist. Barack Obama is a self-made man of the people and he is very much for the people.

Again, these posters are completely free and were created deliberately as vector art so they would be small in file size making them ideal for fast distribution through email. They are available in both 11 x 17 format and large scale poster size at 24 x 36. The 11 x 17 posters are ideal for home printing on tabloid size paper and should be fairly inexpensive to print in large quantities. The small file size should allow you to email them directly to Kinko’s if you would like to print a run for your local Obama campaign group.

I created this new series to be much more aggressive in tone and convey more of Obama’s strength and determination. The last series was meant to help communicate Obama’s humanity and his qualities as the ‘thinking-man’s candidate’ which I feel he is.

Once more, if you do not like the style of these posters or feel they can be improved or translated into your native language, I encourage you to download them and do so. I have made the raw Illustrator files completely available so you are welcome to alter them in any way you see fit. The previous post announcing the alterations of the already existing posters also contains a long list of other places on the web where you can download Obama posters. Those posters and mine should give you several options suiting many tastes for posters to distribute at little to no cost.

As always you can download all of the posters I have created in the Obama section of the website.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Changethethought, Free Obama Posters, Obama Campaign

I decided to make some alterations to the first round of Obama posters. I realized that the Obama ‘O’ was decreasing the legibility of the posters so I changed it using it more as an ‘O’ and less as a symbol. If you plan on using them for the upcoming super Tuesday then please redownload the posters. They have all been updated. Just trying to get everything ready for this Tuesday. It’s an important day for Obama.

Again, if you don’t like the posters, you are free to download and alter them however you would like as the raw Illustrator files are available to do so. If you don’t even want to do that but want to support Obama, I encourage you to make your own materials and distribute them on your website. Or, if you would like, you are welcome to email them to me along with your email and website and I will upload them to my website where people can download them.

As an alternative to my posters I have gathered some links for you all to download other free posters in support of Obama:
Several free posters are available at Tom Fox
Download an 8.5×11 black and white version of Shepard Fairey’s Poster here
There are a bunch of posters at Go Tell Mama, I’m for Obama
There is a nice series at Hyperakt
Another free poster at Steam Crow
There is a big list of them here

So, with all of those and mine there should be a little something there to suit everyone’s taste. Consider yourself prepared. I am going to leave the buttons for now since something like 5,000 or more of them have been made already. I may change them this week, I will notify you if I do. I have just worked so hard on all of these, it has really eaten into my time at home with my family. I consider it a small price to pay though if it helps raise awareness of Obama.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Changethethought, Free Obama Posters, Obama Campaign

I made another small series of free downloadable Obama posters this week. I will most likely do one more short series with an image of Obama and then be finished. Again, I made these to function as a FREE resource to people interested in printing their own posters at little expense via Kinkos or their home printer or whatever way they can for that matter. I felt it was important that, as opposed to having pay $70 to $200 dollars for a piece of art that was really nonfunctional, it might be more useful to people to just have some clean attractive signage readily available to them so they could show their support for Obama.

I don’t care if you don’t like the font, or you are annoyed by the slanted ‘A’ characters in the last round of posters, or think the simple vector art I created looks too much like Shepard Fairey or whoever else out there in our world of a billion designers that makes simple vector portraits of people. I created them the way I did out of functionality. They are all very small in file size making them easy to download and email (even the vector portrait posters at 24×36), include space for writing for usage as meeting announcements etc., translate easily into black and white, and portray quick easily digestible iconic imagery that was meant to embody the spirit of political propaganda.

If you don’t like the posters, don’t download and use them. If you do, or you want to use the vector art in them to make your own posters, that is exactly what they are for. If you don’t like how I created them, use the existing graphics and improve upon them and then make your posters available for free so people have an alternative. I am all for that.

