Which combination of typography, photography and colour won our hearts and minds in the all-important aesthetic election?

Now that National and Labour have officially launched their campaigns, there’s no denying it – it’s election season. And election season means it’s also hoardings season. You’ve seen them everywhere for the last few weeks. You may have even risked prosecution drawing on them. But no matter which party you think is offering the best balance of taxation and public services, of individualism and collectivism, of LNG and solar panels, you have to admit that some hoardings are just better designed than others. 

Now, we know it’s not an easy design assignment. A hoarding has to do multiple things at once – it needs to be eye-catching, easy to read, provide a snapshot of the candidate and party and, hopefully, compel some of those looking at it to vote for who’s on it. 

So, to help navigate the political marketing jungle of our berms and fences, The Spinoff has ranked and reviewed a selection of the hoardings of the biggest seven parties running in this election. We have scored them according to design, colour, photography, eye-catchiness, brand and political effectiveness. Review panellists have been anonymised in case of political reprisal (ie to give them the freedom to say something mean without looking like a mean person). 

Notes: 

We have included only the seven parties that recent polling gives a realistic shot of entering parliament, because their hoardings are the most prominent. Sorry to all the small parties and independent candidates. We appreciate you, but we don’t often see your hoardings. 
We’ve also leaned more heavily into electorate-specific hoardings as they tend to have more going on (you’ll notice a predominance of Mt Albert hoardings due to it being The Spinoff’s home base – tune in tomorrow night for the big debate). The exception to this is Act, both because it doesn’t have any candidates on my commute and because its party vote hoardings share a sensibility with electorate hoardings due to the prominent inclusion of deputy leader Nicole McKee, who I’m assuming internal polling suggests appeals to some people to whom David Seymour does not.

Anyway, on to the rankings, starting from the bottom…

7) NZ First

4.7/10

New Zealand First commits the dual sins of both doing too much and not enough. The party is lucky enough to basically have a monopoly on black and white (the colour combo most obviously associated with our country), yet has gone all in on dark blue as a nod to the New Zealand flag, which hints at a different type of patriotism than the black and white.

“It’s giving Barfoot & Thompson real estate,” one panellist said. “Resembles the very skippable inside cover for an annual report sent out to shareholders,” said another.

Another marked it down for its attempt at clever typography. “I’ve been staring at the yellow ERS in NEW ZEALANDERS for some time, trying to figure out the hidden meaning, but I’m stumped. Maybe that’s the point?”

On a more positive note, more than one panellist appreciated the portrait photography. “Gets an extra point or two for a nice photo of Winnie,” one said. “He’s nailed the almost perfect level of smile. Happy but not overbearing. I feel reassured.”

6) National

4.9/10

This one had us looking deep into the text for subliminal messaging. “On account of spending much of my life sitting in traffic, I’ve given a weird amount of thought to National’s approach of separating candidate and leader on its hoardings,” one of us said. “Is the chasm between candidate and leader a metaphor? But I have come to the conclusion that it’s actually quite good because it avoids the ghastly inauthenticity of obviously separate clear-cut photos of candidate and leader plonked next to each other as if they’re posing together.” 

Another panellist read almost as deeply into subject placement. “Melissa is separated from her leader by a wall of text, subliminally indicating her distant and forlorn list ranking.”

The positive? “Very blue. Clear messaging. Good eye contact.”

5) Opportunity

5.3/10

You might think that with its tech startup money and tech startup board members, not to mention the fact it underwent a literal rebrand recently, Opportunity would have done more with its branding. The party is likely to poll highly with content/branding/advertising/marketing agency types. But… “something about the Opportunity hoardings feels a bit cheap to me”, one of the panel said. “All that teal, or is it turquoise, just looks so… flat. Add some shading! Some texture! Some nuance!”

“Canva-core,” said another. “Marked up for nice photo of Qiulae, marked down for not explicitly saying candidate vote Qiulae. Do you want to win Mt Albert or not?”

“Expect better?” said yet another. “Do better with your election hoarding.”

“A bit boring, but also works well,” a more sympathetic voice said. “Lovely shot of Q, skin looks radiant.”

4) Labour

5.8/10

Labour didn’t fare much better. The faces are too small and the pink is off-brand and distracting. “Looks like an ad for a drive-time radio show.”

The good: “A classic of the genre … with enough that it’s not a total snoozefest,” one panellist said. “Helen in the white is so angelic heavenly vibes. Descend from the clouds and save us from this wretched Earth… I also like the straightforwardness of the two ticks aspect, which is either clunky or completely missing in other parties’.”

The bad: “Very real estate power couple”, “BORING”.

3) Act

6.4/10

Probably the best brand refresh in recent New Zealand political history. The pink, with yellow as the secondary, was a smart move to not just own its own sections of the colour wheel but to relegate the blue that always felt a little like National’s little sibling. I also like the font switch-up and the non-boring, lively photography.

“It’s an offensive shade of pink, really, but goddammit it works for them,” said one panellist. “Act’s hoardings stand out in a sea of corflute and you can’t blame Labour for trying to get in on some of that magenta magic this year. It’s not what you’d call subtle or chic but the Act-curious probably don’t want that woke sort of carry-on anyway.”

Another simply noted: “This Barbie is campaigning!”

2) Greens

7.1/10

The Green Party has taken a big swing this election cycle and, for the most part, the panel was impressed. “Sits beautifully in situ,” said one panellist. “Lovely.” “Inspiring! Makes me wanna do democracy!” said another. 

Multiple panellists noted the choice of shirt being too close to the sky – “he’s at risk of being camouflaged”, said one.

But it wasn’t all positive. “I don’t like Ricardo staring off into the distance. Yoohoo! Ricardo! Over here!”

1) Te Pāti Māori 

8.1/10

The party that polling suggests will get the lowest party vote percentage of those in competition here came out decisive in victory in our aesthetic election. The font is strong, the candidate front and centre (“no pesky leader in there”, one reviewer noted), the cut between the first and second names is confident. “Mana for daaaaaays,” said one panellist. 

“Fuck yeah this is what I’m talkin’ about,” said another, who gave this one a 9/10, the highest mark of the day. “Great photo. Compelling design. Simple message. No ticks littering the joint. ‘Get on board suckers, we’re engineering an overhang.’”

Slight criticisms included the lack of tick (cf above) and the “blending of the background colours could’ve been ever so slightly better”. 

Still. A clear winner. Ka pai!