Scottish National Party (SNP) Logo PNG
The SNP is Scotland’s largest political party, with a majority in the regional parliament. The party was formed in 1934 as a result of the merger of the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Party and first won a seat in the English Parliament only in 1945. Scottish National Party is a social democratic political party that advocates Scottish independence. Today the SNP members are more than 100 thousand people.
Meaning and history
The Scottish National Party is truly not just another political party in the country, but a symbol of Scotland’s desire for separation and independence from the UK. Separate organizations that sought the early separation of Edinburgh from Great Britain have always existed, but the national political party emerged only in 1934. However, in the early years of the party’s history, it was treated rather skeptically, and the real growth in popularity of the SNP began only in the 1960s. And in 1967, the SNP won the Scottish parliamentary elections for the first time, beating the Labor party.
In the twentieth century, the Scottish National Party was the only alternative to parties that demonstrated absolute support for the British government and its views, leading Scots to protest by voting for nationalists. However, unlike other countries with more radical nationalist parties, the peculiarities of nationalism in Scotland are the absence of discrimination against ethnic and confessional groups; and an emphasized peacemaking orientation.
Currently, the Scottish National Party has made a significant breakthrough, as it has been able to form a serious opposition to the mainstream parties. A special role in the development of the SNP was played by the factor of two referendums – on Scottish independence in 2014 and European integration in 2016. These referendums clearly demonstrated the SNP phenomenon.
In terms of visual identity, for decades the Scottish National Party has been using one graphical symbol, which for many might look like a ribbon drawn upside-down, but in fact, this element is a combination of two main symbols of Scotland, a thistle which is the national flower of the country and the Saint Andrew’s Cross, or a saltire, which can be found in the national Scottish flag.
1960 – 1964
The Scottish National Party logo, designed in 1960, featured a bold and brutal black-on-white composition with the laconic geometric emblem placed above a massive SNP abbreviation, written in a heavy geometric sans-serif terrace with softened angles and straight cuts of the bars.
1964 – 1980
The redesign of 1964 has kept the lettering part untouched, but significantly changed the style of the emblem, representing somewhat super elegant and smooth, compared to the previous version. The bottom part of the image was redrawn in a soft arched line, with a wide drop-like negative space in it.
1980 – 1995
In 1980 the contours of the emblem got slightly refined, with the loop getting a bit taller, however, it was not noticeable a lot. What was really noticeable was the lettering part. The brutal geometric abbreviation was replaced by a traditional sans-serif “SNP” written in medium-weight bars and looking very modest, creating a good balance with the graphical part of the logo.
1995 – 2015
The composition of the Scottish National Party logo was changed in 1995. The Wigan’s emblem was now placed on the right from an enlarged sand-serif lettering, written in extra-bold black bars with interesting shapes of the uppercase characters. The chosen Sense typeface looks very strong and confident, but at the same time adds playful uniqueness to the badge of the political party. This version of the badge stayed with SNP for almost twenty years.
2015 – Today
The redesign of 2015 has introduced an even more interesting font choice for the Scottish National Party logo. This time the designers applied a heavy and geometric typeface with a small detailing of the “N”, while the graphical part of the SNP logo remained untouched.
Font and color
The bold uppercase lettering from the primary logo of the Scottish National Party is executed in the Sensibility Black typeface, which is a modern geometric sans-serif font with a bit of cartoonish mood in its heavy characters.
As for the color palette of the Scottish National Party’s visual identity, for many decades the party has been using solely the black-and-white combination for its logos, as a symbol of stability, strength, and determination.
