Earlier this month, in a packed room at the beautiful event space Four One Nine, Manual founder Tom Crabtree, Design Director Vanessa Lam, and Obama Foundation Chief Creative Officer Hashem Bajwa discussed the origins of the Obama brand and the role of design in engaging and mobilizing people to foster an active democratic culture.

The talk began with an introduction by Hashem, who highlighted the Foundation's mission: to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. The audience also got a preview of the Obama Presidential Center—a global cultural center for change—set to open in Spring 2026.

Tom walked attendees through the creative strategy behind the Obama Foundation brand evolution, starting with the origins of the Obama brand in 2008. He shared a brief history of the Obama ‘rising sun‘ logo and Gotham typeface, followed by a behind-the-scenes look at how we presented a bold new design vision to the foundation and President Obama.

Finally, Vanessa delved deep into the design details of refining the rising sun logo, creating a suite of new Gotham typefaces, the role of illustration in the new brand system, and the development of a robust, flexible, and dynamic design system and digital toolkit for the Foundation.

Special thanks to Hashem Bajwa for joining us and to Dawn Zidonis and the team at SF Design Week for hosting us all.