Mamdani Campaign: Visual Inspiration from Bollywood to Bodegas
- The vivid blue campaign signs with bold orange lettering were unachievable to miss as Zohran Mamdani made his historic and improbable run for New York City mayor this...
- On storefront windows and telephone poles from Queens to the bronx, the "Zohran for New York City" signs stood out from the standard red, white and blue campaign...
- But Aneesh Bhoopathy, the Philadelphia-based graphic designer behind the visuals, said the campaign simply drew from the vibrant primary colors that help bodegas, yellow cabs, hot dog vendors...
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The Bold Branding Behind Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral Campaign
The vivid blue campaign signs with bold orange lettering were unachievable to miss as Zohran Mamdani made his historic and improbable run for New York City mayor this summer.
On storefront windows and telephone poles from Queens to the bronx, the “Zohran for New York City” signs stood out from the standard red, white and blue campaign fodder. The lettering was seen by many as an intentional reference to old-school Bollywood posters – a subtle nod to Mamdani’s Indian heritage.
But Aneesh Bhoopathy, the Philadelphia-based graphic designer behind the visuals, said the campaign simply drew from the vibrant primary colors that help bodegas, yellow cabs, hot dog vendors and other small businesses stand out amid the city bustle.
The stylized font – with its drop shadow effect and vintage comic book look – was meant to evoke the old school,hand-painted signs that can still be found in some neighborhoods,he said.
“Succinctly, it’s New York,” said Bhoopathy, who previously lived in New York and helped on past campaigns for Mamdani and the Queens chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
It was also trendsetting.
Mamdani’s main adversary, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, even rebranded midcampaign. The Democrat initially launched his mayoral run using a red, white and blue color scheme and a decidedly unfussy font, reminiscent of bumper stickers used by President John F. Kennedy in 1960.
But after his defeat to Mamdani in the June Democratic primary, Cuomo kicked off his general election run as an independent candidate by rolling out a new logo featuring the silhouette of the Statue of Liberty’s crown and a new color scheme: blue and orange – Mamdani’s colors, but also the colors of the Knicks and Mets.
Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, is the son of two prominent Indian American luminaries, Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, who is known for “Monsoon Wedding” and other Hollywood films.
The campaign’s aesthetic wasn’t merely stylistic, observed David Schwittek, a professor of digital media and graphic design at Lehman College, a city-owned college in the Bronx.
“They evoke the working-class fabric of New York City: the bodegas, taxi cabs