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Candidate: At-large Councilmember Kwame Brown, running for D.C. Council chairman
Colors: Royal blue and white
Graphic Elements: Tiers of text separated by white lines
Slogan: “Vote Kwame Tuesday September 14, 2010”
Spotted: Arkansas Avenue NW and Taylor Street NW
Signspotter says: In the Tarantinoesque cavalcade of candidates of color—ballots will feature a Mr. Gray, Mr. Orange, and a Mr. Brown—the sitting councilman didn’t take aesthetic inspiration from his name. In fact, Brown’s signs dispatch with his last name altogether. He is just Kwame, in three different places on his sign, a blunt familiarity that banks on some existing name recognition and an unsubtle reminder of the candidate’s race.
Brown also uses his sign to make the most direct ask, unfurling the date of the primary election with uncommon specificity. He is clearly not counting on Fenty and Gray to flush his voters out to the polls for him a month from now; Brown is afraid of an electorate forgetting that there’s an election altogether.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery