Few things have stirred up more controversy lately than freedom. Don’t worry, I am not going to go on a political rant, stick with me here. We all know about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc., but have you ever thought about logo design in the context of freedom?

I was reading that camera production flourished under a communist government in the Soviet Union in the 1920’s. In a generic landscape where individuality wasn’t tolerated, a logo was much more (or maybe much less?) than a marketing tool. To have a logo is to have an identity, and that’s what makes the camera factory logos found in the Soviet Union so intriguing. According to Alfred Klomp,

“One of the consequences of the way the Soviet Union was structured is that factories were seen as integral parts of the state rather than as independent economic units. Factories therefore never profiled themselves, and always remained hidden behind the massive facade of trade firms and state export. Their products were given generic names like Zorki or Zenit, and the only way to connect the end products with their manufacturers was to look at their logos. They were the last glints of independence of otherwise generic factories.”

In addition to a great selection of camera reviews, and a nice collection of his photography, Alfred Klomp has collected and redrawn many of the logos that identified the camera factories of the communist Soviet Union. The logos are accompanied by a short history of each factory, and the models of cameras they produced. It is really fascinating stuff.

Although it may be a bit too optimistic to think that logo design could bring hope to an oppressed workforce, I think there is definitely some substance to that line of thought. Sometimes we forget that logo design is more than the execution of a marketing strategy. When a company’s logo is a source of pride to the workers of that company, great things can happen. More than an abstraction, a logo represents the people who rally under it. It is a source of pride, loyalty, identity, and in maybe even freedom.