Rubenerd

I caught myself reading Microsoft Bookshelf 96 on my Pentium tower again last week, like a gentleman. The random article of the day talked about Benelux, the customs and economic union between the Low Countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. I always thought it was a clever name.

Little did I realise that they have an official logo, which you should see below if your browser supports SVG. Are there any conteporary browsers that still don’t?

The dots on the left are an interesting stylised version of the geographic area, and the pallete has at least one colour from each member state. We’ve got:

• Belgium: 🇧🇪
• The Netherlands: 🇳🇱
• Luxembourg: 🇱🇺

I only noticed recently that red is the only colour they have in common, unless you count the Dutch royal blue and Luxembourgish cyan as simply blue. Da Ba De, Da Ba Di.

I reckon it’d look way more awesome typeset in Helvetica though! That said, wouldn’t that make more sense for the arrangement Switzerland has with Liechtenstein?

I’m also only but a typeography and logo enthusiast, but there’s something about a grid of dots that also looks decidedly European. I don’t know why.