LIBERAL ALLIANCE
Rebranded Merchandise
Whilst I worked for Mikael Jensen (see previous two pages), we worked together on redesigning Liberal Alliance's merchandise collection.
*Side note: Mikael is currently (2023) in the process of redesigning the merchandise for his own party, Dansk Folkeparti. It's because of this rebranding of DF, along with collaborating with the party leader, Morten Messerschmidt, that Mikael has recognised that the other Danish political parties could do with a little modernising or a new 'face-lift' if you will, too.
New LA Merchandise
Since I only worked alongside Mikael for a short period of time, we didn't design a whole new collection, but instead some new t-shirt designs and a few mug/coffee cup designs. We focused on these two products, as they are likely to be more suited to Liberal Alliance's largest targeted demographic: young voters.
The younger generation in Denmark like Liberal Alliance because they are seen as an idealistic and forward-thinking party and are a party that wants to implement lower tax rates, which is ideal (mind the pun), since Denmark has some of the highest consumer rates per capita in Europe.
Lower taxes mean more money to spend.
The first part of the process - what type of products do I want to work with?
I chose a white mug/coffee cup and a simple cotton round neckline t-shirt in black and white, so I could play with different colourway’s in regards to the designs and t-shirt graphics.
LA Party Leader
ALEX VANOPSLAGH
Alex Vanopslagh is a French born Danish politician. At only age 32 (17th Oct 2023), he is officially the youngest Party Leader in Folketinget (Danish Parliament).
Growing up in both Struer and Herning, Alex is a 'vest jysk' boy at heart. As a young lad, Alex was a member of FC Midtjylland's Ultra group, thus giving him a reputation as a bit of a 'lad'. Not at all to be seen as a bad thing, this ultimately makes Alex a lot more relatable rather than having the more 'typical' politician background.
Liberal Alliance have been growing in popularity ever since Alex came to power as Party Leader back in 2019. In the 2022 Danish General Election, Liberal Alliance received their best results to date, gaining 10 new seats to add to their existing 4, making it the joint 5th largest party in the Danish Parliament; there are 16 parties in total.
There are many factors as to why Alex is so popular with the Danish people, in particular the young voters of today.
One, as it’s easy to see, he’s easy on the eye and has a knack for flirting with the camera. (see above)
Two, as mentioned before, he's a young man with a normal background, making him a very relatable, regular guy that 'people can trust and rely on'.
Three, as Alex and his party, Liberal Alliance, were campaigning for the 2022 Danish General Election, they took to social media to promote their campaigns to their young voters. This led to Alex being called "The King of TikTok", as well as being referred to on TikTok by the younger female voters as ‘Daddy Vanopslagh’.
The second part of the process - when using a photo of Alex, do I use the original or create my own version of the image?
Using an original photo of Alex on the products is fine and would work in principle, but often the image quality (pixels) is ruined during the printing process. Plus, with regards to creating a product that the younger LA voters would want to buy, the imagery should preferably be stylized in an artistic and modern way.
Below are all the variations of Alex that I created. Starting with the original photo's, to my final creations.
*Side note: all photos of Alex are downloaded, free of copyright, from Liberal Alliance's website under their ‘Press Material’ page.
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The third part of the process - when I’m not using imagery of Alex, what do I use instead?
Party Leader Alex Vanopslagh is the main selling point for Liberal Alliance. Perhaps not for the original or older supporters and members of the party, but definitely for the younger voters and potential new voters. Because of this, it’s important that if we aren’t using actual photo’s of Alex, we find some other way of representing him on the merchandise designs.
Below are some of the different representations’s of Alex, that I’ve created. Some are re-works of the images above, some are new designs, as well as text I created for the t-shirts, inspired by Liberal Alliance’s existing “Frihed” collection.
*Side note: all logo’s are downloaded, free of copyright, from Liberal Alliance’s website under their ‘Press Material’ page. The text used in all of the designs, uses the same font, if not a very similar one, as the official one Liberal Alliance use in all of their designs.
