flag proposal

Proposed flag of New Caledonia / Drapeau proposé de la Nouvelle-Calédonie

Flags

The current situation / La situation présente

Flags of New Caledonia / Drapeaux de Nouvelle Calédonie

New Caledonia’s strange and controversial flag situation: The flag of FLNKS party (left) and the flag of France (right) are co-official… but there is no single flag for the whole of New Caledonia itself.
Situation étrange et controversée en Nouvelle-Calédonie: le drapeau du parti FLNKS (à gauche) et le drapeau de la France (à droite) sont co-officiels … mais il n’existe pas de drapeau unique pour la Nouvelle-Calédonie.

New Caledonia’s flag situation is bizarre by world standards. Instead of a single flag, it currently has two co-official flags, neither of which represents the whole of New Caledonia. One is the flag of France itself. The other is the flag of FLNKS, the political coalition that represents the Kanak indigenous people. This compromise was condemned as clumsy, divisive, controversial and unrepresentative. The situation was even spurned by important leaders at the time like the President of the Government of New Caledonia, the representative of New Caledonia to the National Assembly and the mayor of Nouméa. Critics pointed to the principles of the Nouméa Accord (the 1998 agreement between the French government and FLNKS) which expresses the wish for a “common destiny” for all communities. Many New Caledonians have demanded a single new flag that would express a common identity for all of New Caledonia. There have been existing proposals, but these designs are quite complex. Therefore, here is my proposal.

La situation du drapeau de la Nouvelle-Calédonie est bizarre par rapport aux normes mondiales. Au lieu d’un seul drapeau, il possède actuellement deux drapeaux co-officiels, qui ne représentent ni l’un ni l’autre toute la Nouvelle-Calédonie. L’un est le drapeau de la France elle-même. L’autre est le drapeau du FLNKS, la coalition politique qui représente le peuple autochtone kanak. Ce compromis a été condamné comme maladroit, source de discorde, controversé et non représentatif. La situation a même été rejetée par des dirigeants importants tels que le président du gouvernement de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, le représentant de la Nouvelle-Calédonie à l’Assemblée nationale et le maire de Nouméa. Les critiques ont évoqué les principes de l’accord de Nouméa (l’accord de 1998 entre le gouvernement français et le FLNKS), qui exprime le souhait d’un «destin commun» pour toutes les communautés. De nombreux Néo-Calédoniens ont réclamé un nouveau drapeau unique exprimant une identité commune pour toute la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Il y a eu des propositions existantes, mais ces modèles sont assez complexes. Par conséquent, voici ma proposition.

My proposal / Ma proposition

Proposed flag of New Caledonia / Drapeau proposé de la Nouvelle-Calédonie

Proposed flag of New Caledonia / Drapeau proposé de la Nouvelle-Calédonie

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Proposed flags of New Zealand

Flags

SUMMARY

Here are all the New Zealand flag designs made by myself and James Fitzmaurice over the years (it got messy storing them separately). None were chosen for the official 2016 flag referendum but we think our designs are superior to the official selection in aesthetics, symbolism and justification – a product of raging narcissism or qualified judgement? You decide!

Proposed flags of New Zealand by Brian Cham and James Fitzmaurice.

Proposed flags of New Zealand by Brian Cham and James Fitzmaurice.

INTRODUCTION

As with all design, the how and the why is more important than the what. This article begins by describing our extensive design process. Firstly, it describes our overall methodology and guiding principle. Secondly, it lists all of the common flag design traps that we tried to avoid. Thirdly, it explores New Zealand’s national symbolism and how to effectively express it in a flag design. Afterwards, this article covers each flag design with commentary, larger graphics and construction sheets.

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Proposed flag of Michigan

Flags

The current design

flag of michigan, usa

Current flag of Michigan

The current flag of Michigan is a typical American-style seal-on-blue-bedsheet design; as a result it is convoluted, unmemorable and uninspiring. It scored 3.46/10 in NAVA’s survey, making it the 14th worst rated flag in North America. In 2018, a state senator introduced a bill to replace it with a new design. Although nothing came of that, below is what I would have proposed:

My proposal

02 proposed flag of michigan [recoded]

Proposed flag of Michigan

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Proposed flag of the United Kingdom

Flags

Part of my 2009 flag proposal series. SVG files of the flag and its construction sheet are available on request.

At first, I did not re-upload this design from the old site, since I only wanted to present the most popular designs and this one did not have much support. Many years later, I received a sudden personal request to upload this one again. I was hesitant until I realised that this person remembered this exact design and its author even though it had not been online or accessible for over five years! That had to mean something.

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The 7 most popular New Zealand flag proposals

Flags

Note: This post lists the flag designs that are most popular with the general public. For my own judgement on the best proposals, see this post.

