Urban guerrilla graphic design

May 29th, 2011

Logo and insignia designs of European violent left-wing groups of the mid- to late-20th century. Five-pointed stars seem to have been mandatory.

Rote Armee Fraktion

Rote Armee Fraktion (aka the Baader-Meinhoff Gruppe, Germany, 1970-1998). Features a stylised Heckler & Koch MP5 machine gun.

Revolutionäre Zellen

Revolutionäre Zellen (Germany, 1973-1993). Curious typography.

PRP-BR

Partido Revolucionário do Proletariado -Brigadas Revolucionárias (PRP-BR, Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat – Revolutionary Brigades, Portugal, 1970-2002). The only ones without a five-pointed star.

GRAPO

Grupos de Resistencia Antifascista Primero de Octubre (GRAPO, First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups, Spain, 1975-2007). Nice colour scheme.

FP-25

Forças Populares 25 de Abril (FP-25, Popular Forces 25 April, Portugal, 1980-1987). Diagonal design similar to the flags of Tanzania and Namibia.

DHKP

Devrimci Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi (DHKP/C, Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, Turkey, 1978-present).

CCC

Cellules Communistes Combattantes (CCC, Communist Combatant Cells, Belgium, 1984-1986).

Brigate Rosse

Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades, Italy, 1967-1988). This insignia appears to be a digitised version of the banner that was shown in the famous photograph of Aldo Moro taken during his kidnapping and murder in 1978.

Action Directe

Action directe (Direct Action, France, 1979-1987).

November 17

Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri (17 N, Revolutionary Organization 17 November, Greece, 1975-2002). Similar to the flag of Vietnam.

The Estonian empire (work in progress)

May 15th, 2011

From a 2004 report about Estonia’s inventive requests for compensation for damages from Soviet occupation:

“Russia was no doubt particularly perturbed by Salo’s suggestion that it compensate Estonia some $104 billion in damages for the war and occupation, and that the best way to repay would be to hand over an entire Russian region such as Novosibirsk Oblast.”

It’d make for some interesting maps.

Goodbye Lenin

May 8th, 2011

The question of what to do with Lenin’s body is still something that can arouse impassioned debate in contemporary Russia. One indication of the depth of feeling involved is that the dominant political party, the Putin/Medvedev-aligned United Russia, has no definite policy on the question.

Rather, in a strange combination of historical reckoning and modern political campaigning, they have sought to turn the question into a carefully-curated online debate (complete with instant polling, Twitter feeds and Facebook link-sharing buttons) at GoodbyeLenin.ru.

There is an initial irony in the use of the title of a German film with an English name as the domain name for a website run by Russian nationalists about an ardently internationalist revolutionary. The site itself, however, keeps it simple. “Do you support the idea of burying the body of V.I. Lenin?” it asks, below the bear-and-flag logo of United Russia and a quote from party bigwig Vladimir Medina. Once you submit your vote, you can take a look at the results to date. At the moment, by a roughly-two-to-one ratio, the internet wants Lenin to be buried. If you feel like it, you can add your vote, too.

GoodbyeLenin.ru