Hasta La Ideas

This week, the site New Police: The Changes That Have Been Expected launched, describing a massive overhaul in how Russia’s entire police force will look after a major rebranding effort. Utilizing the three colors of the Russian flag and set to an appealing barber pole/candy cane-esque shape that can also be converted into a sort of military chevron (and looks just as nice), a number of people and sites picked up on the page and reported it as something the government definitely had planned. The only issue is that “definite” part (and also that they’d “planned” any of this). Granted, one need only click on the “Information” link at the bottom of the site to read that the whole thing was simply a proposed concept by the Moscow-based design firm, Smart Heart (also linked at the bottom). However, we prefer the extra step Design Week took, getting in touch with the firm to find out how it all came to be. Turns out it began as both an exercise to design a large-scale re-branding effort (everything from crime scene tape to motorcycle wraps), as well as a political effort to try and change the perception of the Russian police force. However, despite having started out as something of a test, DW reports that Smart Heart is actually now in real talks with the police, “to see if the work could be taken forward.” So who knows, maybe Russia soon will have the nicest law enforcement branding around.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.