new symbol for europe by foundation design den haag

‘a new symbol for europe’ installation in den haag, the netherlands image © designboom

the current european flag with its twelve identical golden stars placed in a circle on a blue background, was designed in 1955. since then society in europe has changed. nowadays various cultures live and work together in a relatively small area. in the last 50 years, europe has become a complex maze of identities. what is the impact of this new society with its diversity in culture, language and traditions on europe’s identity and how can that identity take shape? what is the perception on europe, from within and from the outside? how would a new symbol for europe look like? should it be one symbol? or more?

image © designboom

these were the questions posed by the foundation design den haag, an organization that researches the relation between design and government in europe within an international context, from cultural, economic and social viewpoints. designers from across the world were invited to submit their ideas for a competition to create a new symbol for europe.

image © designboom

nine of the twelve flags kept at least a variation of the iconic blue background. others embraced the idea of diversity to express unity. the opening of the exhibition  was accompanied by a debate with representatives of the european commission discussing europe’s identity. the flags will continue to be showcased at different locations until june 23, 2010.  for a complete travel scheme see here.

‘spectrum’, viktor hertz (sweden)

‘this is just a simple visualization of all the different colors from the european flags. I wanted to make a fun and colorful spectrum, symbolizing different countries and their colors.’ – viktor hertz

colorprints, eleni iIiadou (greece)

‘a symbol that visualizes a new perception for europe. the diversity in cultures, languages, traditions and beliefs is represented in this concept through out the multi-coloured symbol. all these come alive and are joined in the unique shape of a fingerprint.‘ -eleni iliadou

‘europtimism’, youngha park (south korea)

‘it is a reinterpretation of the existing flag. I duplicated the twelve stars by rotation and applied the twelve major colors from european countries’ flags. the number twelve is traditionally the symbol of perfection, completeness and unity. I look forward to the future of europe with optimism.’ – youngha park

‘united we shine’, orio tonini (the netherlands)

‘the 27 states get united becoming one glowing star, a dynamic composition of golden individual stars rotate together at the centre of the blue: together the stars loose their edgy individuality to become a powerful luminous sphere. they all have the same intensity but only as one they reach the full power of brightness.’ – orio tonini

‘europespace’, charles bignon (spain)

‘this design shows europe’s territorial unity. it is the symbol of the union of different states which compose a new one.’ – charles bignon

‘symbol and flag for europe’, bas pronk (the netherlands)

‘what does the current symbol for the european union mean? and is this meaning real? symbolism has to be explained and can be misunderstood. this new symbol shows the member states represented by dots. by counting the dots you know how many members are involved. new member states can be added in the future. europe is never finished. leave the colours, we’re used to it.’ – bas pronk

‘EU sphere’, rachel graham (united states)

‘using the original flag colors, I’ve transformed the design into a modern representation of community. using yellow to represent members of the EU and white to represent the rest of the world. the EU coincides with the rest of the world and forms a unifying sphere.’ – rachel graham

‘time on europe’, jonathan kischkel (germany)

‘the unification of at least 27 strong and independent partners gives europe its uniqueness. the flag keeps the symbol of unity by creating a circle from at least 27 but possibly an infinite number of points. they appear to accelerate, referring to europe’s progressiveness and not least to a clock with its twelve hours – the twelve stars, where this motive was developed from.’ – jonathan kischkel

‘unity in the european union, menelaos vakhou (cyprus)

‘I tried to create one design for the new symbol of the E.U. with simple and modern details. the blue background symbolizes serenity and creativity and the unity that dominates between the member states. the circles that I created differ in the size depending in the population of each country and their placement shows the geographical position of every different country.’ – menelaos vakhou

night sky, matea topic (croatia)

‘yellow stars are the capitals shining on the european‘ – matea topic

‘join the stars’, brunno jahara (brazil)

‘europe – united in diversity’, emilia palonen (finland)

‘embracing unity in diversity, the design invites different views and re-envisioning, instead of offering a fixed model. the set of stars on a blue surface becomes a playground to redesign our visions for europe. compiled into one big flag are now those from Sibiu, ECC2007. the doormat symbolizes a welcoming europe; the stars depict hope in a common future. however assembled, together they form our europe.’ – emilia palonen

overview

the objective of the foundation design den haag is to investigate in what way design could make a contribution to a visible europe in an international context and what part government may have in this. their agenda to connect the minds of creatives with government, is accompanied by a series of public events biennally in the field of design, architecture and visual communication, with exhibitions, publications, lectures and debates, workshops and documentary films. 

each edition will entail a collaboration between den haag and another european government capital: berlin (2010), stockholm (2012), paris (2014), london (2016) and  rome (2018). every edition will be evaluated. the final evaluation of the five editions will be submitted as report to the european union at the end of 2018.