Valencia's Regional Government Goes Blue — and Not Everyone Is Happy About It

Forty Years of Red — Replaced Overnight

For more than four decades, the visual identity of the Generalitat Valenciana — the regional government of the Valencia Community — was red. Through governments of every political colour, from the long years of PP rule to the socialist-led Consell of Ximo Puig, the institutional logo and branding remained consistently, reliably, red. It was one of those rare things in Spanish politics: a shared symbol that transcended party.

That has now changed. In a resolution dated 22 December 2025, the Directorate General of Institutional Promotion formally replaced the Generalitat's primary corporate colour with Pantone 293C — a strong, unmistakable blue officially named "Azul Senyera" (Senyera Blue) by the new identity manual. The blue is already visible on the government's website, its institutional social media accounts, and on the presidential lectern at the Palau de la Generalitat from which President Juanfran Pérez Llorca addresses the public.

The problem, according to critics, is that Pantone 293C is not just any blue. It is — closely enough to matter — the blue of the Partido Popular, the centre-right party currently governing both the Generalitat and the national government in Madrid.

What Has Actually Changed

The new corporate identity manual, designed by Daniel Nebot — the same designer who created the original Generalitat logo in 1984–85 and updated it in 2018 — introduces several changes:

• Blue becomes the primary institutional colour, replacing red as the dominant colour across all government logos, materials, applications, and signage. Red is not eliminated entirely — it remains officially recognised — but blue is now the first choice
• New finishing elements are introduced for high-level materials: varnish, dry embossing, and a silver version of the logo on blue backgrounds for Presidency-related folders and stationery
• The Roboto typeface is retained as the complementary font
• All government agencies, departments, and entities under the Generalitat are required to adopt the blue-first identity in all future materials

The new identity is already live. The presidential lectern, the official website, and institutional social media accounts have all been updated. The physical replacement of signage, vehicles, uniforms, and printed materials across the entire regional administration — accumulated since 1985 — is presumably underway, though the cost of the transition has not been disclosed.

The Official Justification

The Generalitat has framed the change in neutral, administrative language. The resolution states that the new identity aims to:

• Adapt to new governmental organisational structures
• Reflect the strategic priorities of the new Consell
• Accommodate new forms of relationship with citizens
• Ensure consistent, recognisable institutional identity
• Prevent graphic and symbolic confusion among citizens
• Provide legal certainty to administrative bodies
• Respect linguistic and cultural plurality

These are reasonable goals for any institutional rebrand. The controversy is not with the goals — it is with the colour chosen to achieve them.

The Political Problem: When Institutional Blue Looks Like Party Blue

The timing and colour choice have provoked significant criticism, and it is not hard to see why. The PP — whose party colour has always been blue — governs the Generalitat under President Pérez Llorca following its victory in the 2023 regional elections. The Generalitat now presents itself in blue. Coincidence? Critics are not convinced.

For the previous 40-plus years, through governments led by Eduardo Zaplana, Francisco Camps, Alberto Fabra (all PP) and Ximo Puig (PSPV — the Valencian Socialist party, whose colour is red), the institutional identity remained red. PP governments did not make it blue when they governed. Socialist governments did not change it either. The shared red was understood as belonging to the institution, not to any party.

By changing to blue now, critics argue the current PP government has broken that convention — using the machinery of public administration to display its party colours at public expense. The concern goes beyond aesthetics: if every change of government triggers an expensive rebranding of all public materials, vehicles, signs, and buildings, the cumulative cost to taxpayers across political cycles becomes significant.

Design commentators have pointed out that the change transforms what were "stable and shared institutional elements into temporary resources serving whoever governs" — a criticism that cuts to the heart of what institutional branding is supposed to do.

Design Experts Flag Quality Issues

Beyond the political controversy, design professionals who have reviewed the new corporate identity manual have raised some technical concerns:

• The manual emphasises the chromatic transition but lacks explicit rules forbidding improper applications of the logo
• It does not clearly specify which versions of the logo are mandatory across different contexts
• Standard protections found in robust institutional identity guidelines — rules against unauthorised colour variations, gradients, or symbol alterations — are absent or insufficiently detailed

These gaps matter for a government body whose logo appears across thousands of documents, websites, vehicles, and buildings produced by dozens of different agencies and departments. Without clear prohibitions, inconsistent application is likely.

Daniel Nebot: Four Decades of the Generalitat's Visual Identity

One constant across all the changes is the designer himself. Daniel Nebot created the original Generalitat Valenciana logo when the institution was being established in 1984–85, updated it in 2018, and now has designed this latest iteration. His association with the Generalitat's visual identity spans more than four decades — an unusual continuity in the often turbulent world of institutional design.

Nebot's longevity across multiple governments of opposing political colours makes his involvement in the blue rebrand particularly notable. He has served the institution under every president since the Generalitat's modern form was established.

What It Means for Daily Life in the Valencia Region

For residents of the Comunitat Valenciana — including the large expat communities along the Costa Blanca, in Alicante, Valencia city, and across the region — the practical impact of the rebrand is minimal day to day. Government services, offices, and documents will gradually shift to the new blue branding over time, but the administration itself operates exactly as before.

What the change does signal, however, is a willingness by the current Generalitat to use institutional decisions for symbolic political purposes — a tendency that has implications beyond logo colours for how the regional government presents itself and makes decisions affecting residents across the Valencia Community.

The undisclosed cost of replacing 40 years of accumulated red signage, materials, and branding across the entire regional administration is ultimately borne by taxpayers — and that figure, when it eventually emerges, may prove to be the most politically charged number in this story.

The new Generalitat Valenciana corporate identity was formalised by resolution of the Directorate General of Institutional Promotion, dated 22 December 2025. The article is based on reporting published March 23, 2026.