Brazilian Capital Cities: Epilogue

On the first day of 2013, I officially started series of post about the state capitals of Brazil. That day, I commented, in details, the problems I saw on all those flags. If you haven't read it, click here.

That blog was illustrated with the following image, a set with the current flag of all state capitals of the country:


As none of the cities changed its flag, the image is still updated.

Changing all the flags I felt wasn't adequate, we obtained it:


Some of the flags I proposed were mere fixes, others were completely original. But, more than one year and a half later, I notice I learned a lot about flags design (vexillography) and the final result, in the end, were bold and clever flags.

It's a good time to thank all readers for taking part of these (in my opinion) successful series. In your opinion, dear reader, what was the best post of these series? I'm really interested in reading you.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Thank you very much, again. Your views, comments and sharing is fundamental to the blog!

Brazilian Capital Cities Flag

2013 just started (by the way, Happy New Year to everybody!), and I'll present the new blog series: flags for the Brazilian states' capital cities, after 2012 Brazilian state flags. For now, let's take a look at the current flags:



















Aracaju has a complex coat of arms, and it's too reminiscent of state flag. Belém and Belo Horizonte are two bad flag (although Belém is worse than BH). Boa Vista is excellent: simple, effective, and reminiscent of state flag just right. Brasília flag (actually the Federal District one) is simply beautiful; Cuiabá is apparently inspired in Brasília, but the writings is your sin, needing only small changes.

Campo Grande, Curitiba and Goiânia follows a contemporary Brazilian fashion that doesn't make me happy: they are practically indistinguishable with the many other cities that adopts this pattern. Florianópolis and Fortaleza, in other hand, uses better patterns but its quality is eclipsed by the complex coat of arms.

João Pessoa and Macapá has two excellent coat of arms, proving that a good flag can still be made with traditional shapes and figures. You can see my proposals to Maceió here, and Natal here. The kind of coat of arms present in Manaus flag, with a rococo baroque appeal, seems to me out-of-fashion for centuries, anti-heraldic (presence of full scenes), and chronologically wrong: Portugal only adopted that flag a century after Brazilian independence.

Palmas intelligently bases it coat of arms in beautiful state flag, with an amazing result. Porto Velho flag is also very original and interesting. In other hand, Porto Alegre, Rio Branco and Vitória follows the same pattern of Belo Horizonte, and obtains the same poor result, not so different of São Luís, Rio de Janeiro and Teresina.

Recife flag idea is good, but the over-complexity undertakes the result. Salvador has an excellent heraldic flag, if you think that city's name can be translated as "Savior". Lastly, São Paulo, my home city, with a curious mix of the Order of Christ's cross and the Scandinavian cross flags, but compromised by the coat of arms.

If I counted correctly, there are seven flags that I'll keep integrally (Boa Vista, Brasília, João Pessoa, Macapá, Palmas, Porto Velho and Salvador  — if you notice, the five newest capitals are here), two flags I already posted (Maceió and Natal), seven flag I had finished during my vacations, and more eleven flag that I still need to do. So there's more 18 flags to be published!

It's a good opportunity to subscribe the blog, and therefore doesn't lose any future post of the series. You can choice between the Google feeds (becoming a blog member) or subscribe directly from your e-mail (Google account doesn't required in this case).
As it'll last many months, I'll mix the Brazilian capital cities with many other designs, including a birthday special I'm yet preparing.

Brazilian State Series: Epilogue

For almost two months, I dedicated my posts for analyze and modify the Brazilian state flags. From the 26 states and a Federal District, I presented suggestion to nine of them. This frame below is representing the progress: the flags in red rectangles are the modified flags, while the other are current flags I decided to maintain. I also commented a São Paulo proposal, but it's not my idea.

(Suggestion: click on image to see it in real size)

For comparative purposes, see the current flags set. Click here to see all flags on series.

Probably, in future, I'll present other Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte proposals (they're too complex), and something about Espírito Santo and Paraíba flags, but not for while.

I can sometimes, in future, present proposals to other Brazilian entities but not states. By now, I want to present proposals to other places around world. Actually, I worked on the back burner on some flags during this two months, and still have some works older than this blog (despite some of them aren't good sufficient to be published, I think).

I want to know: which is your favorite between all proposals?
I thank all comments and views during these series, they make blogging important to me.

Brazilian State Flags

(Click here to see image in bigger size).

My last post was about a proposal to Brazilian state of Ceará. I was thinking a lot and decided to put soon a serie about proposals of Brazilian flags. Let me see:

Acre is OK, a beautiful and historic flag. Alagoas needs a new flag; I'm already providing one. Amazonas needs a new star disposition. This flag and the one of Bahia are very resembling, maybe I change one of them. Amapá is OK (looks prettier in high definition). Ceará... I showed you my proposal.

Espírito Santo is a good tricolor; would be advisable remove the written, but it makes the flag better, for me. Goiás has a good flag, but very similar to Sergipe, isn't? Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul is OK.

Minas Gerais has a flag as isn't made anymore, but it's a so powerful symbol that could be the Brazilian flag — some historians suspect the triangle should be green, but red is a good choice. Pará is OK.

Paraíba is a big problem: "NEGO" may have too meanings: "NÉGO" (it's ortographically a error) means "I say no", while "NÊGO" is a popular (but incorrect) way to say "blackman", and often you can view the word in the flag with the two accentuations. Yes, a big problem...

Paraná flag should be simplified. Pernambuco is a very polluted flag, but someway appropriate to state history. This version in image is the old Piauí flag, for me, the better. Rio Grande do Norte and Rio Grande do Sul should be changed (I'm working in ideas). Rio de Janeiro, too. Rondônia and Roraima are fine.

Santa Catarina should be fixed. São Paulo... I'm from this state! This flag was an old proposal to Brazilian flag, and during 1932 was used in fight against dictatorship by Paulista people... It's not perfect, but a very respectable flag.

Tocantins is the newest Brazilian state, and has a very beautiful flag (their capital, Palmas, has one of most beautiful flags I ever seen). The Federal District ("Distrito Federal") is somehow a tribute to Oscar Niemeyer, one of world biggest architects, and really amazing.

It was a very long post, friend, isn't it? What's your opinions and expectations about the serie about Brazilian states? Comment!
P.S. Have you ever realized how many Brazilian flags have a star? Brazil national flag has 27 stars (from 26 states and Federal District), and it's a cute way of say they're Brazilian states.