When I was thinking of designs for the New Zealand flag competition, I was curious about the preferences of the wider public. No doubt others are too. Unfortunately, polls had a limited selection of designs to begin with, and while the government gallery had social media sharing and suggestions for every submitted flag, there was no way to sort the gallery to show the most popular.

So I made a quick Java script to scrape all entries in the website and identify the most popular flags. This is measured in number of times each design was independently suggested. Ten was the minimum number to get on this list.

Keep in mind that popularity does not equal quality, nor is it a final indicator of public preferences. It is affected by many factors like age, status and prior exposure of the design. This list is simply for interest of the data itself.

Flags are listed in ascending order of popularity. Each one lists the three main points of the respondents.

7. Silver Fern Flag – Kyle Lockwood’s ‘New Zealand Colours’

Silver Fern Flag – Kyle Lockwood’s 'New Zealand Colours' Designed by: Kyle Lockwood

Silver Fern Flag – Kyle Lockwood’s ‘New Zealand Colours’. Designed by: Kyle Lockwood.

Suggestions: 13

  • Similar to current flag
  • Black and white are national colours. Silver fern is national symbol. These are already recognised worldwide and have historical significance.
  • Māori represented by black
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Top 50 New Zealand flag proposals

Flags

Note: This post features my own judgement on the best flag designs. For the proposals that are most popular with the general public, see this post.

Now that the New Zealand government has closed submissions for a new flag, I decided to go through and pick out the best. That’s right, I looked through all 10,293 of them. Don’t worry, it only took me 48 minutes to evaluate (about 0.28 seconds per flag; thank god for learning scanning techniques).

It probably helped that the whole gallery was a beautiful testament to Sturgeon’s Law (in this case more like 99% though), Poe’s Law and the futility of crowdsourcing design, making it easy to mentally filter out the crud and parodies. You wouldn’t believe the Nazi, apartheid, North Korea, Israel, PRC, Imperial Germany, Quebec (of all places), meme and My Little Pony based parodies that got through their filters. Seriously, the name “Moswald Osley” didn’t ring any alarms? Well done to the Lautaro joke for subtlety and this thing for sheer insanity though. All in all, an experience I would not recommend.

Anyway, here are the best I picked out, emulating the judges’ process of picking an initial list of 50-75 best designs. There were a lot of duplicates and near-duplicates so it’s hard to know exactly how to count and credit them (I’m sure I’ve missed a few credits, sorry!), but it should be around 50 some way or another.

The only restriction was that I didn’t include my own designs. Naturally enough I do like them, but including them would be a little biased! Oh, and I also automatically discarded anything too similar to another national flag, no matter how well designed or New Zealand-y it was. I hope the judging panel can do that, but since it has no vexillologists (flag experts) I don’t have a lot of faith.

This list is in no particular order.

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Proposed flag of Chad

Flags

Part of my 2009 flag proposal series. SVG files of the flag and its construction sheet are available on request.

Note: My choice of design does not reflect my political views.

The current design

The flag of Chad

The flag of Romania. The only difference is the shade of blue, and it’s a miniscule difference.

Chad’s flag is so similar to Romania’s that Chad asked the UN to inspect the issue. However, as Romania rightfully pointed out, they have had their design for longer, so Chad should be the one to change. Therefore, here is my proposal.

My proposal

Flag proposal for Chad I made in 2009.

Flag proposal for Chad I made in 2009.

First off, this design is unique enough to be distinguishable, yet simple enough to be remembered by a child.

The overall layout represents the geography of Chad. In the south is fertile land, in the north is desert and in the west is part of Lake Chad, which is important to the country. The eight pointed star represents the sun, warmth, vitality and hope for a bright future. The eight points represent the eight directions, referring to the vast size of Chad. Its location ensures its importance, as the left hand side will be last part of the flag to wear out.

Construction details

Construction sheet of the proposed flag of Chad

Construction sheet of the proposed flag of Chad

Proposed flag of Mars

Flags

Part of my 2009 flag proposal series. SVG files of the flag and its construction sheet are available on request.

Note: My choice of design does not reflect my political views.

The current design

Current de facto flag of Mars

I think that the current de facto flag of Mars looks horrible and mainly represents terraforming which is only a small aspect of the planet Mars. Therefore, here is my proposal.

My proposal

Flag proposal for Mars I made in 2009.

Flag proposal for Mars I made in 2009.

First off, this design is unique enough to be distinguishable, yet simple enough to be remembered by a child.

I will not explain the design because I think that I have made it intuitive enough. The design is neutral so that it can represent the planet Mars in any aspect. Note that I have not included symbolism of terraforming and/or space exploration because they represent terraforming and/or space exploration, not the planet Mars.

Construction details

 

Construction sheet of the proposed flag of Mars

Construction sheet of the proposed flag of Mars