21st Century Heraldry is an ongoing project by graphic design studio 75B. They are continuously collecting and studying the symbolic armory of our time.
In 2001 they made a first crest for their homecity Rotterdam being the Cultural Capital of Europe. Its current heraldic achievements were visualized in a coat of arms with both representative successful icons of the city as well as the reverse sided issues and phenomena. Next to its skyline, harbour and university, the traumatic WWII bombing, a fast-food chain and the hooliganism related gabber house music were included.
In 2019 the first five editions on large tapestries (235 x 170 cm) were jacquard woven in the TextielLab at the TextielMuseum Tilburg. The first Tapestry was included in the collection of Museum Rotterdam in 2020.
SAWA as Rotterdam icon
In 2022 they updated the Rotterdam edition by adding the SAWA logo in the center of the crest. Mei purchased the special SAWA edition tapestry, which now proudly exhibits on the wall in Mei’s office.
After designing for Rotterdam, 75B decided to continue expanding the project under the title 21st Century Heraldry and designed editions for Los Angeles, Vilnius, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Napoli, Palermo, Milan, Torino and Rome.
The crests received a lot of attention and to many requests for an affordable version. Therefore poster versions were printed and made available in the webshop van 75B.
