Shortly after the election, I received a call from Axelrod, who now was the President’s senior advisor. The new administration was introducing a major piece of legislation: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It, along with an infrastructure stimulus called TIGER, were designed to resuscitate an ailing economy and reassure an anxious country. In short order, Axelrod needed a branding solution that harkened back to FDR’s New Deal iconography while referencing jobs, technology and energy.

By early afternoon, I hired Aaron Draplin and Chris Glass, two of most respected designers in the business. Since Axelrod’s brief was very broad, I directed them to the graphic language of the FDR’s Work Progress Administration (WPA) and the posters of Lester Beall.

This historic work guided us as we worked through countless iterations, three rounds of review and a flurry of e-mails to and from the White House. At the end of three frenetic days, we produced two pieces of design for the young Administration that would not only help restore faith in the economy but also garner national attention.

Within weeks of the President's announcement, the ARRA and TIGER emblems appeared on construction sites funded by the new Recovery program. And within two days, I appeared on NPR's All Things Considered to talk about the experience.