The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s lead agency on international development, working in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and protect the planet.[1] Its visual identity is built around a logo that combines the United Nations emblem with the letters “UNDP” (or “PNUD” in French and Spanish), locked together in a fixed-size relationship.[2]
Design and History
The UNDP logo was created by the New York design firm Chermayeff & Geismar (now Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv), which lists the UNDP identity among its projects.[3] The firm’s long-term client roster included the United Nations Development Programme alongside other major identity projects such as National Geographic, Chase Bank and the Smithsonian Museums.[4] The identity program was described as part of an overall repositioning strategy that gave UNDP stronger ties to the UN and provided a system accommodating alternate letter combinations of its initials in other languages.[5]
In December 2011, UNDP unveiled a new corporate tagline, “Empowered lives. Resilient nations,” which was integrated into the logo system and became a required element of the identity.[2] The brand manual revised in January 2014 established that the tagline must always appear with the logo, and that country offices should no longer place the country name beneath the logo, as that space was reserved for the new tagline.[2]
Only two versions of the logo exist: UNDP (English) and PNUD (French/Spanish). Each country office decides which version to use based on local circumstances.[2] The logo should always be reproduced from official artwork and must never be redrawn.[6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The UNDP logo is described in the organization’s own brand manual as a combination of the United Nations emblem and the letters “UNDP/PNUD.” The manual notes that the deep blue colour and solid rectangular shape make the logo strong and distinctive, and that it is designed for easy application across print and online materials.[2] The UN emblem and the UNDP letters appear in white in almost all uses.[6]
Typography and Design
The typeface family “Myriad Pro” was selected for the lettering of the logo and is also the typeface for all stationery and for headlines and titles on printed materials such as covers and posters.[2] When Myriad does not have the characters required for a local language, Arial or Helvetica may be used instead.[2]
Starting with the redesign of the UNDP website in 2017, a combination of two typeface families was introduced for digital use: “Proxima Nova” as the primary font for body text, and “Lora Bold” for titles and emphasized text.[6]
The official colour specification for UNDP blue is Pantone PMS 293, with four-colour process printing at C100 M57 Y0 K2, RGB at R0 G51 B153, and websafe hexadecimal #003399.[2]
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