After You Choose a Campaign Slogan, Here Is What to Print Next

You have your slogan. It captures your message, it represents who you are as a candidate, and your campaign team is behind it. Now comes the question every first-time candidate faces: what do you actually do with it? Choosing a slogan is a communications milestone, but it is not the finish line. It is the starting gun for your print campaign. The materials you order in the weeks following that decision will determine how many voters actually see your message, remember your name, and show up on Election Day. This guide walks you through exactly what to order, in what order, and why, so your slogan does not just live in a Google Doc. It gets into the hands of voters through union-printed campaign materials built to last the full campaign season.

Why Your Slogan Is the Foundation of Everything You Print

A campaign slogan is not decoration. It is the organizing principle of every piece of printed material you will produce. Before you place a single order, make sure every member of your campaign team understands that the slogan is locked. Changing it mid-campaign, even slightly, creates visual inconsistency across materials that have already been printed and distributed, and that inconsistency erodes the professional impression your campaign is trying to make.

Once the slogan is locked, the design work that follows should treat it as the primary text element across every material type. Voters who see your yard sign at the corner of their street, receive your postcard in the mail, and then meet a volunteer wearing your campaign shirt should encounter the same slogan, the same typeface, and the same color palette every time. That repetition is not redundancy. It is how recognition is built.

The Print Priority Order: What to Order First

Not all campaign materials carry equal weight in terms of voter reach and production lead time. The table below reflects the order in which a first-time candidate should move from slogan approval to print orders, based on a combination of impact per dollar and time required to produce.

The sections below walk through each material type in detail, covering what it does, what to put on it, and what to watch out for when ordering.

First to Order: Yard Signs

The moment your slogan is locked, your first call should be to a union print shop to place your yard sign order. Yard signs are the single highest-visibility material in any local or state-level campaign, and they have the longest production lead time of any printed item. Order them 10 to 12 weeks before Election Day.

What to Put on a Yard Sign

Yard signs are not billboards. They are read from moving vehicles in under three seconds. That constraint should dictate every design decision you make. The standard yard sign formula has been validated across tens of thousands of campaigns for good reason:

• Your name in the largest possible type, taking up the majority of the sign face.

• The office you are running for, clearly identified below your name.

• Your slogan, in a secondary but readable size.

• Your campaign colors and any required paid-for-by disclaimer.

Avoid the temptation to add a website, phone number, social media handles, or a headshot to a standard 18" x 24" yard sign. Each addition reduces the size of everything else and makes the sign harder to read at speed. Keep it simple. Signs that can be read in three seconds get read. Signs that require five seconds to parse get ignored.

How Many to Order

A first-time candidate in a local race typically needs a minimum of 200 to 500 yard signs for the initial deployment. State house and competitive district races often require 1,000 or more. Order more than you think you need on the first run: the per-unit cost drops significantly with volume, and running out of signs two weeks before Election Day means paying rush pricing for a reorder at the worst possible time.

Second: Palm Cards and Push Cards for Door-to-Door Canvassing

Once your yard sign order is placed, your next priority is palm cards and push cards. These are the materials your volunteers will put directly into voters' hands at the door, and they are the most personal touchpoint in any canvassing operation. A voter who opens their door and receives a well-designed, professionally printed palm card forms an immediate impression of your campaign's seriousness.

Palm Cards vs. Push Cards: What Is the Difference

Palm cards are typically 4" x 6" and designed for quick handoffs at transit stops, community events, and casual voter contact situations. Push cards run larger, typically 4" x 9" or 3.5" x 8.5", and are the primary leave-behind for door-to-door canvassing. Most campaigns use both. Your push card will carry more information than your palm card because a voter who answers the door is more engaged and has more time than a commuter at a bus stop.

What to Include on Your Palm and Push Cards

• Your name, office sought, and slogan on the front, with a photo that conveys approachability and competence.

• Your top two or three issue positions on the back, stated in plain, direct language.

• Your website and any social media handles relevant to your target voters.

• Your paid-for-by disclaimer, which is legally required on all voter-facing printed materials in most jurisdictions.

Print on at least 100 lb. gloss cover stock. Thin, flimsy literature signals an underfunded or disorganized campaign before a voter reads a single word.

Third: Direct Mail Postcards

Direct mail is the most expensive line item in most first-time candidates' print budgets, and it is also one of the highest-return. Voters who receive physical mail from a campaign engage with it at significantly higher rates than digital ads, and a well-timed political postcard arriving during a key persuasion window can move undecided voters in ways that no social media post can match.

Planning Your Mail Program Before You Design Anything

The most common mistake first-time candidates make with direct mail is designing the piece before they have locked in their drop dates and target voter universe. Do the strategy work first. Determine how many mail drops you can afford, identify your target voter file by party, turnout history, or issue affinity, and set your drop dates by working backward from USPS delivery windows. Then design the pieces to match those strategic goals.

