More flaggery

Interesting discussion about flags going on at John Ansell’s blog and Kiwiblog and elsewhere. Go and vote on your favourite fern flag. I’m all for a new flag, but these designs are too logo-ish for my taste. Flags seem to me like the sort of things which ought to be made up of geometric fundamentals. That having been said, I think Ansell’s design A is emblematically the strongest, but I don’t think solid black is an appropriate colour for a national flag. If pressed I would reluctantly choose E or C. Is there an obvious reason why green and black aren’t paired somehow?

Fun thought: would the monarchists and traditionalists and nationalists be claiming victory if the government decided to adopt a new national flag which crown agencies would use, with the proviso that other folks could use the old flag if they wanted?

L

6 thoughts on “More flaggery

  1. The monarchists and traditionalists and nationalists?

    That’s a weird way to formulate it. Generally I find that the nationalists are in favour of a new flag, not retaining the old one.

  2. I have never had any strong feelings either way about the existing flag. However in terms a possible replacement, I have allows felt most comfortable with Hunderterwasser’s green foru flag and I am surprised that it has not got much play over the last 15 years or so when the flag is debated (presumably eclipsed by the Tinorangatiratanga flag), after debuting with a reasonable splash (IIRC as I was only six).

    To me, its an immigrant flag, created by someone who chose to make his home here rather than by accident of birth. It was created by someone who loved the land and its people. Its political, but not Political, let alone POLITICAL. It is aspirational (thats the way I read the colour choice anyway) and inclusive.

  3. Black and green make a rather mucky colour combination.
    Red, white and blue are the most pleasing – any coincidence that they seem to be the most favoured colours on national flags?

  4. The big failure of the last push to change the flag (remember that? it was about 6 or 7 years ago) was the decision by the organisers to plump for the silver fern on a black background.

    This, to me, runs very close to sporting notions (All Blacks, Tall Blacks etc) and consequently, I wasn’t surprised when the campaign failed. Not everyone wants to be identified by a sporting logo. And black? Only pirate flags and ‘sporting’ flags feature black. There’s a reason why we don’t see black dominated flags.

    I sent an email to the organisers, pointing this out. I didn’t get a response, but I remember being very surprised that they couldn’t see why they would fail.

    Again, I see the same kind of design being trotted out. It smacks of yet again a tired bunch of middle class white men deciding on what is best. Middle class white men don’t have a monopoly on good inclusive design ideas.

    For what it’s worth, I would choose the Hunderterwasser flag; it’s simple, clean, distinctive and the green goes some way to reflect the greens we see around us.

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