Graphic charter of government communication in France
Graphic charter of the logo of France
The graphic charter of government communication is the graphic charter used in France by government services. It was adopted in 1999 by the government of Lionel Jospin and revolves around a logo associating Marianne, the tricolor flag and the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (transl. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) to represent the French Republic. A redesign of this graphic charter was carried out in 2020.
History
François Mitterrand, when he was the President of the Republic, was offered by Jacques Séguéla the idea of a logo for state institutions. However, he had refused it, deeming it too publicity.[1]
In 1997, the Court of Auditors noted in a report that a “kaleidoscope of different symbols” existed in the publications of the administration.[2] Its author, Bernard Candiard, who then became director of the Government Information Service (SIG), launched within this organization the project of creating a logo with Nicole Civatte. The objective is to "create an identifier of the State which would clearly indicate that the State exists as a specific issuer: a place to be taken, an autonomous word to be affirmed", according to an internal document issued in March 1999 by GIS.
A call for tenders was launched in 1998, the first example of State outsourcing of its visual communication. The creation of the logo was entrusted to the Audour Soum agency (which then merged with the Hémisphère droit agency, a subsidiary of the Séguéla group), with Evelyn Soum as project manager. Designed by graphic designer Isabelle Bauret, the logo meets specifications drawn up "at the end of an investigation combining semiotic analysis, interviews with senior officials , as well as meetings with the general public". It is tested by Sofresto the public and government officials before being released.
Its adoption is nevertheless delicate in a context of cohabitation. Thus the President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac, consulted by the government in January 1999, hesitates at first to touch the integrity of the flag.
The graphic charter is finally introduced by circular no 4.694 / SG signed by the Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, on September 24, 1999.[3]
The circular no 5459 / SG signed by the Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, on April 8, 2010, changed the graphic charter for decentralized services.
The circular no 6144 / SG signed by the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, on February 17, 2020 simplified the graphic charter and made it more suitable for reading on a smartphone. According to the designer Valentin Socha, this choice responds to a desire to make the action of the State more readable and more visible, after the movement of yellow vests, the "complexity of the administrative organization" being one of the points that have emerged during the great national debate.
Protection
The first 1999 version of the logo constitutes a graphic mark that the SIG has registered with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) under number 7596745 and under the name “Liberté-Égalité-Fraternité République Française” as well as a Community trade mark.
In addition, since March 31, 2016, the logo is one of the emblems protected under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
On October 13, 2017, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the director of the INPI who had rejected the registration, by the association "Expressions de France", of a drawing representing a Republican Marianne seen in profile, on the grounds that 'it was contrary to public order: the Court ruled that there was a risk that the public might confuse it with the official logo.
First version of 1999
Description
The logo reminds the flag of the country in the form of an elongated rectangle containing the three colors blue, white, red, the white center part draws the profile of Marianne bypassed (within the meaning of blazon in heraldic ), that is - say looking to the right.
Under the rectangle is a typographic base containing:
- on a first line: the motto of the Republic, “Liberty • Equality • Fraternity”, in italics, with bullets as separations between the words;
- on a second line: the words “République Française”. The capital letter “French”, which does not comply with the rules for using capital letters, was probably introduced for prestige and to recall the monogram “RF”.
The two lines are separated by a rule.
| Color | CMYK | Pantone | Monochrome version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 100-80-0-0 | Pantone Reflex Blue | N 80 |
| Red | 0-100-100-0 | Pantone Red 032 | N 50 |
| Black | 0-0-0-100 | Black | N 100 |
Second version 2020
Description
From the first half of 2020, a new graphic charter, called “State brand”, produced by the “4uatre” branding agency, is applied. It incorporates the characteristic elements of its predecessor: Marianne in a French flag and the republican motto. Marianne's frame of view is loosened to reveal her shoulders, a new typography (named Marianne ) is created and the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité is redrawn by hand in italics and positioned below the official title . Thus, the mention "French Republic" ceases to be affixed systematically, simply symbolized by the flag and Marianne. Marianne block. The brand identity therefore consists of the following elements:
- the Marianne block, with Marianne in a tricolor;
- stricto sensu branding with:
- the official title (for example: “Government”, “Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition”, “French Republic”, etc. ), in Marianne Bold and on a maximum of six lines;
- the republican motto, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity , on three lines.
In this brand block, only the official name of the issuer is therefore likely to change, but always retaining the same typography.
Typography
The Marianne font was created for the State by Mathieu Réguer, commissioned by the agency “4uatre”. It is available in six fat levels (Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Extrabold). As a substitute for this typography, Arial can be used. In addition to Marianne, the Spectral font (created by the Parisian company Production Type for Google in 2017) is authorized for quotes, translations, etc.
