Hillary Clinton’s Controversial Logo is Now 3D Printable – Set to Visit Unusual Places in the US

Back in April, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled a new logo, one which has stirred up a bit of a controversy when it comes to logo design, and marketing tactics. Clinton is no slouch when it comes to marketing herself, so when she hired design agency Pentagram to come up with a creative logo, she certainly was looking for something that would help her reach her goal of becoming President of the United States in 2016.

That logo features the letter “H” with a big red, right-pointing arrow running through it. As with every political candidate, there are always critics who are waiting to nitpick every little thing that these candidates do. Some critics claim that Clinton’s logo misrepresents who she is and what she believes in. For starters, critics point to the fact that the big red arrow points to the right, signifying conservativism, while we all know that she is a liberal, representing the Democratic party. Others point to the red arrow and criticize the color choice, as red is the color representative of the Republican party. Some critics claim that it looks very similar to a hospital sign, while others say the overall design is just too bland.

Then there are the conspiracy theorists who think that the logo actually is pointing towards Clinton changing party affiliation, while others have made fun of the design by actually creating an entire font-face called “Hillary Bold” which is an entire alphabet of characters based on the logo itself. At the same though, many people love the design, and feel that its goal is to show that Clinton intends on moving in a forward direction, as timelines typically move from left to right.

Whatever you think of Hillary Clinton’s logo, that can be left up to you, but for one man, named Isaac Budmen, he decided to do something which hasn’t been done before (at least to his and our own knowledge), and create the first 3D printable logo for a presidential candidate. In doing so, he 3D modeled Clinton’s logo to make it entirely 3D printable in 3 different ways.

“Whether folks support her or not, this 3D printable version of her logo is certain to be a conversation piece,” Budmen tells 3DPrint.com. “I am fairly certain this is the first ever 3D printable logo for a presidential candidate, which puts a unique twist on the historical tradition of regular citizens producing propaganda for candidates in their homes.”

3D Printed Hillary Clinton 2016 Logo

To create the 3D printable model of the logo, Budmen tells us that he used Adobe Illustrator and Blender. It took him about a day to finish, from concept to final design, and then an additional 4 hours to 3D print.

It can be 3D printed as one solid piece, printed in blue filament to start, and then switching to red filament once the top layer of the “H” finishes printing. This will allow the arrow to remain red, like depicted in the original design. It can also be printed in two separate pieces and then those parts can be adhered together, or if you have a dual extrusion 3D printer the entire thing can be printed as one piece with two colors at once.

“The over-arching goal of this exercise is to spark discussion around the design of Hillary’s campaign,” Budmen tells us. “As a designer, I think Hillary Clinton’s campaign is one of the most fascinating brand identities to emerge in the last decade. This campaign is setting a precedent in good communication design and will almost certainly be used as a case-study in brand application and flexibility in classrooms and creative lounges in the foreseeable future.”

Budmen, who considers himself an “Independent” when it comes to politics, plans to vote for the candidate he thinks is the best fit for the job. He has yet to figure out exactly who that person is, though. While he isn’t leaning one way or another quite yet, he does plan to take his 3D printed Clinton logo with him during his travels this summer, and take photos of it in unusual locations.

“The creative side of me likes the idea of composing interesting photographic juxtapositions, the citizen side of me is hoping it will inspire conversation and discussion with anyone who sees me with it,” he explains.

For those of you interested in 3D printing this logo out yourself, you can download the design files for free on Thingiverse. What do you think about this 3D printed Hillary Clinton logo? Will you be 3D printing one yourself? What’s your opinion on the logo itself? Do you think it’s a good marketing job by the Clinton campaign? Discuss in the 3D Printed Hillary Clinton Logo forum thread on 3DPB.com.