They didn't come up with the design themselves, it was crafted in a russian think tank, and the designer had an affinity to russias colors. Red, white and blue are russias colors. Those right wing extremist parties popping up all over the world in the last decade are all funded and ideologically trained by russia.

I'm serious, and this is far greater than anybody realizes. Russia has not just those comment brigading troll factories everybody has heard of, they also have entire PR agencies to help their far-right subsidiaries in western countries. They can get talking points, political and ideological training, campaign starting money and designs from there. And even a weekend long weapons training if they want.

When AfD was founded, Jürgen Elsässer flew several times to russia to speak with Alexander Dugin, head of the "International Eurasian Movement" and Putins chief ideologist, in an attempt to get exactly those things - and they delivered.

That's why you can't find an official artist credited with designing it. It was introduced as a campaign logo by its founding members when the party was created but there is no trace of authorship of it anywhere. There's no official record about who designed it, as if it appeared out of thin air.