The project is an article illustrating the power that the graphic designer wields when adapting a brand with a rich cultural background to another language, since even small design choices can have a big influence on the “translation” of the brand’s visual identity.

The logo of Carlsberg, the Danish brewing company, is one of the world’s most recognizable logos. In film, it has appeared in Friends, in Sex & the City, on a noticeably placed truck in Spider-Man (2002), and as early as in Goldfinger (1964), where a beer can is casually placed upside down inside James Bond’s hotel room

fridge. In Denmark, it is ubiquitous in commercials, in Copenhagen pubs, and around everything football. Carlsberg recently launched a campaign, titled “The

Danish Way”, that heavily emphasises traits of Danish culture: the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, pondering the secrets to the happiness of the Danes, strolling down old Danish streets, on an old Danish bicycle.

How could such a culture-steeped logo be “translated” into a foreign language like, say, Arabic?

The artistic choices become deeper than expected because they plunge into questions of culture and aesthetic traditions – and perhaps even politics. Naturally, work processes are rarely straight lines from start to finish, and this article is indeed guilty of the literary trickery of straightening out this long and winding road. Still, we hope that the designer in you will consider setting out on a journey across borders. We hope to inspire ideas and thoughts that may be applicable to new cross-cultural design solutions, regardless of your destination.

This project is not made on behalf of Carlsberg. It simply uses their iconic design as a case study and as a starting point. Our thanks and gratitude goes to Statens Kunstfond for supporting this project.