Democratic National Convention Logo
The Democratic National Convention is a series of political conventions organized by the American Democratic Party every 4 years in the wake of presidential elections. The goal is to elect delegated to the nation-wide elections of the party’s nominee. The Convention was designed to elect a single nominee, gather support behind them and work out the platform on which to run for office.
Meaning and History
The DNC was first organized in 1832 for the upcoming 8th presidential elections, in which Van Buren, the nominee chosen on said Convention, took office. The Convention is a process organized every 4 years in every state and territory of the United States in an attempt to work out the best possible candidate for the party.
The culmination of this process is the National Committee assembled in one of the major cities of America some months before the election takes place. It was the first such procedure, copied by the Republican Party in 1856.
What is Democratic National Convention?
The Democratic National Convention is the congregation of Democratic representative from all over the country assembled every 4 years by the Democratic Party of the United States. The goal is to select a common candidate for the upcoming elections out of the many delegates elected regionally.
1996 – 2000
The 1996 National Convention eventually selected Bill Clinton as presidential nominee and Al Gore as vice-presidential nominee. Both won office in that year’s election. Chicago hosted the Convention’s closing conference.
The main emblem for the ’96 DNC was the lettering ‘DNC’ written in capitalized serif letters. A ribbon decorated with stripes and stars stylistically passed the space in the center of each letter, tying them together. The writing ‘THE 1996 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION’ was written above in two lines of similar font. The entire emblem was black.
2000 – 2004
The 2000 National Convention took place in Los Angeles. Al Gore was selected as the party’s presidential candidate, with Joseph Lieberman as his vice-president. The elections were a loss for the Democrats.
The main emblem is a 4-line inscription that says ‘AMERICA/2000/THE DEMOCRATIC/CONVENTION’ in four consecutive lines. The colors were red, blue, red, blue respectively, although the ‘2000’ bit also had a red-with-white ribbon going through it. There were also two blue starts on its right, for each main candidate. The font used simple sans-serif letters, all capitalized.
2004 – 2008
The 2004 National Convention was held in Boston. In it, John Kerry and Johnny Edwards were chosen as presidential and vice-presidential candidates respectively. The Democratic Party lost the 2004 elections.
The emblem consisted of two main pieces. The larger piece was a rectangle-shaped graphic that contained the silhouette of Boston’s panorama (shaded in black). The ‘skies’ above it bore the resemblance of the waving American flag. There was also a number ‘2004’ written in big blue numbers in the top right corner.
The other piece was the two lines of text above the graphic part. The top line said ‘DEMOCRATIC’ in capitalized black letters of a simple sans-serif font. The bottom one was divided between the ‘CONVENTION’ of the same style, written beneath the ‘DEMOC’ fragment, and ‘BOSTON’ in blue serif letters below the rest.
2008 – 2012
The 2009 National Convention happened in Denver. The presidential nominee was Barack Obama, with Joe Biden as his vice-president. Both went on to win that year’s election.
The emblem was a complex piece. The central part was the rectangle designed to resemble the American flag. It had three short, horizontal lines on its right side, but much was covered by the image of the mountains – a blue silhouette of the typical Coloradan landscape. The red sky above had 6 white stars of varying sizes.
Both colored areas had a white tinge near their respective bottoms. The color palette was also quite soft and somewhat dark, creating a calm look about this logo. Much of the left part of the rectangle was occupied by the writing: ’08’ in the middle, ‘DNCC’ in the bottom, and stars above occupying about the same space for the symmetry. The font used here is sharp, thin and lightly artistic.
The ‘DNCC’ stands for ‘Democratic National Convention Committee’. The text below the emblem says ‘DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE’ in sans-serif. The letters are capitalized, blue and written in one line.
2012 – 2016
The 2012 Democratic Convention was in Charlotte. Obama and Biden were again chosen as election candidates, winning their respective posts a second time.
The logo was a much simpler one. The main emblem was a circle. Its first layer is a turquoise ring. Much of its bottom half is obstructed by the red silhouette of a group of people in the apparent moment of bonding or/and jubilation. They are outlined in white where the red meets the blue.
There was also often the inscription beneath, saying ‘2012 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION’ in the first two lines of big blue letters, and then ‘CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINE’ right below in thinner red characters. The font was a simple sans-serif throughout.
2016 – 2020
The 2016 Democratic Convention was held in Philadelphia, where Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine were selected as presidential and vice-presidential nominees for the upcoming elections. The office instead went to the Republican Donald Trump.
The emblem was a simple logotype. It had a square shape, whose area was largely filled with the navy blue. In the top, right above the midline, they put the number ‘2016’ in thin white characters. Notably, they replaced zero with the image of the Liberty Bell, the 18th century cracked bell considered one of America’s major symbols. It was a silhouette and also white.
The other main detail is the cutout section in the bottom, shaped as the panorama of Philadelphia.
2020 – 2024
The 2020 National Convention took place in Milwaukee. The chosen nominees were this time Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They won the election 3 months later.
The 2020 logo is a multilayered emblem. The very top is occupied by the dark blue writing ‘D20’, where the ‘D’ is wide and seems like half-an-oval, whereas the ‘0’ is just a circle. The former had an image of a star inside, the large part of whose is filled in by a turquoise arrow-shaped fragment, whereas the rest is blank. At the same time, the space inside the ‘0’ is cut out in the form of the continental US (sans Alaska).
Beneath it is the three lines of text in a similar sans-serif font, but the characters are not all capitalized. They said ‘Democratic National Convention’ in three lines, aligned on the left. The colors for them were dark blue, red and turquoise respectively.
Color
Throughout the recent history of Conventions, the Democrats mostly used the commonplace colors of the American flag. That means white, red and blue (often navy blue). The other usual color is their brand shade of turquoise, which often replaces the regular blue.
Font
The fonts have largely been simple and sans-serif since the beginning of the century. They are designed to be read easily, which is why the majority of emblems utilized a very clean sans-serif look for their letters. They occasionally employed a more typographic, formal type of sans-serif to appear official.
