Creative Characters S1 E2: Scott Starrett on designing an authentic, memorable, winning (and now iconic) political identity.

In our second episode, Monotype Creative Type Director Charles Nix talked with Scott Starret, co-founder of the design studio Tandem NYC (@tandem.nyc). 

Tandem has an impressive portfolio of work, with an emphasis on non-profits and progressive causes. But the agency’s claim to fame is its work for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s breakthrough congressional campaign. Nix, who lives in AOC’s district, spoke of seeing Tandem’s eye-catching work for her campaign, saying that as soon as he saw it (and her, most importantly) he knew she’d “eat Joe Crowley’s lunch.”

Starrett explains that his agency’s approach to branding AOC’s candidacy was rooted in a genuine effort to capture the authenticity and energy she brought to the campaign. ”The idea of dressing Alexandria up as a long-time politician, that knew the industry of politics inside and out, was going to come off as really disingenuous,” he tells Nix.

“She was a member of the working class that was going to run on behalf of the working class to make advancements for the working class. It was meant to be an inclusive concept and, and those ideas that signal a campaign’s war chest—their budget, and how put-together they are—started to read really wrong in this context. And so we took it in what now can be seen as a pretty drastically [different] direction.”