1 Features

the ingredients for a new design
start with a clean sheet of paper

• Put aside convention and preconceptions and take one square canvas for maximum utility and flexibility

•  Add two large chunks of land i.e. New Zealand the distinctive outline of our country. If honest form follows function, should not a symbol to represent New Zealand, be a representation … of New Zealand?

•  Sieve the ingredients: in the standard version, omit Stewart Island; in some variants, omit other islands and/or omit lakes and/or simplify and streamline the coastline

• Position the islands so as the extremities touch – or nearly touch – the edges on the top, right and bottom sides. Thus, a significant area of plain, monochrome space is available on the left side for use in non-flag applications – for logos and /or ‘branding’.

• Colour in the land – fill in with a certain shade of medium- or dark-green, suggesting pounamu [greenstone]  Just add water. The pale- or mid-blue background represents the sea.


[re. the example above:  the coastline is further simplified; the water colour is C=20; M=0; Y=0; K=0; the 'gradient contour' inside the shore outline is for illustrative purposes and not suggested for the flag variant]