Who designed the current New Zealand flag?

It appears the answer to this question is not widely known, but with a quick Google search and the wonderful Wikipedia you can find the answer…

Albert Hastings Markham.

Born in France, a Knight Commander in the Order of Bath, a member of the Royal Navy, and explorer, Markham created the current New Zealand flag.

In 1869 he submitted a design to George Bowen, the Governor of New Zealand for a national ensign for the fledgeling nation. His proposal, incorporating the Southern Cross, was approved and remains in use to this day.

So that’s the “designer” of our current flag. Somewhat timely, as the submissions come to a close, that we consider the history and origins of the current design.

There’s lots of interesting information about the New Zealand flag, not just about who designed it. The Ministry for Culture & Heritage has several pages on their website dedicated to the flag, the dimensions, how to display the flag, when to fly it at half-mast and commonly asked questions.

The original description of the New Zealand flag was first published in 1902 in the New Zealand Gazette:

The centres of the stars forming the long limb of the cross shall be on a vertical line on the fly, midway between the Union Jack and the outer edge of the fly, and equidistant from its upper and lower edges; and the distance apart of the centres of the stars shall be equal to thirty-six sixtieths the hoist of the ensign.
The centres of the stars forming the short limb of the cross shall be on a line intersecting the vertical limb at an angle of 82 therewith, and rising from near the lower fly corner of the Union Jack towards the upper fly corner of the ensign, its point of intersection with the vertical line being distant from the centre of the uppermost star of the cross twelve-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign.
The distance of the centre of the star nearest the outer edge of the fly from the point of intersection shall be equal to twelve-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign, and the distance of the centre of the star nearest the Union Jack from the point of intersection shall be equal to fourteen-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign.
The star nearest the fly edge of the ensign shall measure five-sixtieths, the star at the top of the cross and that nearest to the Union Jack shall each measure six-sixtieths, and the star at the bottom of the cross shall measure seven-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign across their respective red points, and the width of the white borders to the several stars shall in all cases be equal to one one-hundred-and-twentieth of the hoist of the ensign.

I find it quite amazing how descriptive the New Zealand Gazette were in describing what is ultimately a rather simple flag.

Another fascinating find was the information on how to fly our current flag. There’s detailed rules for displaying the flag outlining how to fly it “from a flagpole with yardarm and gaff”, how it should be held in “processions” and positioned “on a speaker’s platform”.

The flag.govt.nz site also has a great video about the History of the New Zealand flag. Here’s part of the video transcript:

So he tasked Lieutenant Albert Hastings Markham to come up with a design.
Markham was based in Australia on the HMS Blanche where some flags were already using the Southern Cross.
Nobody knows for sure, but it’s been suggested Markham could have seen such a design, which may be why our flag is similar to Australia’s.
Many other flags of Commonwealth countries have also displayed the Union Jack. Over time, some countries have changed their flag’s design, but have remained part of the Commonwealth.
Then in 1898, our ships were instructed to carry the colony badge in a white disc by the British Board of Trade. By 1900, national pride was at an all time high with the Boer War.
We wanted a flag to call our own, but which one? So in 1902 Premier Richard John Seddon introduced the New Zealand Ensign Bill, which parliament passed and the flag we have today became official.
Wherever New Zealand is represented, both at home and on the world stage, you’ll see the New Zealand Blue Ensign.

The design by Markham was in fact the third New Zealand flag. The first was the United Tribes flag, and the second the Union Jack flag.

You can find out a lot more information about the flags of New Zealand on the nzhistory.net.nz site.

Submission: Beautiful Beige

Following on from “Our Southern Swanny”, I’ve submitted another design into the mix. Here’s the description from the official site:

Beautiful Beige
With the overwhelming number of ferns and black flags representing our rugby heritage submitted, lets not forget that wonderful era of beige that New Zealand witnessed in the early 1980s.
We’re a diverse nation who play many sports, not just rugby. Some of us don’t even play sport. Although that surprises many, the non-sport-playing folk still live in our fair land. Some might not know of the cricket connection, however they can celebrate that this flag is not black with a fern on it.
As the official Beige Brigade say, “It’s about passion not fashion”. Lets not get caught up with this seasons flag trends. Celebrate our sporting and questionable fashion success in a colour other than black. Not only will this flag fly proudly on the grass banks of cricket grounds, this design (inspired from those classic one day stripes) will position us as the only nation with a beige flag.
The beige uniform was originally worn by the New Zealand cricket team in the 1980s.

— Discuss on flagpost.nz » View original submission on flag.govt.nz »

You can find out more information about the Beige Brigade on Wikipedia.

Submission: Our Southern Swanny

As many of my loyal readers have been prompting me to submit something into the mix, I present my first submission. Finally. Here’s the description from the official site:

Our Southern Swanny
Inspired by ‘Our United Tarpaulin’ from Kris Sowersby, ‘Our Southern Swanny’ is a staple of New Zealand fashion we proudly wear, regardless of the occasion. With its distinct pattern still found at fieldays, local pubs, and on the sidelines of school sports grounds, this uniquely kiwi icon historically “became the choice of pioneering New Zealanders the length and breadth of the country”.
Like ‘Our United Tarpaulin’, those who’ve already joined the Swanndri army can grab a stick and fly their ‘flag’ proudly with a little DIY. Originally made from 100% pure New Zealand wool this hardy and waterproof shirt is ideal for flying in a raging southerly or gentle nor’wester.
The ‘swanny’ was originally designed by William Broome, a Taranaki tailor.

