Logo is new, insists Prime Minister

On 29 January 2008 NRC Handelsblad reported that Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende contradicts the criticism that the Cabinet has improperly paid 60,000 Euros for a new logo for the Dutch National Government. It is true that Studio Dumbar turned up with a logo already in use by the Ministry of General Affairs, but according to Balkenende the government is not only paying for the image.

The new logo will also appear in the corporate identity for all ministries and other government agencies, according to the Prime Minister, who answered questions from the Socialist Party in Parliament on Tuesday.

“Furthermore we need to observe that the logo as such is not an existing logo. The chosen logo is a stylization of the national coat of arms”, said the Prime Minister. He acknowledges that the same stylization is already used by his own ministry, but nevertheless he contradicts that it is therefore an existing logo.

(On an unrelated note: the corperate identy of the Socialist Party awarded in 2006 was designed by Thonik.)

Hans Stol, 29. Jan. 08