Two-Drop vs. Three-Drop Mail Programs

A two-drop mail program is the realistic minimum for a first-time candidate with a limited budget. Drop one serves as an introduction, establishing your name, your office, and your top issue. Drop two, timed to arrive 7 to 10 days before Election Day, is your closing argument and GOTV call to action. If budget allows, a third drop in the 2 to 3 weeks before the election significantly increases the likelihood that a targeted voter will show up. Every additional mail drop requires adequate lead time for print production and USPS scheduling, so plan all three dates before placing any order.

EDDM vs. Targeted Voter Mail

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) saturates every address on a mail route regardless of voter status and is priced by carrier route rather than individual address. It is cost-effective for candidates running in geographically concentrated areas where broad name recognition is the goal. Targeted voter mail uses your campaign's voter file to mail only to specific households that meet defined criteria, such as low-turnout Democrats in a primary or registered independents in a general. Targeted mail costs more per piece but reaches a more precisely defined audience. Most first-time candidates benefit from a combination of both approaches across their mail program.

Fourth: Campaign Buttons and Lapel Stickers

After your high-reach materials are ordered, campaign buttons and lapel stickers are the next priority. These are supporter-facing materials, not voter-facing materials in the same direct sense, but their impact on campaign visibility is real and often underestimated.

What Buttons and Stickers Do That Other Materials Cannot

A volunteer wearing your campaign button at a neighborhood association meeting, a grocery store, or a school pickup line is a walking endorsement. Every person who sees that button is exposed to your name and your slogan in a trusted social context. Buttons and lapel stickers turn your supporters into mobile campaign infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of paid advertising.

Union Bug Requirements for Buttons and Stickers

Campaign buttons and lapel stickers must carry the union bug like all other voter-facing and supporter-facing printed materials. Order from a union shop that specializes in political campaign merchandise. These shops will apply the correct bug automatically and can verify their union affiliation if asked. Do not order buttons or stickers from generic online vendors, regardless of price. The union bug on these items is checked by labor endorsers and noticed by union members in your district.

Fifth: Flyers and Brochures for Events and Lit Drops

Campaign flyers and brochures serve a different function than palm cards. Where palm cards are designed for the brief, one-on-one voter contact moment, flyers are designed for posting on community boards, distributing at events, and leaving at local businesses that support your campaign. Brochures go deeper on your platform and are appropriate for meetings with community organizations, endorsement interviews, and town halls where engaged voters want more than a 4" x 6" card.

Designing Flyers That Get Read

A campaign flyer that competes for attention on a community bulletin board has about two seconds to earn a second look. Lead with your name and the office you are running for in type large enough to read at arm's length. Follow with your slogan and a single, compelling visual. Reserve the bottom third for your website and event details if applicable. Cluttered flyers get ignored. Simple, high-contrast flyers with a clear hierarchy get read.

Brochures for Deeper Engagement

A tri-fold brochure allows you to present your full platform in a format that engaged voters will actually read. Use the front panel for your name, photo, and slogan. Use the interior panels for your top three to four issue positions with brief, substantive descriptions. Use the back panel for your biography, endorsements, and contact information. Order brochures on 100 lb. gloss cover stock minimum. Lighter stock reads as low-budget and tends to look worn quickly.

Sixth: Door Hangers for Canvassing Without a Contact

A door hanger is what your canvassers leave when a voter is not home. It is your campaign's last word at that address for that visit, and it needs to do the work of a live conversation in a single glance. Door hangers are underused by first-time campaigns and consistently overperform when done well.

What Makes an Effective Door Hanger

• Your name, office, and slogan at the top where it is visible the moment the hanger is picked up.

• A single, localized issue that resonates with the specific precinct you are canvassing. Generic door hangers work; targeted ones work better.

• A clear call to action: vote on [date], visit [website], or attend [event].

• Your paid-for-by disclaimer and union bug.

Door hangers printed on heavy card stock with a clean die-cut slot hold up better in weather and make a stronger impression than lightweight alternatives. Order enough to cover every door in your target precincts at least twice across your canvassing program.

Seventh: Rally Signs and Campaign Banners

If your campaign will attend rallies, parades, community events, or public hearings, rally signs and campaign banners are essential visibility tools. These materials serve a different purpose than yard signs: where yard signs build passive name recognition over weeks, rally signs and banners create visual energy at a specific event and generate the kind of photos that fuel earned media coverage.

Rally Signs

Rally signs are typically 9" x 12" or 11" x 14", printed on lightweight but durable card stock or coroplast, and designed to be held. They should display your name, slogan, and campaign colors in a format that photographs well from a distance. If your campaign is organizing a public event or attending a candidate forum, having 50 to 100 rally signs for supporters to hold creates a compelling visual that no amount of social media promotion can replicate.

Campaign Banners

Banners serve a fixed-location display function at campaign offices, events, and community spaces. A well-designed campaign banner hanging at your headquarters or at a community event communicates organizational capacity and professionalism. Order at least two: one for your primary campaign space and one that travels to events. Banners should be printed on durable material with UV-resistant inks and include grommets for easy hanging.