— Discuss on flagpost.nz » View original submission on flag.govt.nz »

You can find out more information about the New Zealand Swanndri on Wikipedia.

UPDATE: After submitting this concept I realised there’s another side to this design, in that the production of Swanndri was outsourced to China in 2005, no longer qualifying for ”Kiwi-made status”. Let’s hope the new flag is made in New Zealand…

Design Guidelines & Submissions

Alongside the launch of standfor.co.nz, the flag.govt.nz site received an update with more information about the flag consideration project. As well as officially calling for entries, design guidelines covering a range of topics such as intellectual property, suggested flag ratios, common principles, and minimum submission standards were published.

Common Principles

In the guidelines document are 8 “common principles”. They’re a great starting point for the criteria in judging the success of a flag, of which I’ll write more about later. For now, here are the principles from the guidelines below:

The design should be simple, uncluttered and balanced.
It should be designed to be flown, and viewed from either side.
It should look as “timeless” as possible. Avoid using features in the design that will cause the flag to become dated or obsolete. Imagine the flag in a historic setting and in a very modern setting to check whether it would work in both.
In terms of colour, using fewer colours will keep the design simple and bold.
Contrast is important – use light colours on dark, and vice-versa. So a white cross on red is a good contrast, but a blue cross on red would be a poor contrast. This is a very useful guideline, especially for choosing the colour of any symbols and their background.
If the use of non-contrasting colours is unavoidable, make use of outline colours.
Any animals or birds would traditionally face the flagpole, so that the animal faces in the same direction as the flag bearer.
The top left hand corner of the flag is typically the place of honour in a flag. This reflects the fact that the opposite end of the flag wears out first, and is the section that is least visible when the flag is not fully unfurled.

Point number 7. is an interesting principle to include and a positive sign of the detail expected of the panel in judging a flags qualities. If for example a submission of a flag with a kiwi bird was submitted facing away from the flagpole, that would be one reason for it not to be considered.

A couple of other points in the guidelines document provide advice as to what won’t be considered:

Offensive or divisive designs – Flags should be a symbol of pride and unify the community they represent. For this reason, flags that are offensive to an individual or community, or that are divisive, will not be considered.
Flag designs that include words, photos or complex objects will not be considered.
Flag designs that incorporate the image of a person will not be considered.

— https://www.govt.nz/assets/documents/flags/flag-design-guidelines.pdf

Submission Process

Submissions will be accepted from the 4th of May till the 16th of July 2015. Each submission requires your name (and the name of the designer if that is not you), your ethnicity, and citizenship status (all mandatory fields). Fortunately, you get a few extra characters than a tweet to describe your design. 200 words to be precise.

If you want to dive straight in and submit your design you can now do so, however before you get overly excited and press “submit” I would strongly encourage you to read the terms and conditions closely. Thankfully they’re not overwhelming long, but they’ll no doubt be controversial.

Public Engagement

The public engagement campaign for the flag consideration project officially kicked off with the launch of the standfor.co.nz site this week.

The site is primarily set up to collate answers from New Zealanders responding to the question “what do we stand for?” The purpose of which, it appears, will allow trends and common values to rise, reflecting the sentiment around the possible change in flag. The intention is then, that these insights could help guide designs for those considering submitting a concept.

By highlighting key values you can already search and discover popular terms such as; “equality”, “freedom” and “change”. There’s a diverse range of responses associated to each term ranging from the eloquent to the offensive, as well as some especially hilarious posts, as any public internet forum will attract. It is no doubt keeping the team behind the site busy, as one post mentions; “You’re gonna get awfully tired moderating an entire nation of trolls”.

Kris Sowersby also made this comment about the process thus far:

This is like those cop shows where they ask people to phone in with details about a crime for reward money, and spend weeks dealing with the crank callers and bullshit artists.

Despite the rush of posts surrounding the launch, one of the secondary goals of the site appears to be the sharing function of suggested flag designs. A section of standfor.co.nz allows a user to upload a design and see it on a flag pole.

The Flag Pole

Speaking of flag poles, you can also get your name engraved on one as part of the engagement process. If you submit a response to the question “what do we stand for?” you get an option to have your name engraved on Te Pou Herenga Tangata: Our nation’s flagpole.

UPDATE 1: Despite conflicting opinions on the typeface used in the mock-up, the Stand For NZ Twitter account confirmed it is using Guardian Egyptian Headline¹. Sadly, that was not the news I was hoping for. I’m also still not convinced. Either way, it’s a weird choice considering the origins of the font.

UPDATE 2: The Stand For NZ Twitter account responded again with a further update clarifying the mock-up had defaulted to another font. It appears the intention was to use Guardian Egyptian Headline, however another typeface was displayed instead by error.

