Butch Ware for California Governor

BUTCH WARE FOR CA GOVERNOR BRANDING

Building the visual and strategic backbone of California's boldest third-party gubernatorial campaign.

Butch Ware is a professor, organizer, artist, and activist running for Governor of California under the Green Party — a candidate whose life's work centers on building a California that genuinely serves all its people, not just those with power and capital. But in a political landscape dominated by two parties with deep institutional roots, even the most compelling candidate can go unseen. That was the challenge: the Green Party lacked the recognition, cohesion, and infrastructure needed to compete for hearts, minds, and votes at scale. Butch's campaign had a powerful message but no unified visual language to carry it, no communications strategy to amplify it, and no organizing system to sustain it.

Little Wins Studio partnered with the Butch Ware for Governor campaign as a collaborative creative partner — working alongside the team to build the foundation a serious campaign demands. We developed a full brand and visual identity, a communications and media strategy, and a centralized campaign portal housing every asset and strategic document the team needed to move with clarity and confidence. The goal wasn't just to make the campaign look credible — it was to make it feel like a movement.

SCOPE

— Brand Strategy
— Media Strategy
— Logo Identity System
— Type & Color
— Brand Asset Library
— Social Media Templates
— Merch Design
— Notion Campaign Portal

The Idea

We built a cohesive visual world for the campaign — designed to stand out in a crowded political space while staying rooted in the warmth and integrity Butch embodies. The visual direction draws from an unexpected but powerful mix of references: the grit and physicality of vintage weightlifting and bodybuilding imagery, and the bold graphic energy of historic protest and activist posters from the 50s and 60s, including the visual legacy of the Black Panthers, all of which were integral parts to Butch's identity. A bright, confident color palette ties it together — bridging the weight of that history with a look that feels unmistakably forward. Where the campaign once had scattered, inconsistent visuals, it now has an identity with real cultural roots and the confidence to match.