birguslatro | Entries tagged with flag

The vote in the New Zealand flag referendum was totaled up yesterday and the result was 46% to 54% in favour of the current flag.

I'm reasonably happy with this, as my support for the alternative flag had gone from luke-warm to not really the more I got used to it. The high vote for it shows there is support for change though, so a design New Zealanders really liked would probably get the nod.

Perhaps the most telling vote against it was from the Maori electorates, which was in the 70 to 80 percent range in favour of the status-quo...

http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/maori-sent-ringing-endorsement-of-current-flag-2016032518

There's no Maori motifs in either flag, but obviously there should be in any new flag, and not just because of the partnership the country's founded on, but also because of the strong graphic design tradition in Maori culture. Hopefully when the flag eventually is changed, that'll be where the design comes from. (Expect it to change when NZ finally becomes a republic.)

Flag choices, that is, the 'Red Peak' flag being added to the NZ new flag list...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/new-zealands-flag-referendum-fifth-option-to-be-added-after-public-pressure

(A law-change was rushed through under urgency to make this possible.)

At least this new one's there by some sort of popular demand for it, unlike having the flag vote in the first case.

It's been suggested it's a bit like a Nazi design, but this is a much better match! Given that was the original 'Industrial Design Council of Australia' logo, you have to wonder if the Red Peak designer had a memory lapse not shared by their subconscious.

The problem I have with the Red Peak flag, is if you asked a New Zealander who knew nothing of the flag debate to choose the design among these five which was least representative of NZ, Red Peak would be it. A design which has to be explained, is a failed design.

One argument against a flag change is that the current one is the flag NZer's fought and died under. That may be so, but it's the fern that many of those fallen are buried under...

pic 1, pic 2, pic 3.

This new flag hasn't changed the choice I made here....

As in the four flags New Zealand has to choose between...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11505765

Well, three ferns and a koru. While I was underwhelmed by the choice of forty flags the committee had narrowed the ten thousand down to, I did think a fern would be the best choice. And of the three ferns here, I prefer the black and blue one. Not too bright or too contrasty, so one I could live with.

They've narrowed down the 10,000 NZ alternative flags to 40 - and they're none too inspiring...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_flag_debate#Flag_Consideration_Panel_long_list

I'm hard-pressed to find one good one among them, let alone four. My guess would be they decided to choose a mix of common themes, those themes being the fern, the koru and the Southern Cross. So that's what we've got. Which would possibly be alright, if they'd used a broader range of artists. But there's quite a few who have multiple designs in this list. It smacks of nepotism.

I noticed some I liked when starting to look through the 10,000, but the website couldn't handle the traffic when I was looking, (images weren't showing), so I gave up on it.

Just remembered a NZ design I've always liked...

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/postage-stamp/10859/taniwha-stamp

And the original...

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/maori-rock-art-nga-toi-ana

Possibly too busy for a flag though. Still, one riffed on Maori rock art could've been nice...

http://beautifulstampsjah.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/new-zealand-2012-maori-rock-art.html

(I'm afraid this isn't going to end well. I've little faith in NZ's collective taste...)

The New Zealand Prime Minister has decreed the country needs a new flag, so there's going to be a vote on one soon. So far the population seems to be not much interested in the idea ( 13 people turn up to first Auckland flag meeting ) or mad keen on it ( ten thousand plus alternative flag designs submitted. )

Sadly, a committee is going to whittle those thousands of flags down to four, that being the number the public gets to vote on. Then the winning flag has to battle it out with the Australian flag* to see who gets to be the future NZ flag.

At which point the country will proclaim it all a well-spent 26 million.

* Or one very similar to it.

Carl B. Latro

NZ flag staying the same for now.

And then there were five...

And then there were four...

Sigh...

Flagged Out...

Profile

January 2023

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags