As a designer, I love Zohran Mamdani’s campaign branding because it feels personal, not committee-made.

The Mamdani branding felt like New York life: hand-drawn warmth, bold blue, red and orange you could spot from a distance, and references you actually see on the street. It didn’t try to impress, it tried to belong to a city.

What I love most is how considered it was. The branding held up everywhere: posters, merch, social, video, events, the website. The language stayed simple and human, and it showed up in multiple languages, which matters in a place as mixed as NYC. People weren’t talked at, they were spoken with.

There’s a lesson here for policy comms. Being distinctive wins the first five seconds. A single clear message, delivered in formats people already use, will travel further than a list of talking points. When the identity is bold and strategic, it earns trust faster because it feels like it comes from somewhere.

The Brussels bubble is its own noisy environment. If you want influence here, you have to be noticeable for the right reasons. Root your visuals and tone in the world your audience recognises, design visual branding that works from street to boardroom to events. Commit to it and go all in rather than watering it down.

Key takeaway for me is: You don’t earn attention by blending in. You earn it by being clear, culturally aware and brave enough to stand out.