‘People are hungry for authenticity,’ says Catherine Connolly’s head of campaign art on the key ingredient to connecting with voters
The Connolly campaign stood out for its visually striking designs that created a brand intimately connected with the message of her candidacy
After running a popular campaign in which the 68-year-old Galwegian secured a landslide victory with just over 63pc of the vote, few questions remain over how she scored such enormous success at the ballot box.
Behind the mud-slinging and often colourless back-and-forths on issues of government policy and the skeletons in the other candidates’ closets, each campaign has a passionate team of volunteers working day and night on every detail.
From hair and make-up to debate preparation, each person plays a role, none less than Anna Cassidy (26) from Meath, who led the multifaceted art design of successful Independent candidate Catherine Connolly’s campaign.
“I wanted to draw inspiration from kind of traditional Irish shopfronts, those kind of hand-painted signs that are such a big part of the visual heritage of Ireland,” she said of the font design that became deeply synonymous with the Irish heritage messaging of the Connolly campaign.
Catherine Connolly presidential campaign art design
Vowing to prove that “heritage and modernity can co-exist”, Ms Cassidy confessed she was eager to avoid the “polished and corporate” designs of every other election poster she had seen before.
Another simple but effective artistic feature was the motif of gaeilgeoir Ms Connolly’s initials – CC – often printed as pin badges worn by those canvassing for her nationwide which, Ms Cassidy said, really represented the “spirit of the campaign”.
Precious few designers around the world can say they directly helped to shape the outcome of a presidential election using art alone, but she is under no illusion that her work carries weight.
“It was kind of crazy seeing it all come to life, to be honest. I’m still a bit like confused as to why people took to it so much.
The intricate and decoratively interlaced Celtic knot that Ms Cassidy created for the campaign
“Obviously design isn’t really a key element of a lot of campaigns in Ireland, and it just started as a design project on my screen, and then starting to see it kind of appear in the real world on posters, specifically social media obviously, on the merch, on pins, on flyers, on lamp posts.”
However, beyond the eye-catching and emotive visuals, Ms Cassidy believes there remains a key ingredient to election campaign success that political parties are consistently failing to tap into.
“I think they miss an easy chance to say something visually,” she said.
“People are obviously hungry for authenticity as well, and I think that’s quite apparent through the reaction to the Connolly campaign compared to the Humphreys [campaign].”
Fine Gael candidate Heather Humpreys poses with her presidential election campaign poster
Claiming that the parties in power too often “miss the mark” in their campaign outreach by appearing “detached” and “corporate”, Ms Cassidy thinks this creates too much unnecessary distance between the candidate and the electorate.
“They rely on generic visuals, their party colours and their party visuals, and kind of an impersonal message, instead of recognising how design can build trust, and specifically connection.”
