Opinion BY Armin

The Swedish Right Gets Stacked

To our Swedish readers this will be old news and the following brief introduction might fail to convey the political subtleties that this topic entails. In 2006 the four right-wing parties of Sweden — the Moderate Party, Centre Party, Liberal People’s Party, and Christian Democrats — formed the Allians för Sverige (Alliance for Sweden) as a way to stand stronger against the left-wing Social Democratic Party, which has led Swedish politics for the last 70 years. While each of the four allied parties is still running on their own, the Allians allows them so stand together on common issues. This past March, the Allians för Sverige changed its name to, simply, Alliansen (The Alliance) and introduced a new logo in preparation for the 2010 elections. The logo was designed by Stockholm-based Garbergs.

The logo received quite a bit of criticism and mocking, being compared to the Animal Planet logo and getting the viral treatment with an image that changed the name from Alliansen to Allinsane among other treatments. Perhaps it’s the vast distancing that exists between Austin, TX and Sweden but, from where I am sitting, this is a perfectly catchy logo. And I use “catchy” intentionally as a way to describe it, because it is not necessarily “appropriate.” Rather it establishes the Alliansen as an organization willing to do things differently and with a little more brand awareness than its counterparts. Again, it’s probably not appropriate and that’s why it has gotten so much derision.

Images above from the Alliansen Flickr.

Formally, the logo is dynamic and playful while still being straightforward and serious. The stacked “LLi” works very well to convey that this is about unity and coming together; and while I usually condemn those that mix upper and lowercase letters, I think in this case it’s not only necessary to use the lowercase “i” but it also works visually and as a metaphor for individual. The resulting logo, in my mind, is what you would get if you crossed House Industries’ Ed Interlock and Herb Lubalin’s Families logo. In other words, I’m a fan.

Thanks to Johan Palme for the tip.

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To our Swedish readers this will be old news and the following brief introduction might fail to convey the political subtleties that this topic entails. In 2006 the four right-wing parties of Sweden — the Moderate Party, Centre Party, Liberal People's Party, and Christian Democrats — formed the Allians för Sverige (Alliance for Sweden) as a way to stand stronger against the left-wing Social Democratic Party, which has led Swedish politics for the last 70 years. While each of the four allied parties is still running on their own, the Allians allows them so stand together on common issues. This past March, the Allians för Sverige changed its name to, simply, Alliansen (The Alliance) and introduced a new logo in preparation for the 2010 elections. The logo was designed by Stockholm-based Garbergs.