27 Jan 2015

Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium)

I've recently knew that Brussels is changing its flag. The change, however, is subtle: the flag is still a yellow iris in blue, but the design of the flag is different.

The old regional flag, adopted in 1991:


The new design (there are, actually, five other official chromatic variants):


The rationale for the flag change is, actually, kind simple: the previous flag contained the old logo, the current contains the new. The current logo has a heart, representing the openness and hospitality of its people, and the fact that Brussels is in the heart of Belgium and Europe (hosting many European Union's bodies).

The yellow iris is a symbol of Senne's valley due to a legend telling that the Duke of Brabant once won a battle because he knew that yellow irises only grow in shallow waters. It's fair to keep them on a flag for Brussels-Capital region.

I'm not fine with the design of the iris changing every time a flag is changed, so I thought about fixing a "classic" iris on the flag. Here, a stylized iris i.e. a fleur-de-lis:


Or, alternatively, a more "natural" iris:


I don't really think that the white fimbriation is needed (it appears in the four flags above), but it increases the distinctiveness of the flags. I kept the blue background as it remembers the EU flag, linked to the region.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
You can read more about Brussel's rebranding here.

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