Further images
A large format colour photolithograph poster for the 1960 John F. Kennedy presidential campaign. Designed by Donald Wilson, the campaign poster featured a smiling black and white photograph of the candidate against stripes of patriotic red, white and blue, with the campaign slogan "Kennedy for President / Leadership for the 60s". Wilson had been a news correspondent for Life magazine before becoming Kennedy's assistant press secretary. In August 1960, he was put in charge of "the whole business of brochures, posters, pamphlets, buttons - all that kind of material on the campaign." In an oral history interview with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Donald Wilson shared his experience designing the Kennedy for President poster:
"I went over to the Democratic National Committee, looked at what had been done four years before and found it was pretty unimaginative. So I went to New York and hooked up with Bernard Quint, who was the art director of Life magazine and we went to work on posters and pamphlets. President Kennedy was fascinated with pictures of himself and extremely critical of them and so the poster was of great interest to him. The big problem in the summer of 1960 was whether to have a serious, mature poster or a smiling poster. At that particular time one of the major arguments being made by the Republicans was that he was not experienced enough to become president, and therefore, this led a lot of people around him - and himself included - in the beginning to think that he should have a rather serious mature poster. I convinced him that he looked wonderful smiling, but it wasn't easy..... The smiling one was produced in the millions and millions that appeared all over the United States."
Imprint of Local No. 22, Amalgamated Lithographers of America, Los Angeles. A similar example of this poster is held in the collection of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Condition
Very Good (B+)
Unfolded, not backed. Very soft horizontal creases or wrinkles from being lightly pressed when rolled. Creasing to corners and tiny loss to tip of lower right corner. Nicks and creases to edges, with some light surface colour loss along edges. Two small areas of thinning verso at upper right corner and upper right edge (to right of "President"), with a small 0.25 inch edge tear. A few light creases through image. Some tone variation and ghosting to red and blue portions. Discolouration and light soiling verso.