Flag of Esperance

Here is my proposal for the flag of Esperance:





The stripes represent the six continents (white stripes) and the seven seas (blues stripes), while the 12-stars in a cirlce represent unity and completeness.

Let me know what you think.

Honestly? Not very good. It looks like a replica of the US flag, just with different colored stripes. But since we're talking about a clean slate here, why do we need a flag anyway?

First off, thanks for your participation jumpboy11!

True, it's not notably original. I had entertained the idea of not having a flag. Symbolism isn't needed. It is, however, useful for promotional purposes, especially in the early stages of the project. A flag like this would sort of sum up what we're exploring here. Existing nations are represented with flags; a new flag implies a new nation.

This flag would differ from more nationalistic flags by the fact that it tries to represent the whole earth (6 continents, 7 seas) in unity and equality (12 stars).

Personally, I love the stripes, though I'm not so sure about the stars. Its resemblence to the US flag is not coincidental. The US flag represents the last new nation; the Esperian flag would represent the next one.

The overall familiarity of the design means that it is also unmistakebly a national flag, and not some other logo or symbol.

The 4 blue stripes=> the 4 endeavours of mankind (Freedom, technology, Happiness, Peace)
The White => that this is a clean slate, we could do what we want with it.
The Green Pentagon => Harmony with ourselves & Nature
The Gold line => All of these are connected, can have the words 'Esperance city' on it.

That is excellent; I like it! I especially like the idea of the white space representing a 'clean slate'. It reminds me of my first design, which also featured blue and white vertical stripes:



In this design, the white spaces represented the left and right wing views, while the white cirlce represented centrism (seen through a porthole which represents the limits of personal observation), and also the united people and cultures of the earth (white being representative of all colors).

I dropped this design because it was too nationalistic (an ideal flag shouldn't be so explicitly symbolic), and looked too much like some of the Nazi flags (which were similar but featured swastikas in the middle).

Tell me jumpboy11, where did you find out about this site? What are your areas of interest?

As you can tell, this forum hasn't received very much exposure. Be sure to tell your friends about the project. All contributions are welcome.

- Mike

Actually, I found it from newmars.com. Same username, I'm one of the most active members.

And if you like the flag, maybe replace the one on the homepage.

Surely, if your working from a clean slate, the flag should not in any way resemble the boring flat conventional flags already in existence which were basically designed to be manufactured by medieval technology but rather should be something altogether different. A picasso painting of a dove, a damian hirst color chart, a holographic city scape, a totally new and unique graphical branding and identity for the city. Given we can almost put anything on a flag nowadays shouldn't it try and break a few conventions?

Yes, absolutely. That would be a great idea. I did contemplate this myself, but I had trouble conceiving more elaborate designs, and I'm not too good with paintshop; hence the more traditional design. For the moment I'd like to keep using it, at least until something better is proposed. Consider it a preliminary design.

- Mike

More Flags:

Somewhat of an amalgamtion of the New Zealand Silver Fern flags and the Flag of Ottowa:



Flag of Ottowa, Canada:



Flag of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina:

The Flag should definatly be made up of Red, Green, and Blue, due to them being the three main colors of light. With Black and White.

maybe White, Blue, Yellow-brown and Green, the colors of earth as seen from space.

How about having a big picture of the milky way for our flag?

honestly, I don't think that would be too bad. Maybe the Cosmic Background radiation.


Milky way:



[original picture changed by administrator to reduce width]

Symbolism can be found in the heart and minds of the citizens of the most successful civilizations on Earth. The Greeks and the Romans had their gods, the British have(had) their monarch, and the United States has many, but for the sake of space let's say freedom. But is symbolism necessary for a society to be successful?

I believe it is.

Symbolism allows people from vastly different backgrounds to identify with each other and form common ground.

It gives citizens a reason to work for the common good.

The ideals invoked by a nation's flag can rally a nation.

It provides a backbone, something to lean on when hope is diminished.

When darkness seems to engulf a nation, a symbol can pull them through.

If it's symbolism you want how about:
∞φ
In black and white and big font.

I don't know which meaning you're referring to, but that can be interpreted as infinite wisdom or knowledge. Which I kind of like.

I was going for infinite potential.

There's tons of ways to interpret it, maybe it could have many meanings?

To be honest I was just be being sarky about your ode to symbolism.
Common cause brings people together, not symbolism. Shared need and suffering brings a nation through the dark times. I doubt many people would accept their religous belief as tied to their nationality or indeed that their god is purely symbolic. The British Monarchy is anything but symbolic, it is the height of political pragmatism. 1000 years of political development has diserned two things to be true:
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Those who most seek power, are those least suitable to wield it.
Therefore the position of highest authority in the UK system has absolutely no power and cannot be held by anyone who would seek to hold it, only by those randomly born to it.
As for the flag, it really is only in America that the national flag is so revered and adulated, every other nationality in the world kind of looks away embaressed when they see it. The assumption is that it is a young nation thing, a subconscious lack of confidence in their actual nationhood, but nobody likes to ask.

American interpertation ( I guess someone has to apologize for the current world power):
ummmm something power related, I suppose...

I can't imagine many people that would look away embarrassed when they see their country's flag, that seems absurd. Or did you mean other nations are embarrassed by American's displays towards their own flag? Other nations still have a respect for their country's flag...

Ode to symbolism perhaps, but common cause alone can't unite people.

It also seems you may be misinterpreting the fundamental definition of a symbol; something that represents another.

The British Monarchy nowadays is completely symbolic, the queen has no real power other than ceremonial. And when the monarchy did have power, they still had symbolic duties as well.

As for what the flag should look like, something not falling into the trap of old conventions is necessary. The flag of Ottowa is neat.

I think the whole flag issue is a bit trivial, personally.

In order to contradict that ( ) I would suggest an equilateral triangle and an infinite sign. Something like this:



An equilateral triangle for equality, an infinity sign for infinity. One interpretation is infinity of equality.

Green for life, blue for the ocean "from whence we came"

Very contradictory, but I love adding suggestions to things like this.

That's interesting. I'm reading this in a room with two american flags hanging down and the union flag hung on the wall.

Something to do with looking towards the future?

Infinity of equality, it was meant to mean, although the fact that the triangle points upwards is very symbolic (or at least it could be)

I was most definitely talking about the American adulation of their flag, that sort of rampant patriotism always strikes more mature nations as somewhat embarassing to see in others. There is a vast difference between respect for one's flag and draping yourself in its colours and marching up and down main street trying to sell toothpaste, as it were. As Johnson said, "patriotism is the last refuse of a scoundrel".

It is true, patriotism has gone rather too far in America. (Look at that, we won't even admit that there are 35 other nations that could be represented by that term, and it would be like france calling itself Eurasia) USA, then.

But at the moment, we are managing to lean both towards fascism and communism. Imagine that! No wonder Dem and GOP hate each other.

Sorry- OT. What I'm trying to say is that it's okay ot be proud of your nations accomplisments (First modern democracy, man on the moon, highest GDP and effective ruler of the world :? )So maybe patriotism in Europe is a bit low, but it is definitely better than what we have in america.