Mike 2020
Living a Dream
I spent my Master’s degree pulling apart the mechanics of modern political messaging—what works, what manipulates, and what needs rethinking.
Every designer has that one dream project. For me, it was always this: design the identity for a presidential run. So when the call came to pitch the logo for Mike Bloomberg’s 2020 campaign, I knew I had to bring everything I had—and then some.
At the time, I was working under Mike Eisenreich, who’d just been pulled into the campaign and needed a set of logo directions—fast. We weren’t just designing a mark; we were crafting the face of a movement.
Bloomberg was running as a Democrat, which given his Republican and Independent precedents, made the challenge even more complex. The identity needed to bridge both sides of the aisle. It had to feel unifying, optimistic, and adaptable across hundreds of sub-groups and moments. And above all, it had to be instantly recognizable, with a confidence to stand next to the red MAGA hat and not flinch.
100 ways to write “Mike”.
This wasn’t Bloomberg’s first race—he’d already served three terms as mayor of NYC. So we knew his design instincts: simple, elegant, and typographic. No fluff. No noise. Clean lines. Bold color.
Creative Director Damian Totman and I set ourselves a single challenge:
What font makes us love the word “Mike” the most?
We went through hundreds of iterations. Red, blue, serif, sans. Everything on the table. The brief was tight. The turnaround tighter. But politics doesn’t wait for the tribulations of branding.
The Union: Mike at the center.
After three days of sprinting, we landed on a direction:
The Union — a ribbon-like mark representing connection, unity, and movement. A symbol designed to link Americans from all walks of life, with Mike right at the center.
We paired it with Didot—a bold move. Its French roots and neoclassical form might not scream American politics, but to us, it whispered something deeper: Enlightenment. Reason. Modernity. The contrast and precision felt like a quiet revolution—just the kind we needed.
Our very own election.
We knew we weren’t alone. Bloomberg had design pitches flooding in from across the country—including from Michael Bierut at Pentagram, whose Hillary “H” had reset the bar for political branding in 2016.
Then came the call:
“We were in the final two.”
Out of all the submissions across the U.S., our tiny, scrappy team—working out of what was basically a broom closet in Midtown—had made it to the top.
In the end, our identity wasn’t selected. But honestly? That didn’t take away from what we built. We ran our own race. And we came damn close.
To this day, that pitch remains one of the most electric, fulfilling, dream-affirming moments of my career.
Role: Designer of 1,000 marks.
The Team