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.

hugo’s comment is:

This logo makes me want to party!
Not in the political sense though.

On Jun.24.2010 at 07:36 AM

Everett’s comment is:

Can you imagine the [USA] Republican Party coming out with anything close to this! Even the Obama campaign wasn’t this forward-thinking.

The kerning, if you can even still call it that in this application, bugs me like crazy. Otherwise, it is a great way for the parties to differentiate themselves. So glad they dropped the cheap, vector flowers from the last one.

On Jun.24.2010 at 07:38 AM

Clinton Duncan ’s comment is:

Pretty awesome.

On Jun.24.2010 at 07:49 AM

Adam’s comment is:

It reminds me of something but i can’t place my finger on it.

On Jun.24.2010 at 07:49 AM

Steve’s comment is:

Looks Hawaiian to me.

On Jun.24.2010 at 07:51 AM

jonathan’s comment is:

I’m not Swedish nor do I know anything about Swedish politics, but I think this mark is really interesting. Not sure if you’d call it kerning, but some of the character spacing is really wonky. It’d be nice to see a little consistency there. Besides that, it’s definitely very appealing graphically. And that life-sized logo is awesome! I’ll be interested to see how the election goes.

On Jun.24.2010 at 08:08 AM

Michael Tyznik’s comment is:

It should be mentioned that Alliansen means “The Alliance.”

On Jun.24.2010 at 08:16 AM

heather’s comment is:

definitely interesting. is it appropriate for a political party? curious how the word is pronounced? i like it better when it’s on one line as opposed to stacked because when it’s stacked it seems unreadible… as if the ‘n’ should be on the first line to finish off that syllable… maybe…

On Jun.24.2010 at 08:29 AM

Ivana Martinovic’s comment is:

I love it.

On Jun.24.2010 at 08:30 AM

Michael McWatters’s comment is:

Spin. If you’re a conservative political party with aspirations to look otherwise, you might come out with a fun, punchy, hip logo. If that was the intention, well done. But if the goal was to represent the values of the four alliance partners, this might be off the mark.

An identity without rationale is just an aesthetic treatment, and therefore phony.

On Jun.24.2010 at 08:31 AM

Berthold’s comment is:

Very well done, solid typography. Cute and modern. Now I don’t know about the right wing in sweden, but over here in Germany the conservatives have a rep for being, well, conservative. I have difficulty envisioning snappily dressed twens running such a party.

On Jun.24.2010 at 08:51 AM

Mark’s comment is:

Animal Planet, anyone?
Looks too retro if you want to be a “forward thinking” political alliance.

On Jun.24.2010 at 08:54 AM

Eric’s comment is:

Fun stuff.

On Jun.24.2010 at 09:55 AM

Joshua’s comment is:

I like the flexibility of the logo. Great colors too! Makes me think of super cleaned up Saul Bass typographic logo, which I appreciate. I agree with Michael McWatters about aesthetics, however I think this one walks the line of being “hip looking” and isn’t too heavily concept driven that it looses people and detracts (potential) supporters.

On Jun.24.2010 at 10:06 AM

rek’s comment is:

Isn’t orange a left wing/Socialist colour?

On Jun.24.2010 at 10:51 AM

Spencer W.’s comment is:

Folks are you ready to play ALLIANSEN? Our first player on contestant row is ARMIN VIT! Armin, COME ON DOWN!

On Jun.24.2010 at 11:02 AM

adam’s comment is:

i thought it was some new nickelodeon show at first. i cant really comment on its appropriateness because i know nothing of the political climate over there.

though i honestly cant really see this flying in the good ol u s of a. i mean, it would never be approved by the political client here, and probably be ridiculed by the public.

oh how i long to practice design in europe …

On Jun.24.2010 at 11:17 AM

Nicole’s comment is:

I like it a lot, but it’s horribly horribly inappropriate. Someone above accurately identified this as a big chunk of spin.

Pretty much the only way I can understand this as appropriate for a moderate/conservative party is if they’re looking to take the country back to the halcyon days of the late 60’s, when letters were big, orange was in, and the country was on the right track.

On Jun.24.2010 at 12:20 PM

Shannon’s comment is:

I agree with all of Armin’s comments. While being very interesting to look at, bold and bright, it is not appropriate for a political party. A good effort to break outside the norm, but they took it a bit too far.

On Jun.24.2010 at 12:44 PM

Birdseed’s comment is:

Two other finesses with the logo:

The stacked LLi can be read as a four-part alliance of different groups, which of course it is.

The vertical “SE” is the country code for Sweden, recalling their old “Alliance for Sweden” name.

As for the political climate in Sweden, it’s a pretty unusual move. All of the mail political parties have traditionally-designed flowers at their logos (hence in the alliance logo too), with the Social Democrat’s Javier Mariscal-designed rose as the most stand-out. The moderates are the exception, but have a fairly corporate-looking “M” and recently a simple, seriffed wordmark.

Orange began as a complimentary colour, along with yellow, in designs by the moderates and liberals, about seven or eight years ago. Except for the alliance, its only direct connection is to the anti-EU June List.

—-

Oh and loudmedicine.net is not my domain, just my email host! :)

On Jun.24.2010 at 12:49 PM

Tim Gengler’s comment is:

Wow, that’s interesting. While I can certainly understand the complaints, I think it works really well. A bold move.

