ALDI and Haskell logos

For the past year or so I’ve bought many of my grocery staples at ALDI. I love the efficiency of the place – one might even say it approaches elegance in its simplicity, purity, and predictability. Not unlike the programming language Haskell, which I’m reminded of each time I visit. Here’s the ALDI logo:

And the Haskell logo:

The Haskell logo combines the monadic bind operator >>= with the lambda λ from lambda calculus. ALDI of course is just a stylized section of the letter A. In addition to sharing some of the same angles, the “ribboned” or “layered” aesthetic jumps out immediately. And though the color palettes are distinct, they share a boldness that’s often absent in the modern era.

The Haskell logo was adopted in early 2009 following a community-driven competition to modernize the language’s branding. The ALDI logo above rolled out in 2017:

the company described [the new logo] as a “contemporary and future-oriented” interpretation of its current logo

I guess the future is indeed functional, if even grocers can see it…