Christiania - the land of free (or three i?)

Believe it or not, it's real - the land of free and a place to dream for a better world, a better life and probably happiness. In the center of Copenhagen, in a huge park area (a squatted military territory) a group of hippies took over. And since 1971 the community is still living there. There were a lot of conflicts with authorities during the last 40 years, but they manage to keep the place as a heaven and a hope for those who need to believe in the idea.
This is a picture taken inside Christiania. What do you think of their life?

They have a few laws: no cars, no hard drugs, no guns, no explosives. And the hole community is: 600 adults, 200 kids, 200 cats, 200 dogs, 17 horses, and a couple of parrots.


But in this post I want to talk about their logo. This is it:

First of all I'm going to say i don't like it. And i will tell you why.
Let me start with the meaning. The 3 dots represent the 3 i's in the name Christiania. The sad part is that this is a very superficial connection, meaningless and disconnected from anything that you will find in there. For a place with so many aspirations and with so many different premises incorporated, it's hard to imagine why they chose something so unoriginal. I think they have something more to say then a plain illustration of the name (which by the way wasn't chosen by them. it was attributed to the place before).
The colors are red and yellow because they found in the ex-military space a large amount of red and yellow paint (wikipedia). I can not imagine why this colors were there, but i like the idea. Practical and symbolic.
The more i think of the design, the more intrigued i am. This community stands for so many things: freedom, hope, humanity, peace, optimism and so on. I really think they could have done better with communicating who they are. Release the freedom from the dots. It's too incarcerating and suffocating.


I think it's too naive and meaningless. But also the draw itself is too strict. Look at the logo below. Belongs to a security company. I think it's more suited for this than the free town. What do you think?

The only advantage of this design is the usability and the diversity of context you can use it and still keep the message and the connection.


Inside the "city" most of the things are branded:



So be free or be three? I choose freedom!

This picture was taken inside Christiania. And I find it so very close to freedom and happiness. I spend 1 hour jumping around. It's the most relevant thing for this place.

UPDATE: the 3 dots could also be an ellipsis (Wikipedia.org: is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word in the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence.) Like something left unsaid or speechless...

*photos taken in Copenhagen, Denmark - August 2010. Thanks to my good friend Carsten who took the time to take me there and jump on the happiness thing with me.

A bridge of friendship

The Øresund or Öresund Bridge is the longest highway and railroad bridge in Europe (total lenght 7,845 meters). The Øresund Bridge connects Sweden and Denmark, and the The Øresund Bridge also connects two major Metropolitan Areas: those of the Danish capital city of Copenhagen and the major Swedish city of Malmö. Beyond the functional purpose, the symbolical connection is very important in the communication of the brand.
The hybrid name is Øresundsbron, a joint between Danish: Øresundsbroen and Swedish: Öresundsbron (the first letter from the Danish name and without letter "e" like in the Swedish name).

The logo is this:

Behind the stylish design, there is a meaning to this shape. The Swedish part of the Bridge is above water, and on the Danish side the road goes under, to allow ships to pass by. The shape is a symbol of it's function.

But this year is the 10th anniversary of the bridge inauguration. And it has a new logo:

From the creative agency (DDB, Copenhagen) :"For the 10 year anniversary of Øresundsbron, the bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark, an identity was needed. The bridge stands for unity and togetherness of two close, but yet, different cultures, which is something that needs to be communicated. It also stand for, individualism, variation, growth and two sides of the same coin. The identity that capsulate all of the above is a unique letter, the combination of the swedish Ö and the danish Ø, crafted into an organic and dynamic symbol that stands for the connections of two vibrant regions." I would add to this that it has the shape of the trains going on this route. They are the opposite of aerodynamic. And also this logo integrates the numbers 1 and 0 (the slash and the circle) that stand for the years of function.
There is also a down side to this design. Because of the slash you can interpret it like a interdiction (with the mention that the interdiction usually uses the slash in other direction, from left to right).

If you have the chance, take this ride. It's a 30 minutes trip above water from a world to another.

Because we care care care

The most important visual for this area is the Nordic Swan, the most popular logo around.


You'll see it everywhere because it applies to all Scandinavian countries and it's around since 1989.

The Nordic Ecolabel or Nordic swan is the official sustainability ecolabel for the Nordic countries. The criteria include environmental, quality and health arguments. The criteria levels promote products and services belonging to the most environmentally sound and take into account factors such as free trade and proportionality (cost vs. benefits). The Nordic Ecolabel now covers 67 different product groups, from hand soap to furniture to hotels. (Wikipedia)

The origin of the logo is in the The Nordic Council of Ministers logo, "the blue Swan" with eight wing feathers represents the five Nordic states – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – and the three autonomous territories – Faroe Islands (Denmark), Greenland (Denmark) and Åland (Finland):

Coming back to the actual logo, i liked it from the beginning, and then i started seeing it everywhere. The world in black and white. It's like the yin-yang of the modern times. Part of green in the white and part of white in the green. But you have to make up your mind on which side do you want to be. And i was wondering if the amount of green is the same with the white. It looks like. That's a very optimistic view of the world, isn't it?


There is also an European ecolabel:
Why two labels? (Danish ecolabel website):
"The EU Flower and the Nordic Swan are not two competing brands. In fact, the two labels are two sides of same coin. But why are there two? 



The biggest difference between the Flower and the Swan is that they arise from two different departments, covering different markets. Though the goal and environmental standards are virtually identical."
So definitely for this area the Swan is more popular and more reliable, as the Scandinavians are very much interested on the origin of their products and the eco- and human- friendliness of the companies.
To be continued....