Anna Thurfjell Aftonbladet is Sweden and the Nordic countries largest breaking news brand.
It is also the oldest news brand, in Sweden, founded in 1830.
Heritage and history are key to Aftonbladet. The logo is the most important visual brand asset and it was a rare project to direct a refresh of such a known and iconic public brand.
The logo study showed a remarkable consistent typographic visual identity yet also that the visual brand and logo simply wasn’t powerful enough for the digital age.
I asked Christian Schwartz at Commercial Type if he could redraw the logo and logo
typeface. Commercial Type has built its reputation as one of the most respected type
foundries in the world and on the project he says:
“This is an evolution of the logo, looking back to its history to understand how to bring it forward. The craft has been improved, along with the function.”
As an experiment Schwartz and Greg Gazdowicz suggested building a variable font, which became an important part of our method and together we explored the typographic axes and design space.
Aftonbladet’s new logo is developed and designed with a holistic approach for a coherent logo for all products, across all touch points, sub brands and communication. An equally important media brand of Aftonbladet is Sportbladet, Sweden’s largest sport destination. Aftonbladet brand refresh launched in 2025.
The Aftonbladet logo and typeface is directed by Anna Thurfjell, Anna Thurfjell Studio and the logo and logo typeface design is developed and designed together with Christian Schwartz and Greg Gazdowicz, Commercial Type, 2024.