OUGD601 - Typography & Branding - Sweden

I came across an article on Daily Mail about how Sweden had branded itself, commissioning a design agency to create a typeface and an integrated identity for the country, to be used over a range of media, and is to be used on all publicity/promotional materials put out by the government.

Link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2835785/Can-tell-nation-typeface-Sweden-launches-font-based-Scandinavian-minimalism.html

The identity was created by 'Söderhavet', a Swedish based design agency.

http://soderhavet.com/en/projects/sweden/

The brief – Sweden’s government asked us to develop a new identity for the country, to be used when communicating on behalf of Sweden. Our brief was to replace the many fragmented organizational identities of Swedish ministries, agencies and corporations with one integrated visual brand identity system, to unambiguously represent Sweden in the world. 

The process – During the design process, we grappled with many questions, including: Which symbols best represent a country? How do we design a unified identity for use in extremely divergent contexts and on wildly different scales? Which parts of an identity should always be used, and which parts only in the right context? And how do we clarify when an organization is speaking on behalf of Sweden?

Typeface - Sweden Sans

We wanted a distinct typeface that can stand alone, but which also works well with a broad range of other typefaces. Early designs were kept rough, so that we could iterate quickly.  

We decided to go with the feeling of old signs, of mono, of a classic sans serif with a Scandinavian heritage. In collaboration with Swedish font expert Stefan Hattenbach, we then engaged in a long process of polishing the font.

In Context: