--- title: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Show Message in Graphic Design description: Not all would-be vice presidents are created equal, particularly when it comes to a major symbol: Their name on the campaign logo. canonical: https://time.com/4427656/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-campaign-logos/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-28T13:57:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:19.589Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Important Is the Running Mate? Just Look at the Fonts og:description: Tim Kaine is an equal. Mike Pence is 35% less important. og:url: https://time.com/4427656/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-campaign-logos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97ae2f9be1492bb4/69889fe9524fc0f092df8f03/clinton_kaine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Appears With Vice Presidential Pick Sen. Tim Kaine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Important Is the Running Mate? Just Look at the Fonts twitter:description: Tim Kaine is an equal. Mike Pence is 35% less important. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97ae2f9be1492bb4/69889fe9524fc0f092df8f03/clinton_kaine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Important Is the Running Mate? Just Look at the Fonts > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Chris Wilson / Philadelphia](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson / Philadelphia Jul 28, 2016 1:57 PM UTC  MIAMI, FL - JULY 23: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks alongside her running mate Democratic vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) during a campaign rally at Florida International University Panther Arena on July 23, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine made their first public appearance together a day after the Clinton campaign announced Senator Kaine as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) MIAMI, FL - JULY 23: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks alongside her running mate Democratic vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) during a campaign rally at Florida International University Panther Arena on July 23, 2016 in Miami, Florida. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine made their first public appearance together a day after the Clinton campaign announced Senator Kaine as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Chris Wilson / Philadelphia](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson / Philadelphia Jul 28, 2016 1:57 PM UTC Presidential candidates present their running mates as partners and confidants. But not all would-be vice presidents are created equal, particularly when it comes to a major symbol of their place on the ticket: The size of their name on the campaign logo. The [official campaign signs](https://shop.hillaryclinton.com/) for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine use the same font size for both names, though Clinton’s name appears larger since it is longer. The [Trump-Pence campaign sign](http://shop.donaldjtrump.com/), by contrast, prints Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s name in a font that is 35 percent smaller. (As a compensation, Pence’s name is given a wider space between the letters so that it is not dramatically narrower.) In fact, if one looks at the past two campaign cycles, the size differential in the Trump/Pence logo is second in disparity only to the Romney-Ryan ticket in 2012, though this is larger due to the fact that the ‘R’ in “Romney” was particularly tall. The fonts themselves are closer to the same size. Below is a to-scale comparison of the names of the candidate and running mate in the past three cycles. (The [Obama reelection logo in 2012](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack%5FObama%5Fpresidential%5Fcampaign,%5F2012) is excluded since it was just the numbers “2012” with the ever-present Obama symbol as the zero.) Graphic design communicates all sorts of information. In 2016, the campaign signs are a small reminder of the difference in the campaigns. Clinton, we’re told, is a builder of coalitions, while Trump believes that [he alone](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/trump-rnc-speech-alone-fix-it/492557/) can fix what ails the country. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4427656/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-campaign-logos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4427656/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-campaign-logos/"},"headline":"How Important Is the Running Mate? 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