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Branding Terror: The Logotypes and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations
Terrorist groups are no different from other organizations in their use of branding to promote their ideas and to distinguish themselves from groups that share similar aims. The branding they employ may contain complex systems of meaning and emotion; it conveys the group's beliefs and capabilities. Branding Terror is the first comprehensive survey of the visual identity of the world’s major terrorist organizations, from al-Qaeda and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to the Tamil Tigers. Each of the 60-plus entries contains a concise description of the group’s ideology, leadership, and modus operandi, and a brief timeline of events. The group’s branding — the symbolism, colors, and typography of its logo and flag — is then analyzed in detail. Branding Terror does not seek to make any political statements; rather, it offers insight into an understudied area of counter-intelligence, and provides an original and provocative source of inspiration for graphic designers.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 26, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 4, 2019
This book was on a very interesting topic, but lacked a depth of knowledge that would have made it more interesting. The flags could have easily grouped into “like designs” and then dissected as a whole as opposed to taking groups alphabetically. The books organization led to a significant amount of informational redundancy that make it a lackluster read.
November 20, 2019
What an amazing book. I adore it.
July 7, 2025
Branding Terror: The Logotypes and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations by Artur Beifuss and Francesco Trivini Bellini is a striking and provocative visual survey of how terrorist organizations use graphic design to craft identity and communicate ideology. The book features 65 groups from around the world, presenting their logos in crisp vector renderings, complete with Pantone color breakdowns, and offering concise histories and analyses of each symbol’s meaning and intent.
The authors, a former UN counter-terrorism analyst and a creative director, maintain a notably objective tone, dissecting the visual language of these marks without political or moral commentary. This clinical approach allows readers—especially graphic designers, historians, and those interested in counter-intelligence—to study the persuasive power of iconography in shaping group identity and public perception.
While the book’s detached analysis is both its strength and its weakness—some may find the aesthetic focus unsettling given the subject matter—it undeniably opens up a rarely examined aspect of contemporary geopolitics and visual culture. Branding Terror is an invaluable resource for understanding how design operates even in the most charged and clandestine arenas.
The authors, a former UN counter-terrorism analyst and a creative director, maintain a notably objective tone, dissecting the visual language of these marks without political or moral commentary. This clinical approach allows readers—especially graphic designers, historians, and those interested in counter-intelligence—to study the persuasive power of iconography in shaping group identity and public perception.
While the book’s detached analysis is both its strength and its weakness—some may find the aesthetic focus unsettling given the subject matter—it undeniably opens up a rarely examined aspect of contemporary geopolitics and visual culture. Branding Terror is an invaluable resource for understanding how design operates even in the most charged and clandestine arenas.
January 11, 2022
Sehr gutes Buch. Ich würde es jedem empfehlen, der sich für Grafik-Design und/oder Terror Organisationen interessiert. Die Logos der einzelnen Organisationen werden zerlegt und ihre Bedeutung gut erklärt. Das Buch kommt in einem schlichten Design mit hochwertigem Bund. Leider ist über den Autor Artur Beifuss recht wenig bekannt.
August 17, 2022
This is a catalogue of over 100 terrorist organization insignias with detail wireframes of the designs and the Pantone, CMYK and RGB codes for the color schemes.
Each one includes a brief history of the group, and most often? These insignias are for groups with 50 members or less which is kinda funny if you think about it.
Each one includes a brief history of the group, and most often? These insignias are for groups with 50 members or less which is kinda funny if you think about it.
November 25, 2018
An aesthetically oriented book both in form and content. The book itself looks and feels pretty despite the perhaps "ugly" "brands" it focuses on. An interesting and insightful read.
February 23, 2023
Really fascinating study into an aspect of terrorism that I feel like is very often overlooked. Enjoyed reading and feel like I've learned a lot
June 18, 2024
Pretty rad
August 25, 2025
Wonderful reference book. Some of the information and reference could use better research.
May 22, 2013
timely handbook for identification of terrorist groups
BRANDING TERROR - The Logotype and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations, by Artur Beifuss and Francesco Trivini Bellini, Foreword by Steven Heller. Merrell Publishers, merrellpublishers.com. 2013. 335 pages. $34.95. Hardcover 9" x 6" ISBN 978-1-8589-4601-6 color illustrations.
The Steven Heller doing the Foreword is the noted designer and design critic who as former art director at the N. Y. Times has written or co-authored over 100 books on design and popular culture. In the three-page Foreword, he briefly covers the purpose of logos in general, the grounds for critiquing the logos of the groups whose logos appear in the book (e. g., cliche, too many guns or eagles), and compares the logos to those of the Catholic Church, Coca-Cola, Apple, and other major established cultural presences.
Logotypes and iconography are intended not only as a means of communication--often in the simple terms of "sending a message"--and identity in the public and international sphere, but also as a means of internal, often secret or guarded identification, focus, and cohesion for members of a particular group.
Artur Beifuss is a counter-terrorist analyst for the United Nations. Francesco Bellini is a graphic designer involved in branding for companies and institutions. In Beifuss's Introduction, he notes the logos as a way of branding for a group. Beifuss also notes the book's purpose to help understand by a survey of the 64 logos collected mostly from open sources such as websites "why certain visual elements are preferred over others [and the] certain meanings, emotions, and values" attached to such elements.