Eighth: Campaign Apparel

Campaign t-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts are the last item in the print priority order, not because they are unimportant, but because they require the most lead time to source correctly and are not operationally urgent in the early campaign phase. For candidates committed to union printing, apparel requires two layers of compliance: the blank garment must be union-made, and the printing must be done by a union shop.

Union-Made Blanks: What to Look For

Trusted union-made apparel brands include Bayside Manufacturing, Royal Apparel, and American Roots. Each produces garments with a union label sewn inside the collar. Verify the label is present before approving any bulk apparel order. Generic blanks sourced from overseas manufacturers, regardless of how they are described, do not qualify for the union bug on the finished garment.

Who Gets Apparel and When

Apparel serves two distinct functions in a campaign: volunteer identification and supporter engagement. Your core canvassing volunteers should receive campaign shirts before their first door-knocking shift. Hats and additional shirts can be sold or given to donors and supporters as engagement tools. Order a realistic quantity for your volunteer roster plus a 20 percent overage for unexpected demand. Do not order apparel speculatively in large quantities until you have a sense of your volunteer base size.

What All of These Materials Have in Common: The Union Bug

Every material covered in this guide, from yard signs to t-shirts, needs to carry the union bug if you are running on a platform that includes labor support, endorsements from AFL-CIO affiliated unions, or a commitment to worker solidarity. The union bug is the small insignia printed in the corner of each piece that identifies the union local that produced it. Labor endorsers check for it. Union members in your district notice when it is missing. For a complete overview of what the union bug is, why it matters, and how to verify a shop's affiliation before placing any order, see our guide to union printing for political campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need all of these materials for a first-time campaign?

Not necessarily. The right mix depends on your race, your budget, and your district. A first-time candidate running for city council in a small municipality may only need yard signs, palm cards, and a single mail drop. A candidate running in a competitive state house district will likely need most of the materials on this list. Start with the materials that reach the most voters for your budget and add from there.

What is the most important thing to get right on every piece of printed material?

Consistency. Your name, slogan, colors, and typeface should look identical across every material type. Voters who encounter your yard sign, receive your postcard, and meet a volunteer wearing your button should feel like they are seeing the same campaign. Visual inconsistency across materials suggests disorganization and erodes the credibility your campaign is working to build.

Can I use the same design file across multiple material types?

You can use the same brand elements, but you cannot use the same design file without adaptation. Each material type has different dimensions, different viewing distances, and different amounts of information the reader expects. A yard sign layout does not work on a palm card, and a brochure interior panel does not work on a door hanger. Work with a designer who understands print specifications and adapt your core brand elements to each format.

How do I make sure my slogan actually fits on all of these materials?

Test it before you lock it. Put your slogan in the approximate type size it will appear on a yard sign, a palm card, and a direct mail piece, and evaluate whether it reads clearly at each scale. Slogans that work well at large sizes sometimes become unwieldy at the small sizes required for buttons and lapel stickers. If your slogan is longer than six to eight words, consider whether there is a shorter version that retains the meaning for smaller-format materials.

What happens if I run out of a material mid-campaign?

Order more as soon as you identify the shortage, not when you run out completely. For materials with longer production lead times like yard signs and direct mail, running low is a signal to reorder immediately. For faster-turn materials like buttons, lapel stickers, and door hangers, you have more flexibility. See our guide to bulk vs. rush union printing for a full breakdown of how to handle mid-campaign reorders without blowing your print budget.

Conclusion: Your Slogan Is the Starting Line, Not the Finish Line

Choosing a campaign slogan is a genuine milestone. It means your campaign has a message, a direction, and a way of communicating who you are to voters. But the slogan only works if voters see it, and voters only see it if you print it, distribute it, and put it in front of them through every available channel.

The print priority order in this guide reflects how successful campaigns actually move from message approval to field deployment. Start with the materials that reach the most voters, allow the most lead time, and anchor your visual identity in the community. Build from there as your campaign grows and your budget allows.

Every material on this list is available union-printed and union-bugged through Dr. Don's Print Lab. Start with what your campaign needs most right now and add as your season builds.

Ready to Print Your Campaign Materials?

Shop by material type, all union-printed, union-bugged, and made in the USA:

• Yard Signs: the first order you should place after locking your slogan.

• Palm Cards: your primary door-to-door canvassing leave-behind.

• Political Postcards: targeted voter mail for persuasion and GOTV.

• Campaign Buttons and Lapel Stickers: supporter-worn visibility at every event.

• Flyers and Door Hangers: lit drops, canvassing, and community postings.

• Rally Signs and Campaign Banners: event visibility that earns earned media.

• Campaign Apparel, including t-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts on union-made blanks.

Browse the complete political campaign catalog or contact us to talk through your print needs before you order.