A Romanian design association has created new local flags for the 42 regions of Romania.
Made as part of the Design Week in Romania, and in the run-up to the local elections on 27 September, the 42 flags were redesigned by artists, designers, and art students from the 42 counties.
The designs were inspired by the current coat of arms of each region. Influenced by their immediate surroundings, the designers incorporated local history and the cultural and social character specific to the region into their designs. For the flag of Bucharest, Andrei Nicolescu used elements of the capital city’s recurrent but underrated modernist architecture, while for Călărași, Claudia Drăghia added the tricolours of Spain and Italy, two countries to which a lot of people from the district have migrated. Other flags include elements representing key rivers, mountains, the Black Sea, animal species typical for the place, or markets and symbols standing for the multicultural makeup of the respective region.
The one condition the organisers, Local Design Circle, imposed on creatives was the exclusive use of geometrical shapes.
The flags have been exhibited at the National Museum of Art in Bucharest and will go on tour in different venues across the country.