SSU visual identity

The youth organisation of Sweden’s social-democratic party (Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund, SSU) was founded in 1917 and is the country’s largest entity of that sort. In 2022 it launched a new visual identiy. Responsible for the makeover are Birdh as the content strategists and 25AH as the graphic design agency. Both are based in Stockholm.

The main targets of the redesign were to create a coherent overall appeal, both digital and in the physical world, across a multitude of groups organized on a municipal level, and a fresh approach to a young target group. The resulting means of promotion should communicate in a clear, direct and genuine manner.

The design uses three dominant colors: (socialist) red, white and, interestingly, violet, the latter probably in order to avoid the more shallow plain black. As a fourth color, magenta is used in a few spots to highlight the sender of the message. Illustrative elements display an informal, casual style of drawing. The strongest element to shape the identity, however, is the display typeface: Media Sans in its normal width and bold weight. Lighter weights and Helvetica Now are used for subordinate parts and reading text.

Media Sans was designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée and published by Production Type. It is characterized by a mix of monolinear strokes and such with an extreme contrast that only shows when used in big sizes, and that provides the typeface with a certain crispness. It furthermore sports an extreme x-height (or extremely short ascenders and descenders, if you will). This makes it a very efficient choice for headlines and all sorts of activating typography, including political activism.