Danish National Police
- Client Danish National Police
- Project Visual Identity
- Year 2003-
Human Authority
Uniform means consistent and alike. Nowhere is this more important than in a police force, where the idea of common practices and shared values both functions as a promise to citizens of fair and
equal treatment - and serves as a source of pride and mutual support for officers in high-pressure situations.
The design programme for the Danish National Police was officially launched in 2004. Based on an in-depth analysis of the Danish Police's history, characteristics and positioning in comparison to
police forces abroad, e-Types redesigned and reinterpreted everything from uniforms to letterheads, even giving the Police's coat-of-arms a thorough update.
"Working with the Danish National Police was a bit of a dream"
says e-Types Managing Director Søren Skafte Overgaard.
"Designing the symbols of a body that is so important in society was special because the police spawns very different feelings depending on who you talk to. Internally, there are a lot of feelings connected to symbols and the history - as part of the process leading up to the design itself we both visited the historic police museums and the memorial for police officers killed during World War II, interviewed key people in the Danish police, and did a major review of the visual expression of police forces around the World".
He continues:
"What we arrived at was a conclusion with two main components: Firstly, that the Danish Police force seen overall is a very humane, democratically-oriented, soft-spoken, well-educated public body that has a high focus on tight integration with the rest of society and on performing a good job on transforming itself into a modern, technology-intensive force for good with a love of basic common sense and disdain for the militaristic and corrupt tendencies you see in some other police forces around the world.
Secondly, that the rising challenges of recent years with increased international and organized crime, threats of terrorism, and a shift to more violent and well-armed modes of operation puts increased stress on the police officers and accentuated the need for a visual identity that was uniform and could create a feeling of robustness and authority when need be".
Based on the core visual identity e-Types has developed a long range of elements to create a consistent and uniform expression for the Danish police forces:
Brand architecture and logotype system including all local departments of the Danish police as well as the centrally located functions under The Danish National Police
Design for stationary and template system which forms a central part of the police's day-to-day contact with citizens
Visual identity implementation on uniforms. The police's new uniform jacket was designed by Sidsel Kjøller Damkjær, Johan King & Mads Kjøller Damkjær in cooperation with the Danish National Police.
Visual identity implementation on patrol cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles (is being phased in gradually as vehicles are replaced. Completion expected in 2010).
Information design: e-Types developed a complete signage program for all police stations, the Danish National Police as well as the National Police Academy.
The web site of the Danish police has been developed by 1508 based on the core elements of the visual identity designed by e-Types
A long range of printed matter and communication projects have furthermore been carried out for different departments in the Danish national Police, among them information design projects on forms, employer branding for the department of ICT services a.o.
Design manual for the complete design system.
