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Chambers of Commerce and Industry (France)

Chambres de Commerce et d'Industrie

Presentation of CCIs
Emblem of CCIs
- Former flags of CCIs
Index of CCIs

See also:

France

Presentation of the CCIs

Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) are organizations representing the interests of commercial and industrial professions.
The first Chamber of Commerce was created in 1599 by Barthélemy de Laffemas in Marseilles. Subsequently, Colbert and Pontchartrain founded Chambers of Commerce in several towns of the Kingdom of France. Suppressed in 1791, the 22 Chambers of Commerce were reestablished in 1802 by Chaptal.
The Chamber of Commerce of Paris was created in 1803, together with Consultative Chambers of Factories, Arts and Industry. Those Consultative Chambers were suppressed in 1950, several of them being transformed into Chambers of Commerce.
Following the French example, Chambers of Commerce were founded in Brussels (1703), Cologne (1707), New York (1768), Glasgow (1783), Edinburgh (1786), etc.

In France, the members of the Chambers of Commerce are elected by people listed on the trade register. The elections are supervised by the State Council so that every professional branch has a representation proportional to its economical importance. There are currently 180 Chambers of Commerce, with 4,500 elected members and 26,000 employees.
As State establishments supervised by different ministers, the Chambers of Commerce have four main tasks:
- to represent the companies with the State authorities and inform them. The Chambers of Commerce have an advisory competency on urban development, transport, industrial setting up and the commercial, economical and customs legislation;
- to manage facilities such as ports (190), airports (121), entrepots, bus stations and hotels;
- to inform and advise companies;
- to train companies' executives, via a network of colleges such as HEC and the Écoles supérieures de commerce in Paris and Lyon.
[Encyclopaedia Universalis]

Ivan Sache, 14 October 2003

Emblem of CCIs

The new visual identity of CCIs, designed by the iciBarbès agency, was announced on 30 August 2012, superseding the hexagonal emblem adopted in July 1991.
The new visual acronym features the interlaced letters "CCI", "CC" in blue and "I" in red, with a triangular dot. The red and blue colors highlight the institutional dimension of the CCI network.
[CCI International, 30 August 2012]

The colors are prescribed as follows:

       Pantone       CMYK           RGB
Blue    295 C   100  57  0 40     0 52 102
Red     192 C     0 100 62  0   227  0  67

The name of the local Chamber should be added at the right of the visual acronym, separated from it by a white space of 1/4 the emblem's diameter. "CCI [Name]" is written in Scout Bold typeface, depending on the name's length:
- on a single line: "CCI", 31 pt; "[Name]", 28 pt:
- on two lines separated by 20 pt, "CCI", 26 pt; "[Name]"; 23 pt;
- on three lines separated by 18 pt, "CCI", 22 pt; "[Name]", 19 pt.
While horizontal construction should be preferred, it is also permitted to place the name beneath the visual acronym, separated from it by a white space of 1/4 the emblem's diameter.
[Graphic charter]

Ivan Sache, 20 April 2018

Former flags of CCIs

Former "generic" flag of CCIs - Image by Ivan Sache, 23 November 2009

Several CCIs used a standard emblem made of an hexagon divided in thin sectors, in turn blue and red, emerging from a white disk decentered to the lower right part of the hexagon. The disk is charged with a blue caduceus representing commerce, surrounding by "CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE ET D'INDUSTRIE" in red capital letters.
A "generic" CCI flag might have existed, divided blue-red by the ascending diagonal and charged in the middle with the CCI emblem. I spotted such a flag in Avignon in April 2004. It has just been spotted by Nozomi Karyasu in New Caledonia.
Specific flags had the blue caduceus replaced by an emblematic element - for example, "VAR" for CCI Var, "CCI LE HAVRE" for CCI Le Havre, and "CCI Rénion" for CCI Reunion.

Ivan Sache, 23 November 2009

Index of CCIs

This list is not a comprehensive list of CCIs but only an index of the CCIs for which flag-related information is available on this website.