Obama is one of the first politicians in a quarter of a century who isn’t just speaking to the people, he is speaking for the people. He is a thinking man who wants to elevate this country to a higher plane and re-engage the U.S. with the rest of the world. His message is one of community. In the spirit of that message, and if you are in fact an Obama supporter, I encourage you to create your own imagery to support Obama in whatever way you see fit. Create imagery and give it away for free to help spread his message and help him get elected. It may be one of the most important things you do in a long time as a designer. Think activity not apathy. Move, shake, do something. Our country has been divided by greedy men with shameful motives. We need to reunite as a republic and start working together to take our country back and make it a place for the people and by the people instead of somewhere only for the ‘rich’ people. Any small way you can contribute like making posters, shirts, buttons, etc. is valid. Small contributions can add up into a tidal wave that drowns out the special interests that are crushing us as working class Americans.

written by Christopher | tags: Changethethought, Free Obama Posters, Obama, Politics

I have decided to produce more posters for the Obama campaign. It is the least I can do to help provide more resources for fellow supporters. This time I would like to produce posters as per some of your requests. Please tell me if there is anything missing that would be helpful. Leave me comments or email me via the contact section and let me know what you would like the posters to say, in English or any other language. Obama needs support more now than ever and I want to do all I can to help provide materials for his campaign. Please let me know what you want them to say and what sizes you want me to produce them in. I will do a few more image-based posters and several more type and message based posters. I will start later this week and try to have some new posters later next week or the following.

Please do leave a comment and tell me what you think is needed or what you are your campaign organizer need specifically. There has been a lack of comments on my blog so far and it kind of bugs me. I really need your input and feedback on this one.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Changethethought, Obama Campaign

You may have heard this in the news today because it is the latest piece of garbage that the media has sent up the flagpole and just as you would expect they are all now standing erect at full salute like a bunch of mindless zombies. The bullshit to which I am referring to, is the ‘guns and religion’ comment Obama made last week. The problem with the whole thing is that the ‘people cling to guns and religion’ comment came out of a much longer talk where there was a massive amount of, can you handle this, truth! He was speaking about how when times are hard and people feel more and more misrepresented by, and disconnected from their government, which I think we can safely say most of us feel right now, they become angry, cling to their remaining rights and look to faith where they hope for the best. You can read his actual comments above.

As I think you will find, in his own words, there is a lot of truth to what Obama is saying. I just wish they would broadcast all of his talk on television so people can hear and see exactly what was said. I agree completely with what he said. Yes, he could have worded it a little more subtly, but c’mon, things are bad right now and are we so sensitive that we can’t take a hard look at ourselves and engage in truthful dialogue? Does everything have to be pureed into baby food so we can lap it up from our politicians like abunch of helpless dogs? Seriously folks, can’t we cut the bullshit here and start talking about the gigantic steps we have to take now to get ourselves out of this massive shit-heap that has been piled upon us by the most irresponsible administration in the history of the United States? Are we so sensitive that we can’t talk honestly about how embittered we really are? Don’t we have a right to be, and is it really going to offend our sensibilities so badly to hear one of our politicians muse on the subject? Obama is thinking about the American people and what our mindset is because he wants to represent us. He may have stumbled on his verbage a little, but how many times has Bush said something so stupid that you just about had to turn off the television and take a shower because you were covered in disgust.

Don’t let our media fool you right now. This is a game and what is at stake is MONEY. Money, money, money. There are a lot of wealthy people who do not want to see a politician step forward with the best interest of the American people in his heart. To allow this would be to overturn all the progress they have made at subduing us and turning us into their own personal ATM withdrawal. Don’t be fooled for a minute because it is just bullshit. Plain and simple. There is no other word to describe it and it makes me mad. They are reaching for anything they can find right now to bring Obama down and it is transparent and sad.

The truth is, that the very people Obama is referring to and will be the most offended by his comments are the same people who voted for Bush twice in the last 8 years. Even more ironic is the sheer and simple fact that Bush has been running those people into the ground at every turn. He has sent their sons and daughters to war with no good explanation as to why. He has refused them proper health and psychiatric care upon their return. He has taken their jobs and made it impossible for them to keep their homes. Make no bones about it and clear the wax from your ears. His administration is responsible for where we are now and it is going to take someone other than another Clinton or pro-war Republican to get us out of this mess.

