The flag of Busan, the largest port in South Korea, changed in 2023 with the slogan “Busan is good”: a B in a magenta and blue gradient on a white field.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio, white, with the symbol of the city in the centre and the name of the city below.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
It arrived with a complete change of image, the third since 1962
Blue with a new grey emblem: a seagull —the municipal bird since 1978 —over the mountains…
Busan had been using the slogan “Dynamic Busan” since 2003
In late 2022 the city called an open competition to renew its brand: the slogan “Busan is good”…
The current one, from 2023, is white and carries a «B» in a magenta-to-blue gradient
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Busan is that of the second city and the largest port of South Korea. The current one, from 2023, is white and carries a «B» in a magenta-to-blue gradient, with the name of the city below. It arrived with a complete change of image, the third since 1962.
Busan had been using the slogan “Dynamic Busan” since 2003, created to show off the momentum it was given by the World Cup and the Asian Games of 2002. In late 2022 the city called an open competition to renew its brand: the slogan “Busan is good” (in Korean, “better if it is Busan”) won, chosen by the city brand committee on 13 January 2023. The design was finalised on 10 March, presented at the BEXCO venue on 21 March, and the new flag was officially instituted on 17 May 2023, according to the city’s symbols sheet.
Busan has had three official flags: in 1962, in 1995 and in 2023.
1962-1995
First official flag: blue, with a yellow emblem of waves over a triangle, framed by a laurel wreath. In the municipal explanation of that symbol, the triangle represented the universe and the waves the sea and Busan’s vocation to reach out to the world.
1995-2023
Blue with a new grey emblem: a seagull —the municipal bird since 1978 —over the mountains and waves of the islands, and the name of the city in hangul below.
2023
The 2023 brand removes the seagull and replaces it with a gradient letter «B» of Busan, plus the words of the city in Korean and English.
The city documents its current brand as follows:
Magenta and cyan blue
the combination represents the inclusion and the harmony of its citizens.
“Good”
pride in what only Busan offers; the initials of the word also stand for Global, Original, Open and Dynamic (global, original, open and dynamic).
On the other hand, I did not find an official explanation of the gradient in the shape of a «B».
“Dynamic Busan”, used from 2003 to 2023, came out of a neighbourhood competition with 4,865 entries, six rounds of judging and preference studies with Koreans and foreigners.
The seagull has been the official bird of Busan since 1 July 1978, it flew on the 1995 flag, and it disappeared in the 2023 redesign.
The city’s mascot, Buvi, was created in 1995: a circle (the rising sun over the sea) and some lines (the waves) with the three «V» of vision, vitality and victory.
Test what you have read about the flag of Busan.
Flag image: Daejeon Metropolitan Government. Replica (this file) made by D6283, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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