The use of color to convey meaning in design and communication is no where more apparent than in the many maps generated for the 2012 U.S. election.
American imaginations are full of red states and blue states and the huge ideological associations that go along with those colors. Designers, whether working for one party or another or working for a journalistic source that is trying to be neutral reinforced these color associations every time they were been called upon to create an ad, a yard sign or a television graphic. Even the candidates wore color-coded ties.
This color binary code is an effective shortcut to communicate the ends of the political spectrum and, hence, helpfully yielded an effective third way to talk about the reality of American politics. It turns out that America is actually purple.
Few states are all red. Few states are all blue. America is not a land of either-or, America is still a melting pot in which people from both ends of the spectrum live, usually harmoniously, side by side. When we look at voting patterns or ad spending in each case the we see the mash-up that is America, not the poles indicated by the pundits. I particularly admired the time-lapse color-coded map of the past elections that shows America leaning more and more purple. Perhaps our flag should be more gradient, less solid color focused.
The increase in purple makes me highly optimistic for our future. I think the younger generations are probably the most purple generation ever. Millenials tend to focus on the bigger community and less on their own particular segment and communities are best when comprised of diverse peoples with varied interests, so having a mash-up of reds and blues is the best thing we can wish for as we continue to move our country into the future.
Sources:
http://chartporn.org/2012/11/07/party-weighted-election-map-by-county-1960-2012/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17306282#Battleground%20states
http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/campaign-tracker/
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/results
http://blog.visual.ly/eight-different-takes-on-presidential-election-maps/
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2012/
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671162/infographic-a-grossly-distended-map-of-america-redrawn-by-election-spending#3
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-first-debate-mitt-romneys-five-biggest-lies-20121004