Published in Nacional number 416, 2003-11-05

Autor: Melisa Skender

PRE-ELECTION BILLBOARDS

Billboards represent parties and their leaders: amateur, boring, provincial and unclear

The political campaigns have measured the capabilities of the parties because they show how successful they deal with money and arranging experts

The pre-election campaigns are officially only getting started but Croatian roads have been littered with numerous party billboards that do not appear to be innovative enough this year even for vandals and their spray-paint. Four respected designers agreed to comment on their visual impressions for Nacional and agreed on one thing: not one poster could enter the competition for Croatia’s best billboards because any advertisement for mineral water is- better. It is interesting that no party poster got more than a grade that barely passed (like SDP, HSS and HNS), while the category for the worst poster for the 2003 election has a lot of competition.

The designers, apparently, are aware of that because it seems that none of them are willing to defend their graphical idea. Some called for business anonymity so that many do not speak about their work in public, while others claim that everyone sees the billboards and there is no need for additional explanation; a third group have gone so far as to conclude that the political poster is “grafted from design” so there is no reason to write about it.

“The political campaigns have received a measure of capability in the parties because if they are not in the condition to run the campaign, find the best possible people and find a method of receiving a maximum effect for minimum cost, I do not understand how people in these parties think they can run the country”, asked Mirko Ilić, with one paradox hiding behind his thoughts. Even though there is no party during the pre-election time that does not worry about which experts to depend on while bringing about strategically important decisions, that was shown to be opposite in this campaign.

Carrying out a political campaign is a complicated task so SDP and HSS depended on expert assistance and arranged the “Millennium” agency who worked together with them on their projects. HSP for its party campaign, depended on the agency run by its spokesperson Boris Blažeković; HDZ’s was run by its spokesperson, Ratko Maček who is the co-owner or the direct owner of several agencies; the HSLS and DC coalition allowed the technical campaign to be run by “Spotstudija”; HSP’s billboard idea came from its members and they allowed one studio in Split to worry about the technical aspect; Libra’s poster was also designed by members; just as the entire creative team at the Liberal party.

“Those are the hardest hits to their parties and the leaders because that is the way that the party portrays itself”, concluded Boris Ljubičić. Even where Ljubičić’s opinion could not be used, such as in the case with SDP whose billboard and graphical visual identity was created by “Design system” and the distinguished designer Boris Malešević, the results are not seen. Why? This is the question that uncomfortably stands behind most of the designers with these jumbo billboards. It is known, off the record, that their excuse is that politicians are much more “difficult” than clients that know what their product is and who it was designed for. Among other things, everything is done at the last moment.

In regard to market research, in this case political because it deals with elections, the only way that the party election headquarters can be separated is by IRI and Pulse’s report. No party, apparently, has the means to pay for such a detailed and necessary project. Equally few parties have a target group of voters that they appeal to, because as Mirko Petrić concluded: “In this year’s elections, all parties have attempted to combine national and nationalistic content and symbol independent of their political position.”

Davor Bruketa and Nikola Žinić are the founders, owners and employees at Bruketa&Žinić who cooperate today with some of the largest Croatian companies and advertising agencies. They are the winners of many awards and recognition for items such as: the Radio 101 calendar, Motovun film festival invitation, annual report for Croatia Bank, and in 1999, their company was named the Croatian agency of the year based on their achieved recognition.

Mirko Ilić is a comic strip illustrator – as of 1986 he has lived in the United States and worked for numerous magazines and newspapers. Since 1991, he has been the art director for the international magazine Time, and in 1992, he became the art director for the first and last pages at the New York Times. In 1995, he established a corporate studio for graphic design, 3D computer games and movie graphics. He is a professor at the Cooper Union School of Design, and holds lectures at the Master’s program at the School of Visual Art. He is the winner of the Illustrator Association medal, I.D. magazine award, Art Directors Club and many others.

Mirko Petrić is a professor with the design department at the Art Academy in Split. He teaches three courses there: understanding the media, semiotic print, and visual communication. He often writes for the design column for Slobodna Dalmacija.

Boris Ljubičić, an academic painter and the president of the Croatian Designer Society. He founded Studio International in 1987. He is the author of the HRT graphic standard manual, numerous posters, and the visual identity of the Military Games, Mediterranean Games, 50th Dubrovnik Summer Games and many other festivals.

