A simple multi-lingual sign in Brussels
Our first example is not going to win any design awards, but I’ve picked it because it highlights some of the basic interesting points to consider in multi-lingual design.
It’s a small sign on the main door of a major Belgian department store in Brussels which most shoppers probably don’t even register consciously. It uses four languages; French, Dutch, German and English respectively. And here it is.
Using four languages is slightly unusual here as most signs in Brussels are bi-lingual (Dutch / French), but the most interesting feature of this sign is that they have used flags to indicate which section of text relates to which language. This is probably because the text of the sign is translated into four languages and the use of non-text elements helps the reader to quickly identify which section of the sign is “their” bit.
But we often see flags used on bi-lingual and multi-lingual Web sites to help a reader pick the language in which they want to use the Web site so it’s not an unusual design technique.
What is particularly interesting about the use of flags in this instance is the way the creator of the sign has used the Belgian flag.
More often than not though, when indicating the use of the French language by a flag, the French flag will be used, and when indicating the use of Dutch, the flag of the Netherlands will be used. But that is not the case in this example.
- First we have a Belgian flag next to the French text.
- Next we have a Belgian flag next to the Dutch text.
- Then we have the German flag next to some German text.
- And finally, we have the UK flag next to some English text.
So the Belgian flag has been used in this context (correctly, I think) to quickly sign-post the reader to the French and Dutch language parts of the sign.
But German is also an official language of Belgium? So why wasn’t the Belgian flag used next to the German text? It’s probably purely a question of numbers. Belgium’s German speaking community is fairly small and is situated next to the German / Luxembourg border. Brussels is of course a very international city, home of many European institutions and the headquarters of many multi-national companies so the majority of people visiting this shop that use German as their mother tongue are probably German.
Using the UK flag to indicate the English language section makes sense as although English is the official language of a number of countries, the UK is the home of English and therefore the default option where there is ambiguity over someone’s nationality.
Language Order and Copy Length
There are a couple of things to note about language order as well. Expressing the same content is different languages will often mean that the same phrases will be a different length in each of the languages. That’s not really a problem in this instance as the message is short and the height of each message is actually determined by the flag icon.
But different lengths of text will affect the overall aesthetic of a design. So language order could simply be determined by what the designer thinks looks best. In this instance (by chance) the languages are arranged by the length of the text, the longest being the French and the shortest, the English, mainly because they have used the phrase “24 hours a day” rather than “permanent surveillance”. But when it comes to designing products in multiple languages you also have to take political and cultural considerations into account.
So although Dutch is the most widely spoken mother tongue language in Belgium, in Brussels, French is more widely spoken. So French comes before Dutch in this example.
So why does German come before English? I think in this case it’s not about the number of mother tongue speakers. I think three things are happening in this choice. I think that because German is also an official language of Belgium then it takes precedence over English. I think the fact that the German and Belgian flags share the same colours makes the flow of the flags more aesthetically pleasing and finally the length of the text for each language is by coincidence nicely in order.
That’s a lot to cram into a sign the size of a wallet that most people will never register as they go through the door, jostling the weekend crowds, but it shows how simple everyday things in multi-lingual environments have an added layer of complexity.
If you have any thoughts on the process behind making this sign or are involved in similar work feel free to leave comments below.
