Try Design built TEK Norge's tech identity on the unions' red
The name ICT had become a ceiling. For a member organisation representing more than 300 technology companies, "Information and Communications Technology" no longer described a sector now bound up with ethics, regulation and public debate, so Oslo studio Try Design was brought in to handle the renaming to TEK Norge and the identity built to carry it. The brief produced an identity engineered to run loud in public debate yet dial down for the rooms where the organisation lobbies, a flexibility that shapes every element that follows, from curly brackets lifted from code to a red more associated with trade unions than tech.
“There will be situations where it makes sense to tone things down. In my experience, it is generally easier to dial back something loud than the other way around. When you soften something bold, it still reads as the same brand. When you try to make something understated feel loud, the identity tends to fragment and lose visual consistency.”
Thor Erik Ramleth, designer at Try Design
Looking current without looking like the members
Norwegian interest organisations tend toward one recognisable register, and tech companies toward another. Try Design wanted neither. The naming was the first constraint: IKT Norge sounded dated in a sector defined by its pace, so the rename to TEK Norge had to do strategic work before any design began.
"The most challenging aspect in this case was the name itself, it sounded like something from the past," comments Thor Erik Ramleth. "TEK Norge's members are innovative technology companies, so it was important that they visually keep up with the pace. That does not mean looking like your members, that would have led us straight to gradients and serif fonts, but rather filling the identity with weight and associations to technology without becoming trendy and quickly dated."
Curly brackets, pulled straight from code
The brackets are the identity's central device. The wordmark is the primary logo, scaled to take up space and fill each surface rather than sit in a corner; the brackets work as a secondary symbol, placed more conventionally. They also do system work, framing TEK Norge's many initiatives and events so each resolves graphically in a consistent way, whether the identity is running loud or dialled down. The choice of curly brackets specifically comes from their job in code.
"Curly brackets have one core job in code: grouping things that belong together," Thor Erik explains. "TEK Norge works the same way, bringing the technology industry together and working toward shared goals. The other types of brackets don't have that same use, and are therefore less relevant."
A trade-union colour, redirected to tech
Red and blue reference Norway, but red is the identity's loudest lever — and the element most readily toned down when a setting calls for restraint. Red is a common choice among Norwegian interest organizations, yet its familiarity did not deter Try. Partly because red is rare in the tech sector, and partly because the studio holds that a colour's associations can be redirected rather than inherited.
“Red may not be the most common colour in the tech industry, but I see that as a strong argument for using it. We believe the associations people have with red can be recontextualized and seen in a new light.”
Thor Erik Ramleth, designer at Try Design
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