This month marks the 35th anniversary of the introduction of the famous ABBA logotype (or logo).
The logo was the inspiration of designer Rune Söderqvist. He was a friend of photographer Ola Lager, who had taken the photos for the covers of ABBA’s Waterloo (1974) and ABBA (1975) albums. Söderqvist suggested to Lager that ABBA needed a proper logo, that what they had been using “looked awful”. Lager mentioned this to ABBA and manager Stig Anderson, who asked Söderqvist to submit his ideas for consideration.
Söderqvist’s design was Swedish style personified. Using the font News Graphic Bold, the idea was simple: to reverse the first B, so that the two Bs faced the As, representing the two couples in ABBA. It also matched the symmetry of the word ABBA.
Compared to logos of other bands in the 1970s (see Bee Gees, Carpenters, Chicago, etc) Söderqvist’s logo was clean and streamlined. Some critics say that it looks cold and industrial. But it is extremely effective and instantly recognisable. Apparently Benny was the only member of ABBA to show any particular interest when Söderqvist first presented the logo.
Söderqvist thus became the art designer for all of ABBA’s subsequent record sleeves, starting with the Polar version of the first Greatest Hits album, released in November 1975. Curiously the text on the back cover was the non-bold version of News Gothic, which hints that his logo design dates from the same period.
The logo first appeared on the ‘Dancing Queen’ single, released in August 1976, and all subsequent official ABBA record releases and merchandise. In 2008 music website Spinner.com listed the ABBA logo as number 13 in a list of the 25 best band logos.
Over the years the logo has been bastardised, with a plethora of other fonts used on merchandise and record covers, perhaps most galling on the original CD of ABBA Gold and signage for the ABBAWORLD touring exhibition. But the logo has endured and today can be seen on all official CD releases and merchandise authorised by Polar Music.
Like this:
Tags: ABBA, logo, logotype, Rune Söderqvist
24 July, 2011 at 02:31 |
Another glaring use of an incorrect ABBA logo: the Mamma Mia! logo, where it says “Based on the Songs of ABBA”. Imagine how many people know ABBA mainly through ABBA Gold and Mamma Mia! — the only ABBA logo these people have seen is an ugly rip-off.
24 July, 2011 at 13:22 |
Thanks for this great tribute, Ian! To add a bit of additional info, ABBA did a photo shoot with BRAVO photographer Wolfgang “Bubi” Heilemann in February 1976. One of the sessions had the band standing behind life-size “A”, “B”, “B” and “A” letters; according to Bubi’s recount of the event to the ABBA Intermezzo Fan Club, when Benny inadvertently turned his “B” 180 degrees for a portion of the photos, the spark of the idea was borne. ABBA actually asked the photographer for the seemingly unusable Polaroid shot and took it back to Sweden.
Rune recounted in the 1994 “Thank You ABBA” documentary, “I think I started working with the logo, I knew the photographer, we discussed it and I said they need a logo because they are getting so big all over the world. And I made that, and also in the same time, the first [cover] I made, ABBA – Arrival.”
For anyone interested, issues No. 56 and No. 60 of the ABBA Intermezzo International Fan Club magazine feature in-depth articles on the history of the ABBA logo (and typography in general on ABBA single and album covers), following the story from its 1976 origin through the “fake” versions during the early 90s revival and the present day. The author of this blog contributed to these articles with invaluable corrections, insights and additional info (thanks again, Ian!).
Back issues are available here:
http://www.abba-intermezzo.de/emag.htm
24 July, 2011 at 16:10 |
Was the reversed B part of the (original) design by Rune?
This year Bubi Heilemann was present on ABBA Day and if I remember correctly he said the reverse B happened during one of his photo shoots with the band.
24 July, 2011 at 21:00 |
It’s true that in that February 1976 photo session with Bubi Heilemann Benny holds the large B upside down, but which came first: that photo session or Rune Söderqvist’s logo design?
In that 1994 interview in the Thank You ABBA documentary Söderqvist would be talking about Ola Lager. In a video interview at the ABBAWORLD exhibition Rune mentions Lager by name when recounting the story of his idea that ABBA needed a “logotype” (his word).
I highly recommentd Maria’s article in Intermezzo magazine for anyone who is interested in the long and varied history of the ABBA logo.