From Bollywood to bodegas, Mamdani’s mayoral campaign found visual inspiration in unlikely corners

NEW YORK– The bright blue campaign signs with bold orange letters were impossible to miss as Zohran Mamdani made his historic and improbable run for mayor of New York this summer.

In store windows and on telephone poles from Queens to the Bronx, “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 also took inspiration from the vibrant primary colors that help bodegas, yellow cabs, hot dog vendors and other small businesses stand out amid the hustle and bustle of the city.

The stylized font — with its drop shadow effect and vintage comic book look — was meant to evoke the old-school hand-painted signs still found in some neighborhoods, he said.

“In short, it’s New York,” said Bhoopathy, who previously lived in New York and contributed to past campaigns for Mamdani and the Queens chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

It was also a trend.

Mamdani’s main opponent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, even renamed it “mid-campaign.” The Democrat initially launched his mayoral campaign using a red, white and blue color scheme and a decidedly simple font, reminiscent of the bumper stickers used by President John F. Kennedy in 1960.

But after losing to Mamdani in the June Democratic primary, Cuomo launched his general election campaign as an independent candidate by rolling out a new logo depicting the silhouette of the Statue of Liberty’s crown and a new color palette: 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, known for “Monsoon Wedding” and other Hollywood films.

The campaign’s aesthetic wasn’t just stylistic, observed David Schwittek, a professor of digital media and graphic design at Lehman College, a city-owned university in the Bronx.

“They evoke the working-class fabric of New York: the bodegas, taxis and halal carts that not only support the city but also reflect its cultural richness,” he said.

The decidedly retro vibe also likely helped foster “positive associations with happier political times,” at least among Democratic voters, suggested Gavan Fitzsimons, a business professor at Duke University who studies the impact of branding on voters and consumers.

“It harkens back to something from an earlier time, an earlier time when politics was less divisive and Democrats were perhaps more organized and more successful,” he said.

The branding is reminiscent of the distinctive campaign font that became a calling card for U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another young liberal New Yorker who rose to political prominence, said Richard Flanagan, a political science professor at the College of Staten Island.

The Democrat’s posters during her stunning 2018 victory against U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley for a seat representing parts of Queens and the Bronx also drew inspiration from her heritage and working-class New York.

The brightly colored, upward-sloping letters reminded some of prewar union designs and others of Mexican “Lucha libre” flyers, especially since they incorporated the inverted exclamation point used in written Spanish.

Court Stroud, a marketing professor at New York University, said it was difficult to quantify how much the campaign’s visuals contributed to Mamdani’s success, but they certainly made him recognizable and memorable in an initially crowded field of mayoral candidates.

“The playfulness of his campaign design created a brand that his supporters wanted to wear and share,” he said. “Mamdani’s team showed how using visual design as a covert handshake can make politics seem real and community-driven.”

Campaign experts said it’s also too early to tell whether Mamdani’s campaign designs will ultimately have the same staying power nationally as Ocasio-Cortez’s distinctive look, which has since become a staple of progressive candidates’ branding.

“It’s still rare for candidates to stray from red, white and blue,” said Lisa Burns, a media studies professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. “I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.”

The popularity of Mamdani’s designs was certainly felt during the New York City mayoral race, helping to inspire offbeat viral campaigns such as the “Hot Girls for Zohran” merchandise worn by model Emily Ratajkowski and other young celebrities.

Schwittek said the main takeaway from Mamdani’s visual stunt was that effective branding is not generic or safe, but specific and deliberate.

“In a sea of ​​sanitized political messages, Mamdani’s visuals stand out because they mean something,” he said. “That’s the lesson.”

Good campaign design should also stay true to the candidate, Bhoopathy added.

“None of the boldness and dynamism here works without a candidate as energetic and full of life as the city that raised him,” he said.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo