NDP Logos, Past and Present Reviewed (Part 2)

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New era, same mess.

In celebration of National Day, let us look back the past logos of each NDP and see how far Singapore design has (hopefully) progressed over the years. 

 In part 1 of this series, we explored the NDP logos from 1998 to 2007. Now, let's look at the NDP logos from 2008 up till this year's. 

2008: Celebrating the Singapore Spirit

The brief probably mentioned budget cuts so the designer landed up using stock silhouettes and attached stars to their raised hands. The girl on the far left needs to see a doctor ASAP - her legs are bending weirdly! 

 I wonder why the stars aren't aligned. From afar, the stars look fine but as I continue to examine the logo, the seemingly random star locations serve no purpose other than to piss OCD people off. To be nitpicky, the stars' tails are different from each other (some are wider than others). It seems more like a design mistake rather than an intentional detail.

 Thankfully, the designer did a great job in finding a suitable font to match the graphic. The tall slab serif font for 'NDP 08' gels well with the tall graphic. 

 Cringe Factor: 5/10 - Too much red resulted in an aggressive looking logo. Gradient didn't help either.

2009: Come Together - Reaching Out, Reaching Up

While the idea is by no means original or exciting, the designer managed to execute it beautifully. The star fingers remind me of 2004's logo - in fact, the colours are almost the same except for using light blue here instead of dark blue and red instead of yellow. It's a subtle throwback which I'm glad I spotted. 

 The theme, however, is ridiculously long. I would not put the 2nd part of the theme in the logo because it adds unnecessary clutter and to be honest, what does 'reaching out' even mean? It's NDP, not a charity. 

 Cringe Factor: 4/10

2010: Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag

This is by far the best NDP logo yet. The font is pure eye candy, from the weights used to the kerning. It fits perfectly with the 5 stars arising - a simple yet sophisticated element in the logo with gives it a premium and classy feel. I love it! 

 The stars' tails could probably be cleaner (why are there 2 dark black lines) but this is probably as good as NDP logos can get, so no complaints here. 

 Come 2018, I hope that the logo can be of the same standard as this or even better. NDP designers take note!

 Cringe Factor: 1/10

2011: Majulah! The Singapore Spirit

If you have been paying close attention to the repetition of stars in NDP logos, you'd notice that this was the 5th consecutive year where stars were used in NDP logos. The 5 stars are the easiest symbols representing Singapore, which is no wonder why so many designers choose to feature them in NDP logos. Still though, 5 logos in a row?

 2011 gave red a rest and instead opted for orange-y tones, a smart move as using red might make the logo look rather communist (see 2008). 

 Take away the words and you have an Olympic logo, so I guess the logo looks professional but does not feel localised enough. 

 Cringe Factor: 3/10

2012: Loving Singapore, Our Home

2012 finally got rid of the stars, and in place of that we get our national flower, the heart orchid. You can see a purple 47 at the bottom of the orchid to represent SG47. The flower petals forming a heart is quite a cringe-y thing to do, but the idea of using the national flower as the logo is still commendable.

 I don't understand why the font looked like this - I'm all for unique fonts but this unpredictable and rather fragile font seems to be sending the wrong message about 'our home'.

 Cringe Factor: 5/10

2013: Many Stories, One Singapore

1 heart is not enough, how about 2? Not sure why the designer chose these rather dull colours, because they do not go well together at all. For example, why are darker shades larger than brighter ones (purple instead of yellow)? 

 Lots of sketchy positioning of elements such as the heart's location, the words 'NDP 2013' and the slogan relative to the logo graphic. "NDP 2013" is clearly not in the middle of the heart and the slogan looks displaced. 

Cringe Factor: 6/10

2014: Our People, Our Home

NDP 2014 went with a very casual and comic-inspired look. The font, the red and white glow, the blue stars and red hearts...think Powerpuff girls meets VR Man.

 I like the 3 durians/fireworks/explosions because it makes the logo lively and unique. I'm guessing this was what 2013's logo wanted to achieve but failed because they used a wrong colour combination.

 Though not very fitting for an event which consists of military action, it is a praise-wrothy attempt at breaking away from the standard NDP logo formula of using hearts and stars as main logo elements.

 Cringe Factor: 3/10


2015: Majulah Singapura (Our Golden Jubilee)

When SG50 came, I was eagerly awaiting to see what the NDP logo of the year would look like. 


 I was disappointed - I actually thought that the logo was simply an NDP pattern (Singapore flags are so commonly used in NDP as design fillers), not a logo. Guess nothing says SG50 like the actual flag of Singapore. I'm genuinely surprised there wasn't an SG50 sticker on the logo. 

 Come to think of it, since the SG50 logo was used so regularly that year, the NDP logo should have used a variation of it. This NDP logo had no connection to SG50 other than the words 'our golden jubilee'. What a wasted opportunity.

 What's up with the alignment here? the S in Singapore clearly sticks out and the tracking (vertical space between the lines of words) is claustrophobic. 

 Furthermore, the flag looks super awkward. I could see that the end of the flag was supposed to be a clean extension of Singapura's A slant, but in order for them to do it, they had to angle the flag in such a weird way. Why??

 Cringe Factor: 5/10 It's SG50 but we are using the design style of SG25.

2016: Building Our Singapore of Tomorrow

NDP trying to be trendy again by using fonts of the season. Since 2015, handwriting fonts have gained massive popularity due to photo editing apps. Soon, everyone started using these girly fonts, regardless of context. This is one such example - I remember a Facebook comment saying how 'skinny' and 'weak' the 51 looks and I agree. Just because a certain type of font is popular doesn't mean that it automatically fits in any situation. Same thing goes for the slogan's font, Edo SZ. It became so popular that even musicians are using it such as Little Mix.

Are the 5 stars really needed? Nope. You probably would not even notice it unless I pointed out the detail. 

 Cringe Factor: 6/10

2017: #OneNationTogether

I have a full post dedicated to this year's logo here. In short, I talk about how hip NDP is trying to be by using the hashtag and justifying it by providing 2 reasons, which seem believable but still doesn't change the fact that NDP is trying to be hip. Good try though, it worked, sorta.

 Cringe Factor: 3/10

Are we really Singaporeans?

I think about what it means to be a patriotic Singaporean every 9th August. Technology has brought different people from different countries closer together, and cultures are starting to become more homogeneous as societies progress. If people from my generation find events like these boring and label them as propaganda, I wonder how NDP 100 would look like - probably much different from the current expensive display of fireworks which shows 'taxpayers' money flying away' to quote a FB user!

 This might sound corny but I see myself as a global citizen. The way of life is almost the same in any 1st world country city. Unique quirks do exist from city to city but in the next few generations, it may disappear without anyone knowing. When this really happens, how can we differentiate ourselves as Singaporeans? Rather than being a citizen of the country, try thinking about being a citizen of the world you live in. I think this is inevitable due to the advancement of technology and rapid globalisation.

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