State Logos as Instruments of Power
The official logo of Indonesia’s 80th
Independence Day was launched on 23 July 2025 at the State Palace by
President Prabowo Subianto. It was the result of a national design competition
organized by the Indonesian Graphic Design Association (ADGI) and was
won by designer Bram Patria Yoshugi from the Jakarta-based studio Thinking*Room.
Visually, the logo features the number “80” in
red and white, accompanied by the tagline “United in Sovereignty, Prosperous
People, Advanced Indonesia.” According to the government, the design
represents the nation’s journey from unity to prosperity and toward national
progress.
Visual Guidelines and the Control of Meaning
A key focus of the article is the Official
Visual Identity Guidelines for the 80th Independence logo. These guidelines
strictly regulate how the logo may be displayed, modified, and combined with
other visual elements. The logo is described as having three defining
characteristics: bold, straightforward, and adaptive.
According to the author, these guidelines do
more than ensure design consistency. They function as a mechanism of meaning
control, encouraging the public to accept a single, state-approved
interpretation of the symbol. Alternative readings are implicitly discouraged.
Public Responses Through Memes
Rather than being passively accepted, the
launch of the logo sparked widespread reactions on social media. Internet users
began rotating, altering, and remixing the logo, transforming it into various memes
that circulated widely online.
Many users argued that the logo failed to
reflect Indonesia’s current social and political realities. Some compared its
shape to Keroppi, a frog character from Japanese popular culture, while
others combined it with the Jolly Roger symbol from the manga One
Piece, which had become associated with symbolic resistance during that
period.
Implications for Democracy and the Public
Sphere
The article highlights that state visual
symbols are inherently contested spaces. When governments use aesthetics to
construct legitimacy and project stability, society responds with alternative
interpretations shaped by lived realities.
For policymakers, this analysis serves as a
reminder that national symbols are never entirely neutral. In the
digital era, visual identities designed by the state will inevitably be
reinterpreted, challenged, and recontextualized by the public.
For educators and scholars, the article
underscores the importance of visual literacy and critical media studies in
understanding how design, politics, and culture intersect in contemporary
society.
Author Profile
Clara Victoria Padmasari, S.Ds., M.Ds. Lecturer and researcher at the Institut Informatika Indonesia (IKADO),
Surabaya, East Java.
Her academic expertise includes visual communication
design, visual culture studies, political aesthetics, and critical media
theory.
Source
Clara Victoria Padmasari. 80th Indonesian Independence Day: A Critical Analysis of the Aestheticization of Politics and the Politicization of Aesthetics by Walter Benjamin. Formosa Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol. 5 No. 1, hlm. 429–440. 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/fjas.v5i1.578
URL: https://srhformosapublisher.org/index.php/fjas
0 Komentar