I would like to see Clinton answer, honestly, exactly how much money she has accepted from pharmaceutical lobbyists. She wanted to change the health care system many years ago and she was run into the ground and now she has been bought out by the corrupting powers she tried to fight. It is a sacrifice of integrity that we can no longer allow at the highest levels of our government. I would also like to see McCain speak about how many handouts he has taken from corporate lobbyists. Only in a country this divided could someone who just filed a tax return for over a hundred million dollars refer to Obama as ‘elitist’. It’s outrageous and enigmatic of the kind of smear politics that have corrupted the integrity of our system. Don’t be fooled by it and don’t grace it with a moment of your consideration. It’s not worth it and it’s flat out wrong. We have been swindled and we will only have ourselves to blame if we let it happen again, be it by our irresponsible media or money-grubbing politicians.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Guns and Religion, Politics, Presidential Election

This has been on my radar for a while, and I reread an annotation of it tonight in the Economist. I had to bring it to your attention. It’s tantamount to what has ruffled me for years and years now. Yes I read the Economist. I don’t just read about design. I try to stay on top of where spaceship Earth is traveling, and lately our trajectory has seemed to be on a direct collision course pitting us against our own survival.

The event I want to call to your attention happened a millennium ago (in web time) on March 19th. It deserves a certain amount of attention though, especially from young people. It highlights, in an off-the-cuff candid way the mindset of our highest elected officials. If you have a pulse and you care about where this country is headed and just how far it has veered off course, it should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. For too long now, with their integrity laid on the slab like a helpless sacrificial lamb, I have been watching people refuse to speak out about the fascist political climate in the U.S. because they are afraid of risking their job security. It’s a sad state of affairs, and it is exactly what people like Thomas Jefferson warned us about.

So without further ado, a little less than a month ago Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on ABC news. When told that seven out of ten Americans think that the war in Iraq is not worth fighting, he responded with a smug smile, “So?” You can see it preserved forever digitally, which is what now accounts for celluloid, above.

It really took my breath away when I saw it. I felt like it was one of those moments of honesty that the camera was able to capture, albeit momentarily, until he was able to again compose himself and do his best to pretend to be a politician and not the worst embodiment of a cut-throat soulless American Capitalist. It was just shameless and unabashadly nefarious on all fronts. How long have we slept to allow such a disconnect from the outer appendages connected to the body politic? Our politicians should represent the soul of our nation and Cheney is black to the core. There is no heart there, he is a machine born to plunder and make money. It is a mirror that we need to gaze into and take a long hard look. It’s embarrassing and quite frankly, I believe we are better than this. I know we are. I still have faith in America, especially in the public. I am not alone either, it is still a candle held by disenfranchised people the world around. That candle is what inspired people to cram themselves onto rickety ships and push their way past the foreboding halls of Ellis Island for many years.

If anything good can come out of this dark time in our history when our Vice President can, in a single simple one-syllable word, completely disregard the public who elected him, it is that we reopen our lines of communication. It is time to engage. If you want to be relevant, then start thinking and start caring. We are overdue. We have a chance here to right some very wrong wrongs. There is still hope and we cannot give in to this era. We must not let it define us. We are better than this. I honestly care about this country and I especially care about the generations younger than me who will one day have to take the reigns of what could then be a stallion too wild to tame. Let’s get this behind us as soon as we can and start diplomatically working towards a better world once again. Then we can be the country that the world has prayed we would one day become. It’s not about money, it’s about human life, progress and the future of our planet. It isn’t an individual endeavor, it’s collective. At one point in time, there was a lot of people out there hoping we would be the country that would pave the way towards a global society. We can be that country again. We just need to ask for a second chance, apologize and bring the people who have perpetrated crimes at the highest levels of our government to justice. Nothing in our lifetime, in terms of politics, will prove more important.

I say to you Mr. Cheney, ‘so’ long and good riddance. I hope you have amassed enough blood money to buy a spaceship and build a home on Mars. You don’t breath air, have a heart, or need other human beings anyway. We can live without you. It’s time we move on and start working towards the progress of the human race again and stop making a bunch of arrogant old white men rich.

