1 2 Felix Sockwell on Republicrat As told by Felix Sockwell, Maplewood, New Jersey "In `Political Animosity,' which is a visually driven essay published in 6.+!,.$9'12! 1: Beithan Hessler Corporate Communications 2: Brown Deer Press 6($;A*+ a week before the 2008 election on the history of the donkey and elephant symbols penned by Thomas Nast in 1870, I provided a quick rundown of everything we've seen since. Basically, it is a history and critique of the party logos. The symbol I came up with is a combination. "This was the fi rst time anyone published one of my logo rants in a large publication. The particular solution isn't exactly mind-blowing, but it's kind of funny and a fast read. "In the months before the election, the Democratic Party decided to ditch the image of the donkey altogether in favor of a generic Denver skyline. The Republicans chose a conservative, yet aggressively postured elephant. Why either party made such decisions or how they actually affected the result is up for debate. But there is no question that the `O' logo turned out to be one of the most impressive and landmark identities ever seen--and sold." image. When we were developing the logo for Brown Deer Press, it was a given that a brown deer would be part of the logo. The art director, Ron Miriello of Miriello Grafico, saw a way to add a twist to the image by turning the antlers into branches. Books are made from trees, so there is a tenuous logic in this marriage of disparate concepts, and people fi nd it memorable. In your logo work, animals appear frequently. Why do they appeal to you (excepting examples like Brown Deer Press, which suggests a visual)? > Broadly speaking, I think there needs to be some logical connection to the identity even if it's not implied in the company name. For several years I developed logos for a medical convention for heart specialists that took place in different tropical locations. The art director, Scott Mires of > 13