I recommend reading my explanation of the principles of flag design before this page.
I’ve taken some national flags from around the world and redesigned them. These designs are intended to help the flags be simpler, more recognizable, or more accurately reflect the countries history.
#1 – Brazil
The original Brazil flag features a green field (background colour) with a yellow diamond shape over top, and in the diamond is a blue circle which contains 9 constellations. Over top of the circle is a banner that says ‘Ordem e Progresso’, or ‘Order and Progress’, Brazil’s national motto. The green symbolizes the vast forests of Brazil, the yellow symbolizes the countries wealth, and the blue circle with constellations displays how the sky looked the night the republic of Brazil was founded. There are nine constellations in the flag which represent the nine provinces of Brazil.
The new design is much simpler. It keeps the general colour scheme, emphasizes the diamond and replaces the circle with a star. There are no constellations. The green and yellow symbolize the same things. The blue represents the amazon river, which runs through Brazil. The star is included as a tribute to the current Brazil flag and the United States of Brazil‘s flag. In addition, the emphasis of the yellow diamond as it is emphasized in a similar way in the flag of the Brazilian Empire.
#2 – Greenland
The original flag features a red and white field with the top half being white and the bottom half being red. There is a circle on the left side which inverts the colours. The white band represents the snow and ice that covers much of the country. The red band represents the ocean. The red half of the circle represents the sun rising above the ocean. Lastly, the white half of the circle represents ice bergs in the sea around the country.
The new design keeps the old design and adds a nordic cross, symbolizing the countries ties to Denmark. The rest of the symbolism remains the same.
#3 – Haiti
The original design of Haiti’s flag is a bicolour flag which features blue and red. These colours represent the fact that they are a former French colony as blue and red are two of the colours in France’s tricolour flag. In the centre is the Haitian coat of arms.
The new design features a white and red field. The red half represents the revolution that granted Haiti its independence from France and the white represents the peaceful life of people living in Haiti. There is a drawing of a hibiscus flower in the centre of the flag because the hibiscus flower is a national symbol of Haiti.
#4 – Ireland
The original design is a tricolour flag containing green, white, orange and no logo or design. The green represents the native people of Ireland (who are mostly Roman Catholic), the orange represents British supporters of William the Orange (who are mostly Protestant), and the white represents peace between the two groups.
The new design is a bicolour flag with the top half being white and the bottom half being green. There is also an orange celtic cross in the top left corner. The colours have the same meaning in the new design, but the celtic cross was added to also symbolize the celtic people who lived in Ireland and the surrounding region.
#5 – Moldova
The original Moldova flag is a tricolour flag containing the colours blue, yellow and red. The flag also has the national coat of arms in the centre of the flag. The colours represent Romania, as Moldova used to be apart of Romania. This colour scheme represents Romania because it is the same colour scheme used in the Romanian flag. The coat of arms contains some symbolism, most notably the Aurochs (an extinct species of cow), and the eagle, which is also holding a cross.
The new design is a bicolour flag that is split diagonally in the middle. To make the flag more simple I took the main design of the coat of arms, the Aurochs, made it bigger and put it in the centre of the flag. The flag retains the original colour scheme and thus, also represents Romania. Instead of having a yellow bar, the yellow is seen in the Aurochs.
#6 – Peru
The original design is a bicolour flag with three bands. The outside bands are red and the inside band is white. The colours were chosen by Jose de San Martin, a general who fought for the independence of several South American countries (including Peru). The colours are supposed to represent the Incan people and their cultural impact on the nation.
The new design contains the same colour scheme and symbolism. Instead of being a three banded bicolour flag it has a red field with a white triangle on the bottom. This triangle represents Machu Picchu, and the mountainous landscape of the country in general. At the top of the triangle is a vicuna, a llama-like animal, which is the national animal of Peru.
The gifs of these flags display duration because they play for a certain amount of time and then they restart and play again. In addition, the flags themselves are a point of view. Specifically, a point of view of what the country stands for, their culture, their history and their people.
Some of the strengths of this project is that the flag designs are successful in that they are simple. In addition, the history and symbolism still works in the redesigns. A weakness of them is that not all of the flags have been stylized to the extent that some of the others have. If I were to redo any of these flags with more time, I would find a better colour for the nordic cross in the Greenland flag because the red and blue don’t seem to blend very well. I would also try to simplify the vicuna on the Peru flag a little bit more.
Write-up and artwork by: Daniel Chaput
Daniel Chaput Art 