Political branding's most infamous punctuation mark launched decades before you think

"At the 1988 Democratic National Convention, his supporters held red signs that said "Jesse!" in white. Jackson came in second in the 1988 primary with nearly 30% of the vote against the party's nominee Michael Dukakis, and since then, candidates from Bush to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, have used the punctuation mark in their logos to give their names some added emphasis."

"Jackson's exclamation mark logo was far from the only logo used in support of his presidential campaigns in a time before standardized, consistent branding was expected for political campaigns. He campaigned in serifs and sans serifs, and sometimes in bright yellow, a color that signaled a break from the standard red, white, and blue color palette of U.S. politics at the time. His campaign used slogans like "Now is the Time" and "Keep Hope Alive.""

"A protege of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was the founder of the civil rights nonprofit Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) when he announced his campaign in 1983 without any experience in elected office and became the first Black presidential candidate for a major party since Shirley Chisholm."

Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1984 and 1988 and used an exclamation-mark logo, "Jesse!", at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. He finished second in the 1988 primary with nearly 30% of the vote against Michael Dukakis. The exclamation-mark branding preceded similar uses by candidates such as Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, and Lamar Alexander. Jackson founded the civil rights nonprofit Operation PUSH, was a protege of Martin Luther King Jr., and launched his campaign in 1983 without prior elected-office experience. His campaigns featured varied typography, bright yellow, and slogans like "Now is the Time" and "Keep Hope Alive."

Read at Fast Company