On Jun.24.2010 at 01:25 PM

Bjorn’s comment is:

Not particularly surprised at all the ‘right wing politics want to go backwards so this logo isn’t appropriate’ etc. here, but I think that’s rather naive. In Europe (and in Scandinavia especially) libertarianism is sort of the hip, edgy choice in the face of years and years of left-wing politics being enacted full-force. I know it might be difficult for an American audience to grasp, any thoughts that it’s ‘fake’ or ‘hollow’ or something is a little short sighted.
Still, whether or not that is right for a political alliance I am unsure about. It is pleasant to look at though.

On Jun.24.2010 at 02:24 PM

Pontus Johansson’s comment is:

As Bjorn writes, it’s probably hard for Americans to understand this due to their political climate being so very different compared to Sweden’s.

Swedish politics (and Sweden in general) is quite informal in comparison with other countries. For example, we very seldom use titles such as Sir, Miss or Mister. We usually call each other by our first names, even our bosses. When politicians talk about each other in interviews, for example, they use first names (or first name and last name). We don’t even call our professors “Professor”. This is just one example, but this informal attitude is something that permeates the whole society, so people are pretty relaxed when it comes to formalities.

Therefore, I don’t think this is inappropriate at all. Not here in Sweden. In America though, I suspect it wouldn’t be such a good move.

On Jun.24.2010 at 04:35 PM

david e.’s comment is:

I’ll take Pontus Johansson’s word for it… this is probably appropriate for Sweden. To me, it looks like a logo for a cartoon show… but, so what? It’s still much better than what they had before.

On Jun.24.2010 at 05:42 PM

Birdseed’s comment is:

Despite the informal nature of Swedish society and politics I would still count this as mostly inappropriate. Smart-alec, “clever” politicians have never worked in Sweden (Olof Palme being the exception), it’s the patriarchal, father-of-the-nation types that fly… This just seems to run with a theme of city-slicker ad-agency sophistication that probably hits one target demographic (Stockholmers, who often vote right-wing) but fails to reach for the more po-faced centre. I can’t see the Christian Democrats with their pensioner-in-the-countryside voter base being too happy about it, for instance.

On Jun.24.2010 at 06:30 PM

Jay Agudelo’s comment is:

ANIMAL PLANET MUCH?

On Jun.24.2010 at 07:22 PM

Daniella Santos’s comment is:

The attention its getting may it be negative feedback, just shows the interest of people. I think that the look of the logo may be inappropriate but it still catches the attention of a huge number. The idea of creating such logo helps the party to be known throughout the country, it somehow attracts the people to know what the party is and how it can deliver.

On Jun.24.2010 at 09:49 PM

qwertyale’s comment is:

well if you want to attract more people it’s better to mount a circus

On Jun.24.2010 at 10:51 PM

TBD Graphic Design’s comment is:

I like it. It will be really strong on political campaign material. Maybe as a supporting brand to the individual parties’ logos. The design of the LLi combination seems to me to represent the support of the individual ‘i’. Nice.

On Jun.25.2010 at 02:24 AM

chako’s comment is:

This is where that logo comes from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_91gg3WkMtY

On Jun.25.2010 at 02:49 AM

Paj’s comment is:

Considering the old logo, its certainly much better.

Whether its appropriate or not really depends on the Swedish political system - considering the socialists have been in power for 70 years, its probably more of an attempt to identify with the prevailing political trends than it is to accurately represent what the party is about (ie conservatism). In this respect, it succeeds.

On Jun.25.2010 at 03:33 AM

Chaney’s comment is:

Typography is very nice, but I cannot stand randomly breaking words across multiple lines like that (cf. The Met Ropolitan Opera).

On Jun.25.2010 at 07:44 AM

daniel’s comment is:

I appreciate how it comes off non-political (though I’m not really knowledgeable of politics in Sweden). Intuitively, I thought it was a store chain. I think it has a bit of appeal for all people and it isn’t age, rank or class discriminatory. All in all, it’s very approachable.

On Jun.25.2010 at 08:39 AM

Joel Perrego’s comment is:

I love the typography but I don’t know what it says. Guess I need to read the brief above.

On Jun.25.2010 at 11:04 AM

Will Burnett’s comment is:

There’s no way this is appropriate for a political party - it reminds me more of lowbrow hotrod art than anything.

Then again, it doesn’t look bad at all, it’s just inappropriate for the group and their purpose.

On Jun.25.2010 at 07:21 PM

Roth’s comment is:

They should pull the LLi and use it as a stamp or mini logo, like a logo within a logo.

On Jun.25.2010 at 09:07 PM

Cindy Gombert’s comment is:

How very….Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery of them.

On Jun.27.2010 at 09:06 AM

Ryan Cady’s comment is:

On Jun.27.2010 at 09:25 AM

Stripeyhorse’s comment is:

Hell of a lot better than the previous attempt. As a political logo, I really like it. Its not conservative, its different. If the parties that make up the logo are different and have strong beliefs then I think the logo works well.

On Jun.28.2010 at 08:02 AM

Von K’s comment is:

To me, it’s appropriate because it’s unexpected (inappropriate?) for a political org. That’s why it seems lively and progressive.

On Jun.28.2010 at 02:44 PM

Mark’s comment is:

it does remind me of the Animal Planet logo, but it looks good simple and to the point.

On Jun.29.2010 at 06:40 PM

MSGDS’s comment is:

Works really good, but I think it may not be appropriate.

On Jul.02.2010 at 08:32 AM

Brian Phillips’s comment is:

Anyone seen Gilligan’s Island?
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/90773360_3f3a3fbea8.jpg

On Jul.02.2010 at 02:57 PM

Bryan Layne’s comment is:

I knew this looked familiar. Lillian Vernon ladies scarf from the 60’s:

On Jul.16.2010 at 03:39 PM