Palmerston North (New Zealand)

Palmerston North is one of New Zealand's biggest cities. However, its flag is far from impressive, being boring and against many vexillological rules:


The eagle is inspired in the family coat of arms of Lord Palmerston, that gives the city its name. The origin of the tower is currently unknown.

Using a banner of arms, maybe removing the bordure, was too easy, to I took it a step further, keeping only the colors and the identifiable symbolism.


Now I think Palmerston North could have the flag it deserves. I made a variant version with a punning palm tree:


I think it breaks a bit of flag's charm, that's simplicity and symmetry. So I made another variant, incorporating the shell, a badge of the palmer (i.e. pilgrim). As can be seen, the golden shell is also present in current crest.


I think options 1 and 3 are beautiful and distinctive and both could be used. Which one do you prefer?
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Next week, a very polemical flag issue.

New Zealand [II]

New Zealand is going to hold a referendum about a flag change. NZ Government is listing all the designs submitted so far. Looking there, I got in the mood of submitting my own design.













I thought about submitting the flag of my original post about NZ, but similars design were already submitted. So I made this design:













The Southern Cross is were it was supposed to be. I decided to use a straight silver fern instead of more usual, curved fern. Due to laziness, I used the same fern from a (beautiful, indeed) design by James Bowman, from Auckland:













I think the silver fern and Southern Cross are more neutral than Union Jack or Tino rangatiratanga (main Maori flag). The silver fern could be, obviously, of a motif different from Bowman's.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Not submitted it yet, but may do it next days.

Dunedin (New Zealand)

The city of Dunedin is the capital of the New Zealandic province of Otago, and second most populated city of South Island.

Its flag, whose use is restrict to city council and other authorized bodies, is the banner of arms, similar to this:

The green zigzag line refers to Otago's mountains and valleys, and its three tops refer to the Mounts Flagstaff (yes, a vexillologic mountain!), Swampy and Cargill. The ram (wool and mutton) and the sheaves (cereals) represents some important economic activities of the region. The castle is inspired in the famous Edinburgh Castle, present on the flag of the Scottish city of Edinburgh, as "Dunedin" name was took from Gaelic name of Edinburgh, Dùn Èideann, and even some Dunedin streets, etc. are named after Edinburgh counterparts. The ship represents the first Scottish immigrant ships, being the foundation of the town related to Free Church of Scotland.

My proposal, using a geometrical approach, is the following:

On bottom, the same zigzag lines of coat of arms, representing the mountains, valleys and the bay (where there's a port), while the blue and white is supposed to form, together with bottom part, an allusion to the Scottish saltire, a reference to Edinburgh and the Scottish founders of the city.

I like the result, aesthetically, but I fear that, maybe, it's a too radical departure from original flag. Anyway, differently of council flag, this flag could be freely flown.

Comments are welcome. Feel free to comment.
I'd like to wish an excellent 2014 to all, and give thanks to all the support during 2013.

Australasia

In some past sportive competitions, i.e. 1905 to 1914 Davis Cup and 1908 Olympic Games, Australia and New Zealand competed as a unified team under the "Australasia" name. They used this flag:

This flag resembles too much the flag of two countries. The crown is there because Australia and New Zealand was, at time, British colonies. It's a sportive flag, so I improved it to look appropriately, if someday it would be needed again. My idea was use symbols and colors yet associated with sports. The result was this:

The position of the symbols denotes the position of their countries at map. Green and gold are Australian sportive colors, took from golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha), its national floral emblem. Supporter flags with kangaroos aren't uncommon in Australian stadiums. The New Zealand is symbolized by the colors of "All Blacks" and a national symbol, the silver fern, very used in sportive kits. The Southern Cross at the center is a common symbol to the two countries, and was also used in "original" Australasian flag.

I also created a variant flag, with a kiwi replacing the fern, using a typical animal to each one:

What's your opinion about the flags? Feel freely to comment.

Sorry I didn't post nothing last week. I'll try to post twice this week for compensation.

I would be very glad if you follow this blog, and I'm always open to suggestions and feedback.

New Zealand

I would be obvious if I said that New Zealand flag is, from afar, almost identical to Australian flag. Also, I'd be obvious if I said that Union Jack isn't synonym of independence. But it's not so evident if New Zealand should have a new flag. In my opinion: yes, it should.

If you pay attention, it's not a terrible flag, explaining why it survives for so time, but I don't know if it "holds the correct message".

I'll show you my proposal. I'm not saying it's more beautiful than Silver Fern, Fighting Kiwi or anything else, but I think it shows better the New Zealand identity. It's there:

It's obviously a reference to Union Jack. But it also refers to Maori flag, that uses red, black and white. The elements of four cantons are koru (seem also in Koru Flag proposal and Maori flag), another representation from silver fern tree (Cyathea dealbata). Koru also symbolizes regeneration and peace. I like the way this flag shows, at same time, the British and the native influences in New Zealanders formation.

What's your opinion about my proposal? Be free to comment.
What's your favorite New Zealand flag proposal? Tell me.