UK Parliament is the highest legislative body of Great Britain and the British Overseas Territories. It is considered one of the oldest in the world. The famous building of the British Parliament – the Palace of Westminster – is located in the center of London, on the banks of the River Thames. The British Parliament is bicameral and is divided into the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
The UK Parliament is the supreme legislative body that operates in the United Kingdom and the British Royal Territories (which include Bermuda, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, the Cayman Islands, and other lands).
The UK Parliament evolved from the first elected English Parliament, which was founded in 1265. Over several centuries this body has undergone some changes, but due to the conservatism of the British, it has retained many traditional features.
A distinctive feature of the UK Parliament is the principle called “Crown-in-Parliament”. According to this principle, the monarch of Great Britain is a member of Parliament and is the source of legislative power.
The UK Parliament is bicameral: in addition to the monarch, it consists of two bodies, the Upper House or House of Lords and the Lower House or House of Commons. Each chamber has a different composition, leadership, and power. But they share common privileges, such as freedom of speech in disputes or protection from arrest, except in specified cases.
At present, the term of the UK Parliament is five years. Before 1867, the death of the monarch meant the re-election of parliament, but now this rule does not apply, and parliament must function regardless of the change of the monarch.
What is UK Parliament?
UK Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the country, consisting of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It dates back to the 13th century and is one of the oldest parliaments in the world. Today, the UK Parliament considers and passes laws, approves the budget, and oversees the work of the government.
In terms of visual identity, it remains unknown, when the original logo was designed for the UK Parliament, but the symbols, which could be seen on it are a celebration of tradition and history, which stayed with the logo, after its recent redesign in 2018.
The original UK Parliament logo depicted an old-style heraldic drawing of the gates of a fortress, with the arched crown on top of it and two chains on the sides. The links of the chain were set in two geometric shapes — circles and rectangles. As for the crown, it has five peaks, two white were drawn as fleur-de-lys symbols, and the other three — were as crosses, which meant the unity between the king and the god. The vertical bars of the gates had arrows pointing down on their ends. The logo was set in plain black on a white background with no additional lettering or framing.
The UK Parliament logo was redesigned only in 2018, with the original emblem kept almost untouched. There were two important things done to the badge: firstly, its color palette was switched to smooth purple and white, even though the black version can still be used for some occasions; secondly, the emblem got smaller and is now placed on the left from the bold yet simple sans-serif lettering in the title case.
The stable and strict lettering from the primary logo of the UK Parliament is set in a traditional sans-serif typeface with simile distinctive shapes of the characters. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Malden Sans Medium, or FS Koopman Medium, with some minor modifications of the contours.
As for the color palette of the UK Parliament visual identity, it is based on a smooth yet dark shade of purple, which is a symbol of royalty and wisdom. This color looks very elegant and timeless, yet still sometimes can be switched to black.