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Good design, good journey Part 2
www.logohistories.com

Good design, good journey Part 2

A design competition to find a logo for Hovedstadsområdets Trafikselskab.

Richard Baird
Dec 6, 2022
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Good design, good journey Part 2
www.logohistories.com
Going and coming home with HT

Flick through the pages of Graphis or Novum Gebruachsgraphik in the 1960s and 70s and you’d be forgiven for thinking that open competitions were how logos were designed. Of course, I exaggerate, but only to bring to light how often, relative to today, this happened. These competitions make for interesting research materials as they present an opportunity to look at and understand how both design practitioners and sometimes the wider general public, without the connectivity of the internet, generated similar ideas.

The competition to find a logo for Hovedstadsområdets Trafikselskab (HT) provides an insight into how a group of people (designers and non-designers) sought to visualise transport and to symbolise a region. The following, taken from a Danish Design Council Case Book, reveals the recurring themes and motifs that emerged from the over 2000 submissions. Some of these are universal, such as arrows, letters and circles, others are idiosyncratic, unique to the region or history of HT. Others defy categorisation.

Scroll down to see some of the concepts and access a Dropbox link to view even more. Missed Part 1? Click here to read about the competition and the final design.

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