What’s Wrong With This Picture?

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

In true Barack Obama fashion, the president-elect gave his weekly address and immediately posted it up on YouTube for all to see. These can be considered the ‘fireside chats’ of the new millenium and if his presidential campaign was any indication I imagine this type of access to the president will be something the world will enjoy throughout his administration.

While Obama’s address was a good one, there was one thing that was kind of shocking to me. Can you see it in this picture?

While he is a president-elect who believes in change, his new transition office doesn’t appear to be singing the same song. The empty wooden walls, old books and green leather chair appear to be something inherited from presidents long ago – very dated. The whole set creates a strong visual disconnect from his campaign, which many have lauded as the most highly designed campaign in history.

My guess is that the set for the next address will be an updated one. Why? Because a president-elect this connected more than likely has people monitoring the Web to get their impressions of his address. They could even be reading this blog post right now!

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am. It is filed under Blog Posts and tagged with Environmental Graphics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Jetpacks says:

November 17, 2008 at 11:55 am

It is pretty drab/bland/standard. The addition of the US Flag in the foreground seems an afterthought. But they’re still in transition, so this is probably from some law office in Chicago.

I would imagine that once he’s in office, he’ll do these things from the Oval Office, among other places. Even FDR had the sense to make them “fireside,” which I believe Carter tried to duplicate literally. And failed.

Obama’s a natural. He’ll fix this soon.

Cristina says:

November 17, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Very true, his “set” is very dated. It actually makes me think of an Eisenhower-era state office. For the update they may want to consider a brighter backdrop to keep with the themes of Change and Hope that Obama carried throughout his campaign. Lastly, did you notice the intense slouch? He has barely started and he already looks tired. Where are his public image advisers?

Great post.