Design

Madrid Adopts a Sleek, Less Shouty Logo

Adiós, exclamations.
Madrid's old Logo is on the left, its new one on the right.Ayuntamiento de Madrid

When it comes to city branding, Madrid’s new mayor has decided simpler is better. This week, Mayor Manuela Carmena’s administration unveiled a new logo for Spain’s capital, albeit one intended to be phased in only gradually on city signs, vehicles and stationery so as to avoid unnecessary extra costs.

Overall the new branding, designed by Estudio Ale Salerno and shown above (new to the right, old to the left), is plain and somewhat conservative—but altogether better than the previous version the city used, introduced in 2007. Just as before, the logo still focuses on Madrid’s coat of arms—a delightful image of a bear reaching up into a strawberry tree that’s been in use in the city since 1222. What’s gone, however, are the two huge exclamation points that used to bracket the city’s name, so large that they look alarmingly like baseball bats poised to beat the living daylights out of it.