Considering the current political climate, I found this unflinching post fascinating, if not downright brave (especially with an open comment section). Design blog Ironic Sans (a terrific resource – named as one of PC Magazines top 100 undiscovered web sites) has taken a rather fearless look at terrorist organization logos and subjected them to some marketing litmus tests – “Does the logo successfully convey the organization’s message? Is it confusingly similar to another group’s logo? Does it exhibit excessive drop shadows, gradients, or use of whatever font is the Arabic equivalent of Papyrus?” Comments are pretty enlightening too – as designers (and some political wonks) discuss the various icons and symbols used by the baddies as well as who does, and doesn’t qualify as a legitimate terrorist organization. A notable logo that’s missing is the one for al-Qaeda, that, according to Wiki, looks something like this:
Hats off to Iconic Sans – posting controversial stuff like this is always ‘iffy’ – someone always interprets an investigation of these groups as being supportive (it’s not) – as they point out in their footnote disclaimer.
I just want to be clear that, although this entry focuses on a relatively trivial aspect of terror organizations, it is in no way intended to make light of terrorism. While my overview of terrorist logos is meant half-seriously as an examination of graphic design in a place we might not think to look, I don’t want to minimize the devastation these groups have wrought.
Ditto.
This is something that the Anti Defamation League also think is worth tracking – they’ve recently launched their searchable Terrorist Symbols Database, a more scholarly look at terrorist logos with the rationale:
Symbols serve several purposes for terrorist groups. Appearing on flags, communiqués, the Internet and as graffiti, they announce a group’s identity and purpose, deepen its sense of unity, appeal to the like-minded and frighten those to whom the group is opposed.
Not to be left out, the good guys have their own design – see our CIA Terror Buster logo post from a few days ago.
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