Friday Fern Fest: Sports Edition
It’s been awhile since I wrote words about the flag process. Much has happened, there’s been four flags announced, then a fifth flag got a last minute “call up” to join the team. The debate continues to rage on and there’s a growing list of things for me to document. I’m working on it.
However, since four out of five flags are essentially ferns, two identical, I thought I’d explore our obsession with this “unique” native flora. Starting with our sports teams, since we’re on the eve of the Rugby World Cup, it wasn’t really a surprise to disccover the All Blacks are not alone in embroidering the silver fern onto black fabric.
So, can you guess the teams behinds the ferns? No? Well, some have a few hints and others aren’t easily distinguishable… I did take the liberty of removing the names and some of the other obvious graphic elements that would give the game away. Still, it does provide an interesting view of how our teams are branded and whether you could tell them apart.
Anyway, here’s the list from top left to bottom right:
- Snow Sports NZ
- NZ Rugby League
- Cycling NZ
- NZ Football
- Canoe Racing NZ
- All Blacks (Rugby)
- Silver Ferns (Netball)
- Black Caps (Cricket)
- Athletics NZ
- Paralympics NZ
- Rowing NZ
- Team NZ (Americas Cup)
- Black Sticks (Hockey)
- Equestrian Sports NZ
- NZ Olympics
As a sample of our national sports teams, the use of the fern as inspiration for their logos and emblems is widespread. I’m sure you can find teams that aren’t as fern obsessed, but this represents both individual teams and governing bodies.
Also of interest, if you visited the sites above, you’ll note the strong black and white colour themes as well as no sign of the current New Zealand flag on their homepages. Just saying.
In case it wasn’t clear and I’m now sounding pro fern… I’m not endorsing the silver fern as a flag, just documenting its saturated usage in our sports teams identities. I also haven’t started on New Zealand businesses yet… Yes, you could use the widespread usage as an argument for it to be on our flag, but I see that as further complicating how we use the fern and narrowing what it stands for or represents. Complementing this existing visual landscape was always going to be a challenge for the design/ers and the selection of “alternative” flags, but the decks are stacked for another fern to be potentially added to the mix.
As Mr Macaw recently came out backing the silver fern, many asked which fern? The New Zealand Rugby Union rightly ruled out the use of the All Blacks silver fern as a flag, narrowing the field to leave us with the Lockwood and NZ Trade & Enterprise varieties.
I’d hoped we’d have more than a fern defining our identity in flag form, but I fear if the Web Ellis Cup is held aloft an Adidas, I mean silver fern embodied top come Sunday morning there’ll be further calls and momentum for the cyathea dealbata to fly.
Can we win and not have a silver fern to define us? On that note…
Happy Friday. Go Richie & Co.