Use basic elements

The basic elements of Helsinki’s visual identity include Helsinki logo, Helsinki Grotesk Pro font, Helsinki’s colour palette and surface-dividing wave motifs.
A large moveable LED light sign version exists of the Helsinki framed logo (Helsinki logo). It is used at events, for example. Photo: Jussi Eskola

Helsinki framed logo (Helsinki logo)

The Helsinki framed logo (Helsinki logo) consists of the word Helsinki that is surrounded by a frame shape derived from the City of Helsinki’s coat of arms. The logo has specific dimensions and arrangement rules, and it serves as Helsinki’s official logo. Helsinki logo has been registered as a trademark.  Download the originals here

Fonts

City of Helsinki has two official fonts in use. Helsinki Grotesk (Helsinki Grotesk Pro from 2025 onwards) is a paid font customised for Helsinki. And an alternative font is Arial, which is found in each work station. No other fonts or hand-written text-like illustrations are allowed.

These are the replacement fonts for the only exceptions: 

  • Arial: arabic and cyrillic texts (for example russian).
  • Noto Sans-font family: chinese, japanese and other language versions which cannot be written with the above fonts.

Colours

The colour palette of Helsinki’s visual identity consists of recognisable colours from the city’s urban landscape, such as Engel yellow, Metro orange and Bus blue. The total number of colours is 14. Other colours must not be used and new ones may not be created.

Wave motifs

The wave motifs, inspired by Helsinki’s coat of arms, are used to divide surfaces. A wave is a design in which an edge is formed by a repeated pattern. 

Layout

The layout process links the various elements of the visual identity together. Designers should consider the use of empty space, text hierarchy, combinations of font sizes, and coloured, photographic and illustrated surfaces in order to create a powerful visual appearance.