Den Haag City marketing Logo launch

Indeed it was a spectacular ceremony:

The storm had passed. The rain had ceased. It remained cold and the air was full of stormy clouds. The moon showed up in 3/4 th mode. A podium was built over the pond in front of the The Hague City Museum. The scaffold had survived the Beaufort 10 force storm and not as many people as originally expected attended the ceremony.

Last edited by GJE on December 3, 2011 at 11:38 pm

There was a rap group. There was a pop group. There were several Aldermen explaining specific features of The Hague. There was a stand up comedian who complimented The Hague as the city of International Justice, and, being from New Zealand, the Dutch as the people who discovered New Zealand.

The Mayor explained that the logo was intended for marketing purposes only and not for the city board. He hinted that the logo referred to the Victory Boogie Woogie, the famous painting of Piet Mondriaan that is in the The Hague City Museum where the ceremony took place.

Then Anton, shy, but far from inhibited, explained that he had lived in the UK for 27 years before he choose The Hague as his favorite city to live in. He continued that he was not allowed to use the stork and that no foreigner ever would connect a stork with The Hague. In his view the logo had to be colorful and easily reproducible by a child. He added that indeed the line represents the dunes. The kite is there, even as the rudimentary spermatozoa.

Here is the logo: not the same as the version leaked to the press, but not so much different:

• Grey instead of white background;
• The word “Den Haag” (or do I read Len Laag?) in black rather than red;
• H is wider; and
• The red blot is less like a heart. On close inspection it seems to represent the topography of the city.

Okay, from now on one should refer to The Hague only as Den Haag, even if one doesn’t know how to pronounce it.

I am very afraid they missed the boat (or is it beat?…Den Haag used to The Beat City back in the 60ies). Why not take advantage of the fact that Anton is a famous photographer of Rock stars? How to connect Den Haag with this? Why not hint to the very effective slogan “The Hague, Royal City” or “The Hague, Royal City by the sea”?
(All photos gje)