A friend of mine today told me about an issue that bothered his dad, and that is the numerous versions of the Kuwait national symbol, so I came back and checked out what’s available online, and I was surprised!!

All the symbols have been found online, through the various government websites -

First, I will show the one which I believe is the official one, since I got it from our currency -

So, its a golden falcon with a flag logo under it, the wings expand and then four lines continue the circle (2 white and 2 gold). On the inside, there is a dow floating over 7 levels of waves with a white cloud behind the ship.

Most other symbols have all these factors but are not defined, either the cloud is wrong, the gold is yellow, the flag has different dimensions, the water is shallow or deeper, the lines after the wings are the wrong colors…..etc.

Ministry of Foreign affairs

Ministry of Information

Ministry of Planning

Ministry of Social Affairs

Ministry of Higher Education

Civil Services Commission

Ministry of Electricity and Water

Ministry of Education

State Audit Bureau

Council of Ministries

Ministry of Communications

Saving and Loans Bank

From Wikipedia

Im really surprised at the difference versions of the one symbol at all these government websites (except wikipedia)! The changes in different versions include -

  • NONE of the falcons have the same color
  • Some versions have the boat colored brown
  • The flag comes in different sizes
  • The lines making the circle are sometimes all white
  • So many special effects have been used such as shining symbols, fading colors in symbols, and the ministry of electricity and water has it in 3D!
  • The ministry of planning has a page where the ship in the logo is moving!!
  • The borders are sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes no border!
  • The logo isn’t really a circle at all in some of the symbols!

Those are the ones I notice while checking them out quickly, Im sure you guys can find many more mistakes!

Anyway, the point is ….. THIS IS EMBARASSING and unacceptable!

Any respectable company tries its best to keep its logo at a certain level of quality, because the logo is a reflection of the company and is the identity that people associate it with! Most respectable companies establish something called a “brand manual”, in it you will find the guidelines for using the logo anywhere, and it will give you the specifications for using the logo in certain sizes and specific colors and so on… just search “brand manual” online and you will find many excellent examples. These are three I found just by one search and they will give you an idea of what to expect (AMD, Joomla!, Kitchener).

All this can solved by hiring a decent agency to handle the logo and set the guidelines required for using the logo in any of the government websites!