Swish is a Swedish mobile payment service launched in 2012 by a collaboration of major Swedish banks. The service’s visual identity centers on a symbol of two parallel lines rendered in rainbow colors, accompanied by the “Swish” wordmark. The primary logo is the vertical variant that includes the wordmark, per official brand guidelines.[1]
Design and History
According to Swish’s own 10-year anniversary retrospective, the two lines in the logo illustrate a sender and a receiver, reflecting the core function of the peer-to-peer payment service. The logo uses the colors of the rainbow to include all the brand colors of the various banks owning Swish.[2]
In 2019, Swish refreshed the logo and updated the app’s start view to more clearly show the different ways users can make a payment.[3]
Design agency Glauser Creative was later engaged to help Swish make its brand more distinct as the service expanded into in-store and e-commerce payments. The agency helped adjust the logo and brand to work better in digital environments, making the symbol more distinct so it could stand alone without the wordmark, and created new, more defined brand guidelines.[4]
In a subsequent project, Glauser Creative created new material for stores and online using a green gradient inspired by the app’s green payment success screen, together with the improved logotype. The green gradient was also applied to logo stickers to create recognition at the point of sale.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
Swish’s official account of the logo states that the two lines represent a sender and a receiver, directly visualizing the money transfer between two parties. The rainbow color palette was chosen to incorporate the individual brand colors of the banks that own Swish.[2]
Typography and Design
Swish’s official brand guidelines specify that the primary logo is the vertical variant with the wordmark, and that the wordmark should fit within the clear space around the logo. The guidelines also provide grayscale and black-and-white variants for monochrome use, and specify that when placed on an image or colored background, the logo should sit on a white or black plate.[1][6]
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