USU First Look: campaign graphics analysis

The USU hustle is dead. What happened to the grindset of years past? To dual Instagram and Facebook pages launched at midnight? To voters waking up to countless page invitations and factions fully mobilised for likes and followers?

Regardless, factional BNOCs and independent whos alike have now launched their campaigns across social media, and Honi is here to provide all of the cutting-edge brand analysis you could ever hope for.

Alexander Poirier – Progress with Poirier

Alexander Poirier has yet to launch his campaign. ‘Progress with Poirier’ currently exists in the form of a blank Facebook page with 5 likes, and an Insta with 3 followers. This lends credibility to his claim of not being a Student Unity candidate, as they would never let this happen. Poirier will be running on Maroon.

Note: Since publication, Poirier has since launched his campaign. It gives Renaissance Fair.

K Philips – K for Clubs

K Philips is running on ‘K for Clubs’ – but you wouldn’t be blamed for not knowing. Despite uploading a profile picture on Saturday, Philips only launched their page on Sunday afternoon, 40 hours after online campaigning opened. There is as of yet no sign of an Instagram page. Again, where is the grind?

Philips has utilised a pastel yellow campaign colour and a glowing neon effect for their initial branding – watch out Switch, lest you lose your coveted monopoly on the colour. The feature of pixel art hearts on their profile picture is hopefully a tease for a pixel art campaign, which would certainly be a unique style for a Stupol campaign. If there are more profile pictures to come, the campaign should work on their kerning (the deliberate spacing between letters)

Whilst Philips clearly has a wealth of C&S experience and likeable club-related policies, getting on board has required, at least up until now, campaigning to people beyond your own Facebook friends.

Madhullikaa Singh – Madhu for You

Madullikaa Singh is running with a primarily black colour palette, featuring light lilac text – directly reminiscent of 2021’s ‘Trust in Telita’. It seems that Switch is hoping to make a tradition out of their dual candidate strategy. A welcome addition to her branding is an iridescent graphic, an eye-catching and unique variation that’s sure to pop on social media feeds.

Distinctive, clean and historically vote-winning, a black design is sure to stand out on Eastern Ave during in-person campaigning. Singh’s campaign has also launched with a photoshoot, with professional-quality photos across her social media – a level of marketing organisation that is to be expected of a former SUDS executive.

On Sunday evening, Singh uploaded an impressive campaign video full of graphics, movement, and policy. Can the videographer and editor please report to the Honi Soit office post-haste.

Naz Sharifi – Naz is Needed

Masters of branding, Naz Sharifi’s campaign has kept its supporters on their toes by employing three distinctly different graphics and fonts across a single Facebook page. Her Instagram page is similarly confused, a unique blend of off-centre graphics (not in a cute asymmetrical way) and various colours – light/dark blues, yellow drop-shadow, purple shapes, and black and white speech bubbles. If any of Sharifi’s graphic design team is reading this: you clearly disagree on graphics… but the square speech bubble is your best option.

With a wealth of SULS support behind her, it is impressive that not a single law student proofread the Instagram handle closely enough to see the two words formed by ‘@nazisneeded’ – rectified on Sunday afternoon by adding full stops to the username. A search for the candidate’s TikTok only leads to a redirect from Tiktok itself to the World Jewish Council’s page for facts about the Holocaust. This sort of oversight shows, if nothing else, a sincere lack of planning. At least Sharifi’s team should have no shortage of graphics to choose from for a rebrand.

Nicholas Dower – Dower Power

Dower, impressively, is the only candidate to launch their campaign with a day one video. It’s just a shame that this hustle is being used for a conservative Liberal. ‘Dower Power’ is running on purple branding that recalls college liberal campaigns of recent years such as Nicholas Comino and Josie Jakovac. The campaign logo is near-identical to 2021’s ‘Comeback with Comino’, albeit with a slightly different font.

Dower’s campaign has also launched with a photoshoot of the candidate himself and a number of campaigners in white shirts in front of the Quadrangle. Again, this is nearly identical to Jakovac and Comino’s campaigns. It seems that the visual language for a Liberal college candidate has been firmly established.

Onor Nottle – On Board with Onor

Onor Nottle’s campaign is using a slightly desaturated version of Switch’s patented yellow, owning her factional support. Her value branding of ‘Environmental, Passionate, Feminist’ recalls fellow Switch members Isla Mobray and Telita Goile’s campaigns from last year. You can’t blame them for not wanting to deviate from a winning formula, but it would be good to get a unique indication of how the candidate plans to execute those values.

Nottle’s logo is a 1920’s ‘rubber hose’-style Sun character who wouldn’t be out of place on a juice box – time will tell if her campaign can maintain this sunny disposition. The Switch machine has clearly been mobilised for graphic design, with an impressively slick and trendy design that is consistent across logos, cover photos, and profile picture.

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With in-person campaigning set to begin on Monday, USU season has well and truly begun. Some candidates have hit a running start, with others left in the dust. Assuming that all candidates last until the final hurdle of voting days, it’s anyone’s guess who will be the lone candidate left unelected.