Flags are efficiently used in branding and advertising, and the Swedish design association Svensk Form has included the national flag in its external communication for decades. As the organisation decided to align itself with contemporary design, the board began to rethink Svensk Form’s role, and a new visual identity was required.

When SDL was commissioned to redesign the organisation’s graphic profile, they used the Swedish flag as their starting point. Just as Svensk Form had modified their charter and excised parts they wanted to reform, SDL so cut away the blue colour planes on the national flag. The yellow cross in the centre was retained, and its yellow tone made more luminous in 432 Flags 433 Svensk Form appearance.

Bright yellow, with the optimism it invokes, was the perfect symbol for Svensk Form’s new outlook. As one of the Swedish national colours, it also attested to the organisation’s origins and history.

The cross itself was used to create the proportions of the new graphic identity. Its intersecting lines were reinterpreted as the basis for a grid that could be scaled upwards or reduced to provide a grid system for texts, images, drawings and maps. As Svensk Form grows and evolves today, it is creating new markets for Swedish design around the world.

The colour yellow is now said to symbolise the sunnier climes where Swedish design has come to represent international cool.