“So” Mr. Cheney, thanks but no thanks, you had your chance, now get the hell out. You will not be missed. I promise you that.

written by Christopher | tags: Dick Cheney, Politics, So

According to an opinion poll released this week by the New York Times in conjunction with CBS 81% of Americans believe American feel “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.”

This percentage was up from 69% last year and 78% of those polled believe the country is worse off than it was 5 years ago. The times concluded that Americans were more unhappy with the country’s direction than at any time since a similar survey was conducted in the early 90’s. Of course the economy is top of mind right now in the American collective conscious and according to the Times only 21% of those polled believed the overall economy was in good condition. In my opinion, that 21% probably don’t have a T.V. or read a newspaper very often. Nearly 2 out of 3 polled believe that the economy is now officially in recession.

Interestingly enough the poll also shows that Americans blame government officials more for the mortgage crisis than banks or home buyers.

The poll was conducted March 28th and included what I think is a rather low number of 1,368 adults who were kind enough to offer their time when called at most likely right around dinner time. The margin of error was 3 percentage points which fortunately when you are talking about an number like 81% doesn’t really matter. Even at such a small number this poll is obviously alarming and points to the finality in the American mindset about the results of 8 years under the current administration. I’ve been saying how bad I thought things would get for 8 years and it was only until about 2 and a half years ago that a lot of people finally started agreeing.

As I have stated before, if you think you can hide behind the creative veil without feeling the effects of the current socio-economic climate in the United States it is time to think again. As creatives we are often akin to remoras riding on the backs of giant corporate sharks. When some of those sharks start getting hungry or decide to fast for a while, we remoras have a tendency to fall away pretty quickly.

Speak out now, honestly and resolutely, no matter what your opinion is and vote in every election possible. The time for passive apathy is past. We are a new generation and we are being handed a very troubled world. We have our work cut out for us. Solving the problems now plaguing us is going to require a group effort that extends beyond the borders of the U.S.

written by Christopher | tags: CBS, Opinion Polls, Politics, The New York Times

Our esteemed President was booed, resoundingly by his public as he threw the opening pitch to inaugurate the new Nationals baseball team in Washington D.C. earlier this week. Hmm. Let’s check the opinion polls on this one, oh ouch, they look bad. Ah to hell with opinion polls anyway right? No wait a minute, why is everyone booing me?

The look on his face as he takes the field and looks back to the crowd is priceless. It’s a testament to his bald-faced arrogance. I don’t think we’ve ever had a President more out of touch with the public. Of course, immediately following the incident, the announcers did their best to pretend it didn’t happen which is analogous to how the rest of the American media has been responding the the sad state of affairs repressing the American public for almost 8 years now.

I don’t know what the opinion polls say right now but it was clear how a stadium full of Americans feel about the President in his home town.

written by Christopher | tags: George Bush, Politics, President, Washington D.C.

If you missed it, in rebuttal to a lot of the slander that has been happening lately in the midst of his campaign, Obama composed an eloquent speech on the touchy subject of race and politics. It’s 2008 people. Seriously, lets get with it for once. What really matters anymore? Does race matter more or the shameless corruption of our entire system for the benefit of a select group of profiteers who want nothing more than to subjugate the world so they can get rich? We are at a crossroads here and it is time we pull ourselves up, collectively and take back ownership of our nation. What kind of country are we making this for our children? I am talking to the twenty and thirty somethings out there. Whether you have children or not, one day we will hand this country over to the next generation. They are already out there. How will we answer when they ask us why we made the choices we did? People around the world are watching us closely to see what we choose now. It is of the utmost importance. It may be one of the most important moments in our history that we will ever experience. We must, for the benefit of the entire world, wrestle this country back from the shameful and greedy men that have used it as their own personal financial coffer. We have been asleep at the wheel and taken advantage of. It is time to give someone new a chance. Get involved now. You will not get a second chance this time to care. Care now. Speak out. Force change. This is our country and it is our future. We are the people we have been waiting for.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Presidential Campaign, Race and Politics

Barack Obama had some choice words today in response to Hillary Clinton’s recent comments that she believes that if she were elected, Obama would make a strong candidate for Vice President. Obama didn’t miss a beat on that one.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Presidential Campaign

I was asked by the Obama Headquarters in Chicago to take the posters I had created and convert some of them into buttons to extend their use to promote his campaign for president. I was also asked to generate some new messaging for Mothers for Obama, Educators for Obama and Women for Obama. So, I crafted some new buttons specifically for those messages. The buttons are large in scale at 2.25 inches. As with the posters, the buttons are now available for free download at the Obama Section of the site in PDF, EPS and Adobe Illustrator file formats.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Free Obama Buttons, Presidential Campaign

What happens when you give a bunch of adolescent boys automatic weapons and the authority to use them at their discretion? Well, let me clarify this first, most of the time they do their job the best they can and follow their orders. However, in war time, you do sometimes have instances of animal abuse and the abuse of innocent civilians. Case in point, the video above shows soldiers firing on a herd of sheep as an innocent sheepherder watches helplessly. The following videos here, show our soldiers at their lowest.

written by Christopher | tags: American Soldiers, Iraq, War

I have my fingers crossed for Obama in Texas today. It sounds good so far but anything can happen. I found this little video yesterday and I thought it couldn’t be more appropriate for the types I am guessing read this blog.

written by Christopher | tags: Clinton, Politics, Presidential Election

Well, it looks like people are stepping up for Obama in a big way so far in Texas. There is a great thread about it here at the Daily Kos. I think he is going to take the state, personally and I hope he does because winning Texas is going to send a strong message to the world about American’s sincere desire for real change. He has already reached 1 million donors and counting.

Thank you to all of the people visiting the site so far for the Obama Posters and as I said before please feel free to distribute them however you choose. Use the graphics as well in the Illustrator files to make your own t-shirts, stickers, bumper stickers, etc. They were created as a free and clear resource for anyone interested in helping spread the message.

written by Christopher | tags: Obama, Presidential Campaign, Texas

Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr may let a 6 month cease-fire expire as soon as this coming Saturday. The move could send Shiite militia fighters back into the streets of Bagdhdad and pose a major threat to the recent appearance of success from the U.S. led surge. He ordered the cease-fire last August, and it has been credited for reducing violence in Iraq by as much as 60 percent in the last six months. If the cleric remains silent until Saturday it will be assumed that the cease-fire has been lifted and be seen as an order to commence Shiite guerilla fighting.

We will have to see what this does to the U.S. occupation. If the order ends and the violence rises dramatically, will it be enough for us to finally pull out, declare a loss and bring our boys home? Something like this begs the question, ‘Why are we still there and what are we trying to accomplish?’

Time will tell.

NOTE: THIS IS AN UPDATE. THE CEASE FIRE WAS EXTENDED THURSDAY THE 22ND FOR ANOTHER 6 MONTHS. IT WAS A SIGH OF RELIEF FOR THE AMERICAN MILITARY.

written by Christopher | tags: Cease-fire, Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr, Politics

I was asked by the local Colorado chapter of the Obama For America Campaign to create a poster.

So, I decided to create not just one poster, but a series of posters that would be easy to distribute to all who were interested in spreading Barack Obama’s message and help get him elected President in 2008. As you can see in the button tabs on the site, there is now an ‘OBAMA’ tab where you can download the posters for free in your choice of either PDF, Illustrator or EPS file formats. The posters are free and intended for mass distribution. There are two series of posters. The first are in a large-scale 24×36 format and are intended for promotional purposes only. The second series is available in a smaller 11×17 format and has white space intended for writing any additional messages that might be needed such as a meeting time, directions, etc. Please use the posters only for positive purposes and to help spread Obama’s message.

To find out more about the series of posters and download the zipped files completely free of charge, click here now to visit the OBAMA section of the site.

Whether you support Obama or not, please get out there and vote in the next election. We get the government we deserve in this country and after 8 years of a corrupt and tyrannical administration, I think we deserve better. You have heard it before, but it bears repeating, YOUR VOTE COUNTS.

Now you can also purchase a poster and by doing so give back to not only Changethethought but the Obama for America campaign as well. Get your Obama Commemorative Poster here.

written by Christopher | tags: Barack Obama, Changethethought, Politics