Regardless of political affiliation, most people agree that Barack Obama ran one hell of an Internet campaign last year. I was very surprised when I first saw his site. It was the first political site that really impressed me, for two reasons. First, his site was well constructed, containing the elegance of traditional design principles, consistency in branding, and social media for outreach. Second, I was impressed that the campaign management (politicians) gave skilled designers their creative freedom. This doesn’t happen often within political/government environments.

Scott Thomas was the design director for Obama’s campaign. He orchestrated  its design, branding and website under extreme deadlines. I have been following Scott’s writings and speeches on his design philosophy: be clear, simplify, and humanize. You can see those elements reflected in his work.

The campaign site definitely set a new standard for the future of government sites. Already, we see newly-launched federal web sites, such as whitehouse.gov, data.gov, and recovery.gov shedding the outdated look and content format that are often associated with government design.

The Obama internet campaign will be a case study for many future political candidates. Recently, Scott Thomas gave a behind the scenes talk on the campaign design process. I highly recommend that anyone who’s interested in political design, or design in general, to watch this video in its entirety.

Last month, Scott launched his new project on Kickstarter. It is a wonderfully illustrated book documenting the grass-root movement many artists were involved in during the Obama Campaign. The book will be printed, if the initial budget of $65,000 is met by November 5th. So far, over 770 people have pledged almost $50,000.

This book is more than the Obama campaign – it demonstrates how powerful art and design can impact the political outcome.

Scott Thomas’ design work on the campaign last year has defined a new standard for government websites to better serve the public. In that regard, I consider him one of today’s most influential web designers.