At this point it is fortunately still an artists impression of what the sculpture might look like. Hopefully a more appropriate typeface that reflects New Zealanders can be used to etch what we stand for into history.

Roadshows & Resources

Alongside the launch of the standfor.co.nz site, other details have been provided about the flag consideration project on the flag.govt.nz site.

The Flag Consideration Panel (FCP) will be travelling the country in a Toyota Hiace “to encourage all New Zealanders to share what they stand for at the nationwide roadshow, public workshops and hui.” Nothing is more New Zealand than Toyota, right? Barry Crump would be proud.

Considering the $640 per day rate the panel will get, that’s an expensive tour. I’ll be going along to the Wellington sessions in June to see what happens.

Find out when the Toyota Hiace and FCP will be visiting your town.

On a more positive note, it was impressive to see the material provided for schools to use in classrooms to encourage conversations about national identity, symbolism and the use of flags in our society.

In the resource document there’s also a timeline suggesting schools recreate the process by establishing their own judging panel, designing concepts and voting in their own referendums. I think this a great way to encourage and involve the generation likely to be most affected by a potential change. Involving the youth of New Zealand is an important and critical part of this process. They’re also represented on the Flag Consideration Panel by Stephen Jones, an Invercargill Youth Councillor.

You can read the document on the Ministry of Education site.

Finally, if after all of that it’s not clear what the difference between the two sites is; standfor.co.nz is for public engagement and flag.govt.nz is for submissions / general information.

The typeface was designed for the UK newspaper The Guardian in 2004/2005 by Paul Barnes & Christian Schwartz. It is available for licensing on the Commercial Type site. ↩︎

Introduction

Welcome to flagdesign.nz – a site dedicated to documenting the redesign of New Zealand’s flag. Curated by Dan Newman & Co. this site will collate examples, research and articles about the redesign in the lead-up to the referendums.

TL;DR – Everything to do with the redesign of the New Zealand flag. Hopefully.

Scene Setting

Whether or not a change of flag occurs, this site will document the process and share insights and opinions on the submitted designs, as well as the judging panel and their decisions. The role New Zealand’s design community and institutions like DINZ (Designers Institute of New Zealand) should play will also be discussed and no doubt debated at length due to currently being absent from representation on the panel and throughout the process so far.

The Design Process

The potential of a new flag provides a wonderful opportunity for a behind-the-scenes view into the design process. I hope that being transparent about how design can solve problems and create visual solutions to complex challenges will not only educate those who are unfamiliar with the process, but also help change perceptions about design; explain why crowdsourcing and spec work are controversial; and show that designers can have a significant impact in business and cultural institutions.

Design can be hard to appreciate and is often subjective. There’s also nothing like a flag to evoke differing opinions. Thankfully there are many ways to measure the success of design, which I’ll write about closer to the time of judging.

To give an example of what the design process looks like, I’ll share my attempt at a solution as openly as possible. I’m lucky to be in a position where designing something for no payment is financially manageable. However, for many people this isn’t the case. Most of the time, undertaking design work for free is not possible or recommended. That won’t stop plenty of people entering what is ultimately a competition for the reward of glory and exposure.

If the design community works together there’s a chance that the flag design process can take a different path from New Zealand’s recent currency and passport redesigns. If you’re part of the community, I hope you’ll speak up.

Cultural Research

I’ll be looking into the symbols that capture and reflect the culture and nation of New Zealand as part of the design process. These symbols no doubt will be seen in many of the submissions and some background on their importance and relevance will be an interesting way to partially judge the validity of a design. If you’re an expert in New Zealand culture and symbolism, I’d love to hear from you!

Previous Designs & Submissions

Over the last few years there have been several high profile attempts to promote new designs for the New Zealand flag. Some of these are worthy of consideration and will be reviewed and critiqued here. Many of these designers have made their research and approach public – this serves as a great resource for anyone who’s interested in the flag design process or is considering submitting a concept.

There will no doubt be an official site documenting submissions, but I’ll also highlight some of the flags submitted here.

The Panel & Politics

So far the National Government has announced the judging panel and the process that will be followed to review and vote on a new flag through two referendums. Thoughts on the panel and judging process have rightly struck a nerve with the design community in that there is currently no representation by a practising designer, or even better one who’s an expert in vexillography (the art of designing flags). To the Government’s credit, there is one flag historian amongst a range of New Zealand celebrities, sports stars and business leaders. Many have already commented it is comparable to creating a new national anthem without having a musician involved or commissioning a national stadium without an architect’s input.

I’ll do my best to avoid discussing individual party politics, instead looking at how the current climate has impacted on this process. For example, why do we need a change in flag now? Is it distracting us from other important decisions we should be voting on?

Whilst the flag design is considered, the governance of New Zealand continues day-to-day and like any other day it’s important to be aware of what our politicians are up to, what laws they are passing, and how they are representing our individual electorates. I encourage you to keep your eyes open and not just look at the shiny colours and fluttering of a new flag, but also the direction our country is heading in.

Finally, if there are any errors or information missing from any posts, please get in touch with your feedback and support. If you would like to contribute articles, ideas or anything related to the site, I’d love your help.

Posts tagged design