Conceived by irreverent design and coding collective PutosModernos, the book spins the ‘how to’ publishing genre on its head, featuring plenty of dastardly tips on how to make it in the political arena.
According to PutosModernos, the book includes help on things from ‘setting up a party, choosing an ideology, and adding emotions to your speeches’ to ‘creating an enemy to blame for everything, profiting from corruption, and winning an election.’
‘The book dismantles politics from a humorous point of view,’ says Pamplona-based Bonita Estudio, ‘but at the same time explains how to participate in it and profit from it. That’s why the book mixes political propaganda and entrepreneurship.’
In looking to create a ‘political aesthetic’ while not referencing any specific party, Bonita decided to reference the visual language of propaganda and its attention-seeking use of large fonts and a brutalist aesthetic. Formula Condensed (by type foundry Pangram Pangram) is used on some of the most striking pages – across the cover, for headlines, and alongside graphics.
Printing the book in red and blue inks also reflects the various political ideologies across the spectrum, say the studio. ‘Vótame has an aesthetic that reminds us a lot of US election campaigns, but still has the essence of any political campaign in the world.’