Christmas Island (Australia)

We're near Christmas, so it's a good season to show my flag proposal to Christmas Island. Firstly, let's see Christmas Island flag and what needs to be changed:

I'll start saying it's not a horrible flag. Actually, I think that when this flag was made official, in 2002, probably  the flag Tony Couch designed in 1986 (this one) was a good choice. But there's some points I dislike about this flag:

1. The map should be dropped. It's not necessary, as there's many other symbols that could symbolize properly the island, and it isn't a remarkable shape.
2. The reason why the map was needed: empty space. Actually, there's empty space everywhere. Personal experiences made me know 1:2 ratio isn't ideal to handle diagonal designs. Papua-New Guinea, for example, uses a 3:4 ratio; I'll use a more conservative one: 3:5.
3. This bird, the golden bosun (symbol of the island), is turned to the wrong direction: tradition and good-taste tell it should be turned to the hoist. Moreover, I would come with a new design.

Now knowing the necessary steps, I came with this design:

Alternatively, if Christmas Island gain bigger integration with the Commonwealth of Australia, this design may be preferred:

I hope you liked the design. Happy Christmas to everybody!

Your comment is very welcome. Please, comment.

No, I don't stopped my Christmas dinner to post it. This post was previously programmed.

Queen Elizabeth Land (United Kingdom)

Today it was announced that part of British Antarctic Territory will be named Queen Elizabeth Land, in occasion of Diamond Jubilee. It's a good opportunity to imagine how this land's flag should look like. Samuel McKittrick, in his own blog, showed his proposals. Now I'll show the mine; it doesn't necessarily means I support the British monarchy or its claim in Antarctic lands —  it's s blog about Vexillology, not Politics.

Like the other flags of British oversea territories, it'll probably adopt a British ensign with with a local coat of arms. Just clarifying: Queen Elizabeth Land will be a region of a territory, not a territory itself. After some tests, I decided for this coat of arms:

[Click to zoom]
The background is formed by white and blue lozenges. Firstly, it emulates diamond shape (a reference to Diamond Jubille). It also is used because it slightly resembles the ice. There's a blue triangular division, with royal cypher on it, as reference to the person whom the land is named for. The cypher contains the crown, so I don't thought it's needed to crown the shield.

After that, I came to the flags in themselves. First, a white ensign, like the British Antarctic Territory flag:

In the other hand, if a blue ensign was preferred, I preview it'd look like the following:

It was only a supposition training; I don't know even if this land will ever adopt a flag.

Please, leave a comment, and help enriching the blog.
I suggest the visit to Samuel McKittrick's post about the same issue. Click here.

Abaco Islands (Bahamas)

Do you know where Abaco Islands are? Probably not, except if you're Bahamian or collect bad flags. Because the islands sure have one of them. Actually, it's not the local flag, that they apparently haven't, but the flag of the (apparently) defunct Abaco Independence Movement, that wanted to became a separated British colony (there was even a proposed governor flag). For now, I should say I'll keep politically neutral on this post.

The flag isn't very good (in some depictions, it's showed even worse). There's a lot of problems on it. Firstly, the flag is overloaded on the right, what means that, on low wind, the flag is indistinguishable. I count seven colors on it (blue, yellow, orange, red, white, gray and black). Too many, for me. And this lighthouse (it's a lighthouse, if you haven't perceived yet) looks like the Tower of Pisa, but it's very straight.

I'll keep the same elements of this flag, only create a better pattern. The lighthouse represents the Hope Town Lighthouse, the islands' most famous landscape. The sun represents freedom on original design, but I'll use as reference to local climate.

The result isn't as good as I wanted, but's still better than the original flag. The flag is more symmetric now, and I preferred the stylized lighthouse in place of the more "cartoonish" one. Four colors are still very many, but obviously less than seven. It's my self-concept to this proposal: not excellent, but better than the original.

Your comment is welcome. Please, leave a comment.
But I'll repeat: I'll not express my personal opinion on Abaco issue. We're only discussing vexillology.
This interpretation of the flag is from there.
I know that was a long time since I published my last post, but I promised it'll return to standard rhythm on January.

Tasmania (Australia)

Many Australian flags still adopt a blue ensign as their own flag, but Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory successfully changed its own flag to a common pattern, often called "Australian pale". There's even a campaign to change all Australian flags to that pattern. To understand better what I'm saying, look at current Tasmanian flag:

A red lion is so generic that it could be used by any other Commonwealth territory. And Tasmania isn't even in Africa or India. I think a best idea should be the unofficial animal of the island, the Tasmania lion (that's actually a marsupial). A specimen of this animal isn't found for decades, but maybe it isn't extinct. Using the bottle green, associated with the island, I came with this flag:

Using the "Australian pale":

A white border to contrast better, and red is also used to represent Tasmania. Being sincere, I still prefer my first design.

Your comment is very appreciated. Please leave a comment.
Probably the blogging rhythm will be altered until the New Year. After that, it returns to standard frequency. 

Daman and Diu (India)

The Daman and Diu territory has a special history in Indian subcontinent. Together with Goa, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, they were part of Portuguese Empire for centuries. Daman and Diu were Portuguese colony for more than 400 years, only being transferred to Indian control in 1961. I once made a flag for Flores (Indonesia) and Ouidah (Benin), with similar histories, and now I continue these series of former Portuguese colonies.

Since now, it's important to distinguish the Indian government flags from the unofficial flags commonly flown. While the government flags are poor (plain white flags with seals or logos, and often writings in English or Native languages), the unofficial flags have much more vexillologic merit. Goa has his own unofficial flag, but neither Daman and Diu nor Dadra and Nagar Haveli have one. Look at this Daman and Diu government ugly flag:

This flag hasn't even their own seal, but the federal emblem. An improvement is needed urgently.

Some information I kept in mind to create the flag: Daman and Diu are separate enclaves in Gujarat state, and their major languages are Gujarat idiom and Portuguese, being these the basis to local identity. My first attempt was this:

This flag has obvious references to Portuguese flag: green thinner vertical stripe and use of red. It has also the colors of Indian flag, representing Native heritage: orange, green and white. One star represents Daman; the other, Diu. It's not a bad flag, but I think it's too conventional and the orange and red doesn't match. So I changed the order of colors:

I think this way the flag became more original. I hope you liked.

Please, leave a comment. It riches the blog.
Note: although some Indian unofficial flags have autonomist or secessionist connotations, I tried to keep neutral on the issue. My point of view is that these flags, purely by aesthetic reason, should replace current government flags.

New blog: Flags of U.S. States

I'm inviting you to my new blog: Flags of U.S. States. There you'll find my opinion about what are the best flags to each American state. All the flags are still done, so it's only time question to post them.

About 25-30% of them are totally original designs, made by myself. The others are current flags, historic flags or flags proposed by other people (the correct credit is given to their respective authors).

To enter the site, click on the link or in the image banner on lateral bar.

Thank you. I hope you like the visit.

Hawaiian islands (USA)

Sometime ago, I tried to find examples of Hawaiian local flags on web. I haven't find a lot of them, only the flags of Honolulu and Oahu counties. So I decided to create a flag to every major Hawaiian island; they're nine.

The source of the colors came from the Ko'Aloha flag, used by Hawaiian nationalists. This is the flag:

Every stripe of the flag corresponds to an island. There are nine of them, as the number of major inhabited islands on Hawaii archipelago. Just below you can see the flags I idealized to them, and its color and the official emblem of the island (from where the colors were took). They follow a template: bi-chromatic, with allusion to nine stripes on superior left canton. The nine stripes appear on Ko'Aloha flag (above), but also on Hawaii official state flag and Kanaka Maoli flag (used by independentist movement).

These are the flags. Click on them to zoom:

	Hawaii Island	Red, from lehua blossom from oahi tree.
	Maui Island	Pink, from lokelani flower.
	Kahoolawe Island	Gray, from hinahina plant.
	Lanai Island	Orange, from kaunaoa plant.
	Molokai Island	Green, from leves of kukui tree.
	Oahu Island	Golden yellow, from ilima flower.
	Kauai Island	Purple, from mokihana flower.
	Niihau Island	White, from pupu shells.
	Nihoa Island	Blue, from blue sky and water.

Curiosity: do you know that the official Hawaii flag is the hibiscus? I'm thinking about use it to uninhibited islands, maybe black.

And this is it. Thank you for reading!

Your comment is very appreciated! It's your way to help me improve the blog and the designs. Thanks in advance.
That's the series I promised about two weeks ago. Debt paid!
I'm thinking about create more geometric models. If possible, I'll be replacing the flags one by one.
If you're interested on theme, see related bibliography: [1] and [2].