Application
The new charter applies, in addition to State administrations (ministries, prefectures, embassies, etc.), to State operators. They will have to affix, in addition to their own logo, the “French Republic” brand block in order to clearly indicate to the public that they belong to the State.
According to the Prime Minister's services, the implementation of the new charter should not generate additional costs, the organizations concerned being supposed to dispose of their old stocks of letterhead .
Colors
The main colors of the charter are those of the French flag.
| France Blue | White | Marianne Red |
|---|---|---|
| #000091 | #FFFFFF | #E1000F |
Usage
The 1999 circular specifies that the graphic charter "is intended to be used in all of the ministries' relations with third parties, as well as with other services or bodies under the State". The logo can thus be found on letterheads, business cards, websites, forms, posters etc., published by the government and the administration. The graphic charter applies to ministerial cabinets and central administrations as well as to decentralized services in departments and regions, prefectures and embassies.
The other institutions of the Republic (Presidency of the Republic, National Assembly, Senate, Constitutional Council, Court of Cassation, Council of State, etc.) as well as independent administrative authorities and local authorities generally have their own graphic charter and do not use the government logo.
This logo is moreover a mark and not an official emblem: indeed article 2 of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic officially recognizes only the tricolor flag, the hymn La Marseillaise, and the motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
Criticism
For Bernard Candiard, who headed the SIG when the logo was created in 1999, it is a national symbol that endows the country with "a modest banner that allows us to come together". The website of the French Embassy in the United States explains that in addition to its goal of unifying government public relations, it was also created to give a more accessible image to the state, which was until present seen as abstract, distant and archaic; it was chosen to unite and mobilize, to offer security and optimism, without forgetting patriotic pride.
The logo brings together three symbols of France drawing their origins from the French Revolution (flag, Marianne, motto). In the same vein, Frédéric Lambert sees it inspired by La Liberté leading the people by Eugène Delacroix, dating from the revolution of 1830.
However, having been adopted within the framework of cohabitation, it is intended to be consensual, and therefore relates more to communication than to the emblem imbued with passion. For journalist Philippe-Jean Catinchi, the logo is so consensual that it has imposed itself "in serene indifference". According to Bernard Richard, it is too associated in the minds of the French with documents such as those of the tax administration (as Pierre Bonte , specialist of Marianne has pointed out ) or with traffic tickets notices, which prevents triggering the popular fervor that accompanies other emblems of France; it nevertheless underlines that it was adopted and recognized by the public, as evidenced by the viral success of the hijacking carried out in the aftermath of the attacks of November 13, 2015.
According to historian Maurice Agulhon, it is “more of an aesthetic of a postage stamp than of a logo”. There is indeed a similarity with the stamps representing Marianne. According to the Flags of the World website, the logo is a mix between the two aspects of Marianne described by Agulhon and taken up by Michel Pastoureau in Les Emblèmes de la France - wise and bourgeois on the one hand, rebellious and popular on the other.
In addition, the lack of cohesion between the logos of the different ministries was noted .
Diversions
Misappropriation of the logo by the “Ministry of Housing Crisis” (2007). On January 11, 2007, activists from several associations denouncing the inaction of the public authorities in the housing crisis , in particular Right to Housing, Black Thursday and Macaq, inaugurated a fake "Ministry of Housing Crisis" in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, in the corner of Place de la Bourse and rue de la Banque. On the facade of this “requisitioned” office building, was displayed a poster diverting the logo of the government, by adding a crowbar and a bunch of keys.
In 2013, in the documentary Too black to be French?, Isabelle Boni-Claverie diverts the logo by replacing the blue of the flag with black and by drawing a black Marianne.
After the attacks of November 13, 2015, graphic designers from the Les Cartons collective hijacked the government logo by adding a tear to the corner of Marianne's eye, in tribute to the victims. The visual was widely shared on social networks, and was displayed in Bordeaux on the facade of the Aquitaine regional council.
References
- ^ "Les carnets de Catherine Pégard, actualité Politique - Le Point". web.archive.org (in French). 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Amalou, Florence (13 March 1999). "Marianne fondue dans le tricolore, la marque France de Lionel Jospin" [Marianne in the tricolor, the French brand of Lionel Jospin] (PDF). Le Monde (in French).
- ^ Roussel, François-Gabriel (May 24, 2010). "Identité française et Identité de la France" (PDF), seminar of the Center for Comparative Studies in Political and Public Communication (CECCOPOP) (in French).
External links