Dataforeningen simply translates as ‘data organisation’ from Norwegian to English, and funnily enough, that’s exactly what the organisation is. Operating nationwide across Norway serving people working in tech, it was looking for a new identity that reflected a shift in who and what it was, and its future aims.

Taking on this potentially tricky brief was Oslo-based Bielke & Yang (Norwegian Structure, Solrug, Taco República), which says that when it came on board, Dataforeningen was looking for a new brand that “better reflected their ambitions and their position within the Norwegian tech community”.

The agency continues, “The brief was to modernise the brand in a meaningful way – to create something lively that broke with the conventions of a ‘typical association,’ bring Norway’s tech community together, and speak to a new generation of technology enthusiasts.”

The strategic underpinnings of the new designs were informed by interviews with Dataforeningen members across Norway – and it was the history and diversity of the organisation and the people within it that went on to inform the core concept for the design work that followed: data culture. 

“By looking back at the shared cultural roots of technology, we reopened the door to the old computer room and rediscovered the playfulness, curiosity and joy for the craft that’s always been at the heart of this community,” Bielke & Yang explains.

That’s where this identity is so smart, and so joyful – it really conjures up the more utopian, human aims that were at the heart of the beginnings of the internet, and technology more generally.

There’s almost a sense of anarchic freedom to the whole thing; delighting in playing with a mixture of the serious, dextrous nature of data and the more wild, expansive possibilities of technology more broadly.

Reflecting this is the colour palette – multifarious and bold, ranging from letterbox red to a charming shade of purple, a bright blue and a more computer-ish shade of green-tinged yellow.

The use of gradients is a masterstroke in further underpinning this mixture of, as Bielke & Yang puts it, the “precision and personality, seriousness and play” that underpin “data culture”. These gradients also manage to transcend trends – so easily ‘in’, just as easily ‘out’, but here, just existing, all sweet and serene and knowingly intrinsic to internet ‘aesthetics’. 

Likewise the font choices here are all about that balancing act between fun and functional. Bielke & Yang has opted to use one serif and one sans, each acting as the perfect foil for the other. For the sans, the identity uses Onsite by London-based Sociotype; meanwhile the serif is the rather lovely PS Times by Seattle-based Parker Studio – which, as the name suggests, is a new and delightful take on Times New Roman.

What’s really interesting about this identity is that the brand world is so well done and fully formed that the logo almost doesn’t feel that important – it’s nice enough, but serves as a cog in a far larger, comprehensive machine.

However, it is of course worth discussing: much like the rest of the overarching look and feel of the new Dataforeningen, it’s a smart, wry play on merging millennial aesthetics and more timeless, future-facing brand nous.

Bielke & Yang describes the logo as “abstract enough to invite interpretation, but concrete enough to feel clear and recognisable for members across the country”. Taking the form of a  dynamic swirl and ‘D’ letterform shape, it manages to sidestep overt references to nostalgia (or indeed, ‘fauxstalgia’) and instead forms a robust anchoring device for the rest of the identity.

What works so well here is how relaxed everything feels, while also feeling demonstrably, recognisably ‘Dataforeningen’. It’s all very self aware in the subtle use of humour, which comes through even when you don’t speak Norwegian – the copy doesn’t matter so much as the overall vibe.

Everything is resolutely modern and flexible, but also slightly tongue in cheek in its references to the tech of yesteryear: design inspiration, according to Bielke & Yang, includes computer advertising from the 80s and 90s, as well as more “subtle cues”.

What’s lovely is how human it all feels – the art direction is superb here, blending more fashion-leaning editorial inspirations with images using a sea of wires and sort of server cross sections – a nerd’s paradise, if you will, making it all give that beautiful sense of anarchic utopia that computers and tech should, but frequently don’t, offer us.