Historical Elba Flag

Agency: H-57
Designer: Matteo Civaschi
Additional Credits: Angelo Mazzei per Isola Etica
Client: Isola Etica, Isola d’Elba
Type Of Work: Commercial Work
Country: Italy

It does not often happen to get hands on a design work whose original creator is Napoleone Bonaparte.

It was an interesting challenge even for this reason, but more then everything else for the great love we feel forElba Island. The flag is wonderful, and has also a beautiful history. Moreover Elba’s people love it and are really fond of this symbol of their land. That’s why, as usually happens in this cases, we had to intervene with great respect and tact. First of all, we chose an ‘historic’ version as a starting point which already showed a certain balance in the composition’s elements. The flag, in fact, had a lot of versions, some of them were detrimental, but usually free to reinterpret forms and colours. The effort was to interpret all the elements at their original features and to fix rules, giving maximum harmony and beauty at the same time.

First of all, we defined a standard size, where the long side is exactly double the short one and the stripe has a grade of 39.5. We redesigned the bees, starting from those in the historic flag chosen as a starting point.

We kept the body shape and the number of wings and paws, we tried to rework using a more modern design, eliminating the excess of details. The background of the flag is not a perfect cold white, but it’s a warm pearl colour, while the red which is more a burgundy colour is delicate and elegant. The bees are of a particular shade of orange, to fit better the red of the stripe. The final result was meant to speak about history and tradition, but also to keep in mind the actual visual taste. It should also represent the prestige of Elba’s people who saw men and fashions pass through their wonderful land without changing its proud and noble nature.

Working on Elba’s flag has been a wonderful experience and an honour.

We hope we have been able to show our love for this Island, gifting to all Elba’s people a symbol they can always and rightly be proud of.