Ich wähle Europa
Contributed by Studio Helder on May 22nd, 2019. Artwork published in
April 2019
.
Source: ich-waehle.eu License: All Rights Reserved.
For the initiative Ich wähle Europa (“I choose Europe”) Helder designed a visual identity that shows its devotion for Europe. Larsseit is supported by a yellow line circling “Ich wähle Europa”. The script font Parkway Lush is used for the hashtag.
The website ich-waehle.eu features EU supporters from the German industry with their statement for voting for the EU. It’s possible for anyone to support the project by signing the manifest online.
Read more about the about the case on the agency’s website (in German)
Source: ich-waehle.eu License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: ich-waehle.eu License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: ich-waehle.eu License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: ich-waehle.eu License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: ich-waehle.eu License: All Rights Reserved.
7 Comments on “Ich wähle Europa”
As a non-German, it almost looks like the slogan (with a-umlaut) is something different than the hashtag (with ae). Is this a common solution in German-language designs?
I noticed that Parkway Lush has a very limited character set without an ä. But this would not be the reason for choosing ae over ä, or is it?
You are correct the use of ae is very unusual and it even irritated me as a german-speaking.
There might be technical considerations. I don’t know which channels this campaign is aiming for. Umlauts are fine in hashtags on Instagram and Twitter, but there might be others where they cause problems. I disagree that it’s very unusual; ä → ae is the standard decomposition and is used in many contexts where the character set is (or used to be) limited to ASCII, e.g. in web domains or e-mail addresses. German speakers see this all the time. For example, the URL of one of the major national newspapers is sueddeutsche.de (süddeutsche.de redirects to the non-umlaut version).
It’s also how e. g. any credit card will show names with umlauts. Still I have to agree that it looks awkward as the hashtag is used so prominently. Maybe they plan(ned) on this being a transnational campaign?
I am used to seeing/using ae or ue as a replacement for ä and ü in URL’s (and uppercase lettering on buildings). I think that I expected a German-language hashtag to use the most lazy solution possible – to simply use “#IchWahleEuropa”. When typing on a mobile device, it is probably equally easy or time consuming to type two glyphs or pick a diacritic. When choosing hashtags on Instagram for a name or word with diacritics, there are usually two hashtags to be found. One with diacritics and one without And more often than not, the one without diacritics has more uses. For instance, there’s Bayern-München player #ribery (183.425 uses) and his correct hashtag #ribéry (16.420 uses).
btw, the Instagram results for the EU vote hashtag so far:
#ichwahleeuropa → 0 (zero)
#ichwähleeuropa → 28
#ichwaehleeuropa → 16
Although not massively used, I guess this is a reliable answer, too.
That’s not an option. While an é without accent aigu still is an e, an umlaut without trema becomes a different vowel. Unlike the é in Ribéry, the umlaut is not just an accent, i.e. it doesn’t mark stress, but completely changes the sound – and the meaning. For example, Bär ≠ Bar (bear/bar), schön ≠ schon (beautiful/already), Süd ≠ Sud (south/brew) etc.