Presidential Jell-o Shots

What's more American than jell-o except Presidential profiles in red and blue jell-o? Artist Henry Hargreaves recently released this infographic of Presidential portraits with red/blue indicators of their political divide. In addition to the red and blue colors of the Republicans and Democrats, the key also indicates that left-facing presidents served one term only (Obama is right-facing mind you), the smaller silver stars indicate they died in office and the jell-o splatters signal their assassination.
     If you are hosting an election night party, consider preparing one of these sort of presidential strawberry or blueberry gelatinous desserts to your guests. For a real crowd-pleaser, just add a little vodka or tequila to the mix and you've got jell-o shots for the entire crowd.
     Hargreaves may also be familiar to you as the character who created the blackletter Bacon Alphabet, and the amazing toasted icons—white bread portraits of the rich and famous. I smell a food theme here. Hmmm...jell-o shots with toasted blackletter crudites?
     Best way to learn more about Henry Hargreaves is to watch this space. A big hat tip to Cool Hunting for an earlier report on his story. Meanwhile, make your vote count today!   

You Just Can't Make This Shit Up

Fake Science sadly gets it right.

Misinformation Graphics

Ok, I don't mean to get all political, but this creepy infographic steps on the toes of free speech. It appeared recently on Sarah Palin's Facebook page and lists 20 Democrats who voted to approve the Health Care Reform Package, and who were elected in previously Republican districts. Their locations are identified on the map with crosshairs – a rather crass metaphor to take up arms to defeat these Democrats in the November elections. In recent days, a number of these targeted politicians have received death threats and even had bricks thrown in their office windows. After the health bill was signed on Tuesday, Sarah shouted a plea to her Palin posse on Twitter, "Dont retreat, RELOAD!". Palin's scare tactics and her inflammatory firearms rhetoric are a shout-out to her base to take aim at these politicians and target their election campaigns. I am all for dissent and free political speech, but I find this sort of discourse and infographic offensive and irresponsible. Sarah is not going rogue – she's going ballistic. And as designers, I think we all have a responsibility to be very careful about what messages and information we promote in the name of free speech. Our actions may come at a very high cost.