A Kiwi kicking a rugby ball onto a set of stumps.
I’ll chime in on some of these. I definitely think they should drop the Royal Union Flag, no matter what else they do.
More subtle colours, but maybe the central stripe needs a white border…?
This one has potential, but is a little busy.
Nope. Looks like a football club logo.
Intriguing. I’d like to see a version with the Southern Cross.
I like this version. Maybe separate the stripes from the top and bottom, like the Israeli flag?
A committee is going to pick the top four designs. Then people will vote on which one of those is the best. Then, after that, there will be a vote between the current flag and the winner of the first referendum.
Oddly enough this change is our Prime Minister’s hobby horse. There was no fervent public discussion of the NZ flag before the Flag Consideration Panel was formed - only 3 months ago.
Not that Kiwis don’t have their views on the current flag but it isn’t a hot issue.
Twenty years ago I’d have voted for change. Today…meh. Flags are far less relevant in a world where people feel more allegiance to a sports team or their city or a group they fit into. Nationality and patriotism are waning concepts.
When I were a lad we learned the flags of nations. I’m not sure that happens much now. Flags are nice but…meh.
hey, I thought they were flying turtles!
Concur!
Something incorporating the silver fern would be nice (heraldically, silver and white are the same color). Some of those proposals really do have potential.
A leaf with feet?
One of the designs looked good to me until I read the description and it referred to the color black representing the country’s “sporting identity.” That turned me right off. A country’s national symbol should not be explicitly tied to sports.
The leaf with feet is (IMO) a clever way to combine 2 popular New Zealand symbols into one: The silver fern and the kiwi. The shape is abstracted but recognizable as the kiwi’s usual “pose” (look at a bunch of the shitty designs to find flags where they just plopped a bird silhouette onto it).
I think the guy who I linked to twice (versions 20 and 39, I think?) really makes it work. If you search the submission site for his name (David Muñoz), you’ll see all five billion;) versions that are slight variations on the theme.
I think that what a lot of New Zealanders fail to grasp about any new flag is that for most people outside this country a black flag is the banner of anarchy, and a silver fern looks a lot like the white feather of cowardice.
The feather with feet just looks to jokey to me. It looks like something that will soon be considered a regrettable fad.
In some sense, a lasting national symbol has to be somewhat neutral, not exactly bland, but general enough to absorb very broad meaning over time.
As for black, I don’t know whether a majority of people associate black with anarchy. I certainly don’t. The only thing I associate specifically with anarchy is the A-scrawled-on-a-circle symbol.
And I have no idea what the “White feather of cowardice” is.
Does nobody associate red-and-black with fascism anymore?
Acsenray: The white feather of cowardice is a reference to the novel The Four Feathers.
I have never associated red and black in general with fascism. A red field with black logos highlighted with white looks fascistic to me. But not the plain black field with the Southern Cross in red.
I think I like Logan Wu’s entry. For one, it’s got the pyramids that New Zealand is known the world over for. And those pyramids have party favors sticking out of them, which lets you know how very festive New Zealand is. Once I figured out that that flock of birds was not, in fact, a school of fish, the whole thing made a whole lot more sense. Why have a flag that makes people think the country is underwater?
The black flag with the silver fern is a symbol of very effeminate pirates.
Seriously, anything that separates Australia from New Zealand is a step forward. My late wife lived in both countries and was astounded to learn they didn’t share the same flag.
Huh. I quite like Otis Frizzel’s swirly flag. I seem to be the only one who does, though.
I think Kyle Lockwood’s looks too much like a clothing brand.
D’oh! Stupid site error causing double post.
But probably even more widely associated with the custom during the Great War of handing out white feathers to men of apparent age and fitness to enlist who were not in uniform.
Yes, that’s a real problem on the battlefield, when NZ and Aus are fighting each other, and all electronic communications have been disabled by Nuclear Bomb / EMF pulse.
As seen by the confusion over flags in the USA which lead to the creation of the “confederate battle flag” so much in the news recently.
Apart from that (rhetorical question)… who cares if the rest of the world can tell them apart? Who cares if Australians and Kiwis can tell them apart?
(rhetorical answer) It’s a national characteristic of both NZ and Aus to be always looking to see what “other countries” think of us – under the mistaken belief that they think of us at all.
I’d say the same for Canada, except for the fact that we have a really cool flag,
Which was shown on an episode of Downton Abbey a few years ago. HMG even created a new badge to help men avoid the dreaded feather: Silver War Badge - Wikipedia