– german parliament, visual identity,, corporate design, berlin 2009

german parliament

in the past, the german parliament lacked an overarching uniform visual identity. in the competition for the new corporate design, the question arose as to whether the german parliament needed a new logo. the answer is simple: no, because it already has a logo. there is no need to design a logo for the german parliament because it already exists – in the shape of the federal eagle. through its formal abstraction, the three-dimensional form that the cologne-based artist ludwig gies designed in 1953 for the german parliament maintains a pleasing equilibrium between sovereign distance and a more accessible naturalistic representation. every member of the german parliament and everyone who works for the administration will be proud to use this logo on his or her headed stationery. so there are many arguments in favour of retaining this iconographically distinctive brand. as this figure was designed for three-dimensional application, weaknesses emerge when it is used in two dimensions. so the heraldic bird was subjected to a fundamental makeover, which nonetheless left it bearing a strong relationship to the eagle designed by ludwig gies.

german parliament
visual identity,
corporate design
berlin 2009

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