Made in Luxembourg

Luxembourg is the smallest continental state in the European Union by area and population. Its political system is a constitutional monarchy – or a crowned democracy, if you will – headed by a Grand Duke.

With 620,000 inhabitants, half of them foreigners like me, the country is the very definition of a melting pot. The vast majority of residents are fluent in three languages, and the mastery of 5 languages is not at all unusual here.

There are other little-known facts about this country, but there’s one that’s particularly relevant to this blog:

Chronotron is Made in Luxembourg!

The badge Made in Luxembourg certifies the origin of a product or service. It was launched in 1984 and has today more than 1200 affiliates. Such is the pride of the local enterprises that you can verify the presence of this label all over here: on the box of your favorite local pastries, on the plumber’s truck, and so on.

Just like all these companies, Musys S.A., the publisher of Chronotron, went through an application process involving a visit to our registered office and an interview with the officials in charge, in addition to other formalities. As a result, starting from Release 168, Chronotron proudly displays the Made in Luxembourg label in its About pane. How cool is that?!

One thing neither the process nor its documentation went into, though, is describing the logo itself, which I think it’s pretty neat by the way. That’s why I thought it would be fun to attempt my own explanation of the label in this blog. After all, I already tried something similar before.

The Label Explained

The drawing is made of two uninterrupted lines, akin to a handwritten signature with only one pen lift. Remember that the goal of the label is to identify an origin, so making it look like an autograph makes perfect sense to me.

Luxembourg is routinely represented in the local iconography by a lion; however, this wouldn’t resonate with an international audience. A graphical representation of the monarchy, namely a crown, does seem to me like a better choice. Also, keeping it simple makes the logo easier to identify and remember.

I’d say that a lot of the designer’s attention went to the tip of the crown. Why just a circle and not something else, like a cross or even many circles? Hard to tell, but my guess is that the designer really wanted to keep the number of pen strokes to a minimum, preserving the signature motif. It also looks to me like the proportions of the crown were chosen to make the circle look as big as possible, presumably to convey the idea of “the cherry in the cake” – or more literally, “the jewel in the crown”.

Finally, the text Made in Luxembourg – which is part of the logo – gets the message through unambiguously.

Do you agree with my explanation? By the way, if you’re the original logo designer and you’re reading this in dismay, please feel free to raise your voice.

Have you international readers heard about Luxembourg before? Do you know other products featuring the label? Let me know in the comments below.

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Special thanks to the Chamber of Commerce staff (Ms. Stein, Ms. Kirsch, Ms. Rutledge), and to my editor Mr. Cronin.