Ukraine is one of those countries that you may heard of for the last several years. We had quite big conflict with Russia which still goes on.
During hard times people are focusing on what they have, rather than what they want to have. That's why lots of patriotic ideas and projects have come around.
One of the most fascinating one is United Colors Of Ukraine. The idea was to spread the word about Ukraine in more creative and beautiful way. To be honest, the objective was achieved.
The creator of this idea is Andrey Ermolenko. He spent over the year in creation mode, and now it's done.
Originally he wanted to use those designs to print on T-shirts, and now he is successfully doing that. If you are in Ukraine somehow, you can order one of those on Chapaevstreet.
However it became so widely popular that people became to draw it on the streets.
Anyways, the idea is amazing and lots of Ukrainians love it as well. However those who haven't traveled throughout Ukraine may not understand all of those designs. I would like to make your life easier and try to explain its meaning.
So here we go. On each of those designs there is some symbol that is commonly associated with the city.
#1 - Kiev - the capital of Ukraine.
A symbol is a chestnut leaf. The reason for such choice is because we have really lots of chestnuts in the center of the city and lots of green areas in general.
#2 - Ternopil
A symbol is Ternopil's castle. Unfortunately I haven't been inside the castle but the city is very lovely and it has an association of "fine city Ternopil" (файне місто тернопіль) which is adorable :)
#3 - Donetsk
A symbol is a miner's helmet. The reason for that is because the majority of people work there in coalmines and they are required to wear this thing.
#4 - Odessa
A symbol is an anchor, which is a logical association of seaport of this magnificent city.
#5 - Lutsk
A symbol is a helmet of a guard that defended one of the castles, which one I'm not sure.
#6 - Chmielnicki
A symbol has 3 arrows that intersect with each other. The reason of the arrows is because of a long history and some fight involved in 1550. The original version was taken from Polish variant with spears intersecting.
#7 - Lviv
A symbol is a lion, which gives Lviv the name "the city of lion". The reason why is because the name of the city was given by the king Danilo Galitskiy in honor of his son Lion Galitskiy. So there you have it.
Also there are 4,500 lions counted in the whole city, which is mind blowing. The number is pretty accurate, it was counted for the entire year. I guess somebody has nothing more to do :)
#8 - Chernivtsi
A symbol is their famous huge fabulous university. I have been in there 2 times, it totally worth it.
#9 - Zaporizhia
A symbol is Cossack, which symbolises Zaporizhia's region as the capital of Ukrainians Cossacks. Those guys defended our country long time ago when even my grandparents weren't born yet.
#10 - Uzhgorod
A symbol is bear - one of the fellows that you may encounter in Zakarpattia's forests. So be careful about this one. But there is no way you will meet him unless you go to forbidden territory.
#11 - Poltava
A symbol is Natalka Poltavka, which is a very famous play in Ukraine written by Ivan Kotlyarevsky. Despite of the fact that it is unofficial symbol, people get used to it pretty fast.
Those are my favorite designs. All of the rest you can check out on Varosh website.
I hope in every county people can create something familiar, so let it be a source of inspiration if you are a designer :)