SDP:
Bruketa&Žinić: Without emotion, but correct at first glance. As if no one believes in Croatia, development, family, beer… How to achieve this? Answer that.
Mirko Ilić: It would have been better if the 2 million kuna that was spent for putting up the billboards was divided through various stores; that would bring them more votes.
Mirko Petrić: It reminds me of the style used by HDZ in the second half of the 1990’s. Even the slogan is a reminder of HDZ’s “Everything for Croatia”.
Boris Ljubičić: SDP’s poster is unimpressive and widely used, even in a combination with HDZ’s slogan “Turn Croatia Around” we get “Yes. Turn Croatia Around”.

HDZ:
Bruketa&Žinić: A phantom campaign with no visual culture except discrediting the government; it offers nothing constructive. We are waiting for the “finish” campaign. I bet that someone will end up running out of a bush.
Mirko Ilić: I do not know who or what this campaign is against. The iconography stops in general areas and has no development. As a campaign, this does not function.
Mirko Petrić: The use of black does not darken their election opposition, it only shows the party to be more right wing than their current leadership would desire.
Boris Ljubičić: Do these campaigns by SDP and HDZ only act as opposition until we see the election results and then everyone meets together- in Parliament?

HNS:
Bruketa&Žinić: A strong individual artistic smile with digital “face-lifting” and a background “mix” of the Croatian flag, the European flag and kilometers of highway. In short, an unoriginal collage.
Mirko Ilić: The list of persons is placed underneath what was said, and not above, to show that they coincidentally said the same thing? The shadow from the flag on the highway is dangerous because it shows that the highway leads into darkness.
Mirko Petrić: The campaign is personalized and turned towards the future which is good; the bad side is the airbrushed face and the highway motif that is not usually connected to Vesna Pusić by voters.
Boris Ljubičić: Vesna Pusić and Radimir Čaćić are hitchhiking towards Europe. The highway has fortunately been decorated with the Croatian flag as well as the European Union flag.

HSS:
Bruketa&Žinić: Surprisingly modern and visually clean for this party. It does not say much but it is simple and emotional and says exactly what the voter wants to hear.
Mirko Ilić: It is graphically the best poster because the colors are different and noticeable even though it appears that the man is having sex with the tree and the tree is carrying its seeds as if it was pregnant.
Mirko Petrić: The poster with the girl appears provincial. In the village it probably makes sense, but in the city these billboards appear like a caricature.
Boris Ljubičić: “Love your country” like a woman with rosy cheeks. Where is our beautiful blue sea and our economic belt?

DC and HSLS:
Bruketa&Žinić: Two old political figures that no one believes are the “new power”. Correct photographs from their personal identification cards are easy to remember and carry a message about the coalition.
Mirko Ilić: Boring but fairly well made. It is apparent that the designer did not have time because the shoulders are not at the same height, there are shadows on the letters, and the HSLS logo is closer to the center of the poster.
Mirko Petrić: The shape of this poster also reminds me of the early coalition days. The aspect of two Central Europeans ruins the amateur DC logo.
Boris Ljubičić: Budiša lowered his yellowness to 50% and joined together with Granić’s blue. These pictures were even taken by the same photographer, only separately.

LS:
Bruketa&Žinić: 100% insignificant to the average Croatian voter. Visually impressive because of the yellow background and blue letters, but nothing more.
Mirko Ilić: You need sun glasses for this poster. What does 100% liberal mean? Does everyone need to be liberal? The choice of 100 different fonts shows that they accept difference.
Mirko Petrić: The liberal lighthouse does not shine on the part where the small letters are located with the web address where you can read all that you want to know but have never dared to ask.
Boris Ljubičić: The liberals are 100% yellow.

LIBRA:
Bruketa&Žinić: The worst campaign. Relevant only for twenty so strip enthusiasts that are in Croatia, and they might get angry if I mention them here.
Mirko Ilić: Quite funny but poor in color. They are the most courageous because they almost criticize the voters showing that the party does not need voters such as the person on the poster.
Mirko Petrić: The drawing esthetic is typical for Modro but it cannot relate to most of the population that today rides a skateboard and surfs the Internet.
Boris Ljubičić: Libra, in caricature, portrays themselves.

HSP:
Bruketa&Žinić: Clean, simple, non-pretentious. It is not clear what it means with the boy who is hugging the man in black, but it most likely means that HSP will hold its faithful voters.
Mirko Ilić: “Believe in yourself”, while the man is leaning on some large and dark man who resembles Darth Vader. Actually, the little guy looks like Luke Skywalker. This poster is a little too dark.
Mirko Petrić: It is clear right wing iconography telling voters that the recent announcements for the changes in the party should not be considered.
Boris Ljubičić: The billboards are cold and bland, the wolf is their new mascot and traitor (some say Dr. Slaven Letica).