How the world’s top designers would rebrand political parties

For a business to be successful in 2019, the brand is everything. From Coca-Cola to the Premier League, an impactful logo and consistent brand image can make or break a company – and dictate the performance of its products.

In politics, this is no different. Over the past 100 years, the importance of party branding has grown. As voter reach increases on social media platforms like Facebook, the power of how parties are portrayed is only getting stronger.

Concerns over how various political parties have responded to Brexit has had an impact on their brand image. Nearly one in two people in the UK (47%) think politics is working very poorly – says YouGov.

Political branding, once associated with reliability and trust, is affected by this negative perception. The visual identities of the UK’s top political parties need a clever reinterpretation.

Online print company Solopress is looking to do just that with its new Politics Rebranded campaign. Working with creative branding heavyweights, they’ve reinvented the visual identities of the six main UK parties – Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, SNP and Change UK.

They created new party logos, as well as business card designs, posters and other assets.

Simon Cooper, Managing Director of Solopress, said: “The current state of British politics inspired us to imagine how political parties could connect better with voters. Branding is so important to other big businesses and why should it be any different for political parties?”

He added: “While major brands sell products, parties are selling policies, both need to have a strong and coherent message and that begins with the branding.”

Phil Cleaver, Professor of the Creative Industries at Middlesex University, worked with Solopress on the project. He said: “In a crowded marketplace of brands, people place high value on perceived authenticity. Aligning your political message to appropriate visual communication helps to strengthen the credibility of your claims. Which, in turn, can hopefully lead to the trust of your voters.”

Radim Malinic, an award-winning freelance creative director, also worked on the campaign. He urged political parties to look to the football field. “Political parties should learn from household brands and mass-fan following sports like the Premier League,” he explained.

“This is where tribalism and sense of belonging come to real life…This is the field with a strong sense of identity. Even small teams have solid design systems where they can communicate clearly with their fan base.”

Solopress hopes its campaign will inspire today’s politicians to use design to reconnect with disillusioned voters. Explore the designs.

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