Here’s a no-brainer: Time magazine named US President-elect Barack Obama the Person of the Year after he became the first African-American to win the White House. But the real contest was to make the shortlist.
The runners up were US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou, the man behind the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

“It’s unlikely that you were surprised to see Obama’s face on the cover,” Time said. “He has come to dominate the public sphere so completely that it beggars belief to recall that half the people in America had never heard of him two years ago.”
“In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th president of the United States.”
The cover style was also no real surprise. Shepard fairey’s iconic poster will certainly have it’s own place in history as one of the most memorable. It seems as though vector art has played a role in changing the face of history forever.
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