Obama has done pretty well by his logos. Pepsi loves them. People love them. But there's a dark past behind his latest logo, TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery), and it involves Hitler.

We all agree the new stimulus logo for is an unqualified feel good success but did you know on the same day Obama unveiled his non-verbal Lacanian triumph he also unleashed into the world a TIGER? Yes, the Department of Transportation has its own stimulus package type thing and it is named after an adorable furry animal that is cuddly until it rips your throat out. The logo, designed by Mode Project, is written in Kabel, a German typeface designed by Rudolf Koch. Uh oh, I think you see where this is going.

As written in Brand New, a branding blog, and Twittered by Felix Salmon, the provenance of the typeface raises some eyebrows, or, as we say in German, augenbraun.

The type choice for TIGER is odd though...First because, well, who in the world uses Kabel? But second, it's designed by Rudolf Koch, a German typeface designer; and while there is nothing inherently wrong about that, as designers it's important to acknowledge the context of certain typefaces and consider whether their origins are relevant. Wouldn't a typeface designed by the most prolific American type designers Morris Fuller Benton or Frederic W. Goudy have been more appropriate?

First of all, to answer the question who uses Kabel? Well! Only the coolest taste makers ever. Kabel was used in the title credits of Lost in Translation, for many years on MTV for the opening and closing credits of music videos, on the short-lived sitcom Joey and, in a modified form, on the packaging of L'eggs Pantyhose, the stockings.

Sure Kabel is good, jah, but some of the other types designed by Koch aren't. One of the troubled fonts is the Gothic typeface Fraktur, a variation of which (NeuFraktur) Koch designed in 1933, shortly before his death. Fraktur, and one presumes NeuFraktur, was widely used during the Third Reich until 1941, when, claiming that Gothic type consisted of "Schwabacher-Jewish letters" Martin Bormann banned Fraktur and switched to Antiqua. And though until that time Koch may have captured the Nazi zeitgeist, he was never a member of the Nazi party and in fact, died in 1933. So Obama is in the clear on this but he's cutting it awfully close: the man lives in a house designed by an Irish man (IRA terrorist!?), his wife wears clothes designed by Cubans (communists?!?!) and he presides over a country founded by, in part, deists (heathens?!!)

The Logo in Question (on the right)