What a gift! Just as I was about to start researching a boring article for lithchat about lustration, Labas.blog drops a pleasant piece about an online competition at Delfi to create Lithuania’s “vizitine kortele.” Labas.blog takes on the issues of limiting oneself to the trispalvė (as it’s a color scheme already very much in use throughout the Global South) and of emphasizing on ąžuolai and švyturiai as symbolic of the nation.

Delfi includes examples of tourist logos from other nations (the one for Spain has haunted me for years). This serves as a reminder that other countries have fared rather well without reincorporating their national flags into their logo. The Czech Republic's logo, for example, creates a world of multitude by having a five-colored palette of voice balloons. Brazil coyly addresses its own national unity through miscegenation in its overlapping puddles of different colors. In fact, with “BRASIL” in negative (i.e. white) space, it almost suggests that the state apparatus, which holds the nation together is cut out and removed from the cultural life of the nation. Or that whites run the state.

I’ve made my issues with the fetishization of geltona-žalia-raudona clear before, and I think I would almost reflexively support whatever logo manages to say something about “Lithuania! The Tourist Spot!” without resorting to those colors, though my issues are less related to Lithuanian exceptionalism (the underlying theme of the Labas.blog post) and more political: there’s something odd about adopting the color scheme of the definitionally exclusionary nation-state in order to create a logo that screams, “come from abroad and spend your money here!”

This being the case, of the options available, I think I like the third the most. “PAPRASTA - ŽALIA” read the two attributes assigned to the nation, and they are rather nice attributes, though “paprasta” can quickly become a source of mockery, and, well, Lithuania’s credentials as “green” are somewhat lacking, also. Still, it's something to strive for. Also, the logo reproduces amazingly well in monochrome and with a limited palette—both are crucial aspects of logo design for me (despite the multicolored monster I created for the next Pasaulio lietuvių jaunimo kongresas). Furthermore, the tree itself recreates the patterns we're used to seeing on juostos or žiurstai or whatever, without being species specifc (an oak tree) to the point of making a useless claim for exceptionalism. In fact, going over the logos again, it's a no-brainer.

Of the others, the next one that strikes me aesthetically the best is the ninth, the lighthouse with “Atrask mane” underneath. Unfortunately, the logo ends up being an ad for sex tourism, with the lighthouse now a comely young woman with ribbons in her hair. I’ve been sniffing covert sex tourism in advertising for Lithuania for years now, and it seems like the designers of the logo could have been a bit smarter about that. I can’t look at that logo now and imagine anything other than pouring out of Brodvėjus at 4am and playing a game of hide-n-seek as the girl steps of a curb. Atrasiu... Atrasiu, nesirūpink... 

Three of the logos incorporate a lot of blue, though they all, also, still incorporate the trispalvė, making t-shirt printing more expensive (that being one of the reasons a good monochrome logo is best). One has three psuedopods escaping either from a whirlpool (is that Moscow? Kaliningrad? the EU?). That blue spiral can also be a giant fingerprint, suggesting a laughable commitment to a totalitarian state. Lithuania may be unique like a fingerprint (whatever that means), but the idea of fingerprinting all tourists is one I think the US has monopoly claim to. The next logo I simply fail to understand. Are those foam noodles floating in the Nemunas? If your logo looks like spaghetti, you may need to reconsider. The last blue logo, calling Lithuania “refreshing,” serves as an ad for a bottled water company, from perhaps 1988. There's something disturbing about having a huge point of impact in your logo, as though the tourist has to choose which path he or she will take. That strikes me as too stressful. Also, I can’t stop thinking about cocaine when I see that logo, for some reason. (Is coke refreshing? Diet Coke Plus certainly is...)

The other logos strike me as generally amateurish, but they are still there for you to check out to your heart’s content. Delfi does not give the vote results after your vote (yes, I voted for Nr. 3). But what would your logo look like? I think that, all told, mine might look essentially exactly like Nr. 3, though probably a bit more obviously like a pattern from a juosta and a bit less like a logo on the back of a carton of Tropicana.