The schema used for accomplishing the book's purpose is the same for each "logo". Under the heading of the respective group is its name in the script of its national language (many in Arabic) followed by the translation or approximation in English. Underneath this is a brief overview of the group, and underneath this a chronology of it major terrorist acts. The second page is a plain, black-and-white, drawing of the group's logotype with lines to notes pointing out its features above a chart breaking down the colors and associated pantone coding for each. The last, third, page is a full-color picture of the logotype with explanations of the meaning of its colors, elements, and symbols.
The book would be used by most as a reference to find out more about Middle East and other terrorist groups defined as groups using violence for political or ideological aims when specific or related groups were mentioned in the media, for example. Since many of the groups are similar, the details of each start to run together when used as a study text. However one regards this work, it has a distinctive, notable, self-evidently relevant and useful place in contemporary studies of the global terrorism.
BRANDING TERROR - The Logotype and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations, by Artur Beifuss and Francesco Trivini Bellini, Foreword by Steven Heller. Merrell Publishers, merrellpublishers.com. 2013. 335 pages. $34.95. Hardcover 9" x 6" ISBN 978-1-8589-4601-6 color illustrations.
The Steven Heller doing the Foreword is the noted designer and design critic who as former art director at the N. Y. Times has written or co-authored over 100 books on design and popular culture. In the three-page Foreword, he briefly covers the purpose of logos in general, the grounds for critiquing the logos of the groups whose logos appear in the book (e. g., cliche, too many guns or eagles), and compares the logos to those of the Catholic Church, Coca-Cola, Apple, and other major established cultural presences.
Logotypes and iconography are intended not only as a means of communication--often in the simple terms of "sending a message"--and identity in the public and international sphere, but also as a means of internal, often secret or guarded identification, focus, and cohesion for members of a particular group.
Artur Beifuss is a counter-terrorist analyst for the United Nations. Francesco Bellini is a graphic designer involved in branding for companies and institutions. In Beifuss's Introduction, he notes the logos as a way of branding for a group. Beifuss also notes the book's purpose to help understand by a survey of the 64 logos collected mostly from open sources such as websites "why certain visual elements are preferred over others [and the] certain meanings, emotions, and values" attached to such elements.
The schema used for accomplishing the book's purpose is the same for each "logo". Under the heading of the respective group is its name in the script of its national language (many in Arabic) followed by the translation or approximation in English. Underneath this is a brief overview of the group, and underneath this a chronology of it major terrorist acts. The second page is a plain, black-and-white, drawing of the group's logotype with lines to notes pointing out its features above a chart breaking down the colors and associated pantone coding for each. The last, third, page is a full-color picture of the logotype with explanations of the meaning of its colors, elements, and symbols.
The book would be used by most as a reference to find out more about Middle East and other terrorist groups defined as groups using violence for political or ideological aims when specific or related groups were mentioned in the media, for example. Since many of the groups are similar, the details of each start to run together when used as a study text. However one regards this work, it has a distinctive, notable, self-evidently relevant and useful place in contemporary studies of the global terrorism.
November 27, 2016
Nie recenzja, ale wywiad z autorem z www.krytykapolityczna.pl:
Dziś terroryści mają iPhone'y i nie wahają się ich użyć.
Dawid Krawczyk: Która terrorystyczna grupa na świecie ma najlepsze logo?
Artur Beifuss: Zawsze odpowiadam, że Hezbollah.
Żółte tło, a na nim kilka zielonych liter połączonych z karabinem, księgą, siedmiolistną gałązką i globem.
Te litery układają się w słowa „Partia Boga”, bo to właśnie po arabsku oznacza Hezbollah. Ale zapomniałeś o fragmencie Koranu nad tym głównym znakiem, a on jest kluczowy, bo to jest coś, co moglibyśmy nazwać obietnicą marki. Czytasz „partia Allaha musi zwyciężyć” i już wiesz, czego możesz się spodziewać.
Czytaj całość na: http://www.krytykapolityczna.pl/artyk...
Dziś terroryści mają iPhone'y i nie wahają się ich użyć.
Dawid Krawczyk: Która terrorystyczna grupa na świecie ma najlepsze logo?
Artur Beifuss: Zawsze odpowiadam, że Hezbollah.
Żółte tło, a na nim kilka zielonych liter połączonych z karabinem, księgą, siedmiolistną gałązką i globem.
Te litery układają się w słowa „Partia Boga”, bo to właśnie po arabsku oznacza Hezbollah. Ale zapomniałeś o fragmencie Koranu nad tym głównym znakiem, a on jest kluczowy, bo to jest coś, co moglibyśmy nazwać obietnicą marki. Czytasz „partia Allaha musi zwyciężyć” i już wiesz, czego możesz się spodziewać.
Czytaj całość na: http://www.krytykapolityczna.pl/artyk...
January 5, 2014
Despite the fact that this book focusing more to the recent group (I'm dying to know the meaning behind the awesome Symbionese Liberation Army logo), it still gives me an insight how the terrorist groups promote their idea through logo imagery.
May 16, 2014
Not so much a read as a small encyclopedia. It does have some introductory articles that are very well crafted though. The encyclopedic material isn't covering all angles, but for the purpose of the book it's pretty good. If you're interested in the subject it's a goldmine.
October 13, 2014
I would have enjoyed a more in-depth analysis of branding and ideology, but whatever, this is a nice coffee table book.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews