International Cooperative Alliance

The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) is the oldest international cooperative federation. The idea about making a flag for it came from an article I was writing about the flag of Cusco (Peru): the former ICA flag was identical to the Peruvian city's, and are probably related.

That was the first flag of ICA (that was identical to Cusco's), officially adopted in 1925 (read its symbolism on my article):


In 2001, to avoid the confusion to the many rainbow flags that appeared since 1925, it was substituted for a logo flag, with doves appearing from a six-colored rainbow; the seventh color was moved to the letters, that formed ICA's acronym in one of its official languages. For instance, the Anglophone version:


Since then, the flag was replaced once again, for a more logo-like flag. Notice the image formed by the two letters O.


My proposal uses a different cooperative symbol: the twin pine trees. I put it on a green background.


The pine tree is an ancient symbol of life and endurance, while the circle represents eternity. The fact that there are two pine trees represent union and cooperation. Green is a color of life (because of chlorophyll), while the golden yellow represents the sun (specially because it's on a circle), the giver of the life and the light.

For the final design, I chose a variant of the logo where the pine trees are formed by the negative area of the yellow part, but whatever twin pine trees would work. I am happy with the flag, and I think it could embrace not only ICA but cooperativism as a whole.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Have you read my post about Cusco? No? You have another chance.

Liverpool (United Kingdom) [II]

More than two years ago, I proposed a flag for Liverpool. After I found a campaign called "Flag for Liverpool", I decided to have a second look at it.

This is my original design:


The purple color is currently used by the city council. It's a neutral color since it's a mix of the colors of the two main football (soccer) teams: red for Liverpool FC and blue for Everton FC. The white stripe in the hoist represents the River Mersey, an import point of Liverpudlian landscape. The bird is a liver bird, a key symbol of the city, often represented as a cormorant.

My first new design was simply substituting the vertical stripe to wavy stripes, and using a neutral liver bird, since the previous was taken from Liverpool FC logo.


My second new proposal substituted the purple to red and blue, firstly in a arrangement that's also reminiscent of Union Jack.


A variant, with similarities to the city's coat of arms:


I don't know how much a flag with both red and blue can be neutral, but I think the last two designs are very charming.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Don't forget to check "Flag for Liverpool" page!

Trindade and Martim Vaz (Brazil)

Trindade and Martim Vaz is a Brazilian archipelago inhabitated by military only, administratively belonging to the capital of Espírito Santo, Vitória.

I've recently found this proposal by dear Brazilian vexillologist André Pires Godinho:


The red triangle refers to name of the main island (Trindade = Trinity), and the background represents the sea. The coat of arms, (don't know if intentionally) very similar to other coats of arms of Espírito Santo, represents: in fist quarter, a representation of the flag of Principality of Trindade, a failed attempt to establish a micronation in the Trindade island during the 1890s; in second quarter, the position of Martim Vaz and neighbor islands (known as "north island" and "south island"); in bottom. a view of Trindade.

An interesting variation was proposed by Bo Bernvill (the bigger star is Trindade's relative position):


Both proposals have their own merits. For fun, I decided to design my own proposal, that can be seen below:


The triangles on hoist now emulates the coloring of Principality of Trinidad's flag. On a blue background, standing for the sea, a map of the islands.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
I desire all readers that an amazing 2015!

La Graciosa (Canary Islands, Spain)

Among the Canary inhabitated islands, La Graciosa is the only without a flag. Trying to solve this, local inhabitant Jesús Manuel Páez started an online poll asking people's opinion about his design.

Here, you can my rendition of his design:


This flag is based in previous ideas, as can be read here. The two blue stripes represents the sky and the sea. The middle stripe forms the silhouette of La Graciosa and neighbor islets.

I'm not so sure about the design, as the silhouette is not very obvious, to say the least. José Manuel Erbez Rodríguez created the following proposal, a much more ellegant design on same theme:


Without pretensions of beating Erbez's design, I decided to make my own contribution:


Yellow for sand, blue for the light sea. The cauldron is punning to the Playa de la Cocina (cocina = kitchen, cuisine), one of most important beaches in Canary Islands, and commonly found in regional heraldry. The two stars represent the two settlements in the island: Caleta de Sebo and Casas de Pedro Barba.

As I couldn't find similar design, and some Canarian flags are really simple, this design could also be used:


Comments and suggestions are welcome.
I'll be traveling next weeks, so hiatuses can occur.

Windsor (MA, USA)

Windsor, Massachusetts unveiled its flag last December, 7th. A complete report can be read here.

The chosen design, by a local artist called Susan Edwards, is the following:

It was requested that the design included "elements of the town's topography, natural resources and snow", according to the report. Many aspects of the work are clearly against vexillography principles: use of words, very complex shapes, etc.

Taking Susan Edwards' idea, but with a better layout, I obtained the following result:

My proposal is more stylized, with less colors and simpler shapes. Another positive point is that it discards any letters or numbers, that doesn't go well in the wind. Anyway, it still follows the guidelines given by the report.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

It's always good to remember the principles under a good flag. You can read Ted Kaye's book online on NAVA's website.

Caithness (Scotland, United Kingdom)

Caithness is near to become the first mainland Scottish historic county (Orkney and Shetland already did it) to adopt its own flag. Today's post is for raise the awareness about this possibility.

Although it's not so common a post about the theme, I have made, along the years, many flags for Scottish localities. My favorite proposal for Caithness, that Meiriongwril has "resurrected" in Flags Forum, is a simple banner of arms:


A sailing ship has been a symbol of Caithness since the times of Norse mormaers. The raven is took from the "raven banner" conjecturally flown in Viking ships.

For a most laboured flag, I looked for the coat of arms of the Earl of Caithness:


This kind of ship in first and fourth quarters is more similar to most of the presentations of Mormaership of Caithness' coat of arms. Using the same background, and putting the previous flag on first quarter, we obtain the following result:


Whatsoever, doing this post was funny.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
You can read more the chances of Caithness gaining a flag here.

Cambridgeshire (England, United Kingdom)

One of my designs was selected as finalist to the contest for a new Cambridgeshire flag! Today, I'll talk about its creation process and why I think it's an ideal flag for the county.

The contest's rules permitted me to submit two entries. My first, that wasn't selected, is the following:

The blue stripe represents the river Cam and, together with the red stripe placed like a bridge, is a pun on Cambridge name. The three Saxon crowns on red is took from the coat of arms of the Diocese of Ely, and the three crowns on blue are the coat of arms of East Anglia. The yellow background represents the county's fenlands, and keep the recommendation of using a maximum of three colors.

My second design, that I made in a fast but determined way, is a derivative of the first, but with a better realization. That was selected as a finalist:

The symbolism of the former was kept, but with many improvements: the crowns are now three, in a more direct counting; the river gained some life, with the waves, and was colored in a shade near "Cambridge blue", the color of the traditional University of Cambridge. It represents county's landscape, history and prides in a very ellegant way.

Comments are welcome.

You can vote in your favorite design in the end of this page.