Final poster designs & rationale

Rationale

For this brief I decided to take the stand point of pro flag change, in the upcoming referendum. The concepts I chose to follow, were that of monarchial dominance over the New Zealand culture and also the general confusion and identity crisis we face as a nation if we do not take advantage of this opportunity to change our flag. While researching various countries, in order to find other flags similar to New Zealand's (other than Australia) I stumbled across many more of what I call 'sub-flags' usually representing states in countries such as America and Australia. These discoveries confirmed the original spot-the-difference concept I had with the Union Jack flags as a good lead to follow. Finding more only emphasised the rhetoric for my argument, the notions of Ihi I wanted to portray with the "Unique? New Zealand." image is an overwhelming, invasive amount of British colonial symbolism, combined with confusion to hopefully evoke a feeling of lost identity. Using metonymy with the black and white in this poster, echoed by the Maori flag makes the choice for a potential new design obvious and clearly unique. My 2nd final poster alludes to a similar dominance by the British commonwealth, this time homaging the famous American Gadsden flag which was designed to represent independence. The scale of the Kiwi bird to the stomping shoe is intended to create a feeling of belittlement amongst true New Zealanders. After becoming a dominion in 1907, I believe New Zealand is long overdue for a change of flag and if we become a republic, the flag will be changed regardless of the referendum, so why not do it now where we can all chip our two cents in. Using a bold yellow and contrasting dark colours, a pastiche of traditional poster designs the Ihi of this final poster I believe to be action, revolution and quite a powerful metaphor of "Don't tread on our identity". The poster speaks for itself, but for audiences with an interest in historical revolution and/or flags in general, this should be even more persuasive and effective.

Final concept 2 further developed

In this initial design I have gone for a direct homage to the "DONT TREAD ON ME" Gadsden flag. The depiction of a snake with Maori symbolism in it, seems quite culturally insensitive and a bit offensive. Will have to look for another representation of what is uniquely New Zealand

Making a vector of a kiwi bird to replace the controversial serpent, is far more effective to portray NZ culture and suits the colours of the shoe and complements the other colours used in the palette.

Now with the Kiwi, the text is unnecessary, as the image speaks for itself with the treading action of the British imperialist foot. I've kept the text in the speech bubble small, to draw the audiences attention in and to visualise the fact that we don't usually have much of a say on these topics, and for us the change the flag while we can before New Zealand's culture is trodden on.

Adding a call to action is a good idea for this poster. The current text and image alone I think effectively sums up the topic of conversation, so a more subtle call to action would be ideal. Simply a date of the estimated referendum, keeps the audience interested and guessing rather than spelling it out for them.

In this final design I have adjusted the yellow, to a slightly less green more mustardy yellow. This complements the other colours used without losing it's bold contrast. It also suits the pastiche of an old-timey poster design more effectively.

Final concept 1 further developed

The Ihi intended with this poster is to catch the attention of the onlooker with contrasting colours and overall busyness. I think this concept displays a strong message of confusion and monarchial dominance. It is very contrasted and hard to look at, similar to the New Zealand flag, some consider to be a bit of an eyesore. The alignment is crucial in order to execute this concept effectively

Using the inverted dark blue colour in this design, gives the poster an old-timey pastiche. Through subversion I've managed to construct a question mark using all the union jack flags I found. This makes the message of confusion much clearer than the confusing union jack mash up. It is obvious they are flags, but the '?' may not be noticeable enough. Supporting text could be edited

 

Looking for a way to make the flags themselves stand out as well as making the question mark clearer, I've explored gradients. However this gives the poster a tacky look and looks confused as well as confusing.

Using a solid blue metonymously with the distinctive blue of the British colonial themed flags. The Ihi I hope to achieve is initially confusion, followed by anger when the audience figures out what is being shown in the image and hopefully wonder "Why is our flag like that?" complete with the call to action @flagchangenz should make for a persuasive poster. Portraying the mistaken identity New Zealand has with other countries and going for the over saturation of flag designs, is more of a parodic approach rather than homage. I want this design to be eye catching and bold, and also make the audience laugh a little at the surplus of and non-individuality between the flags.

In this design, it might not be quite clear in the thumbnail, but I have incorporated a flag-like texture behind the flags. Still using metonymy with the British blue, but a slight gradient rippling effect gives a very fluid flag-like feel but also maintains the shapes of the flags, making what they are clearer. The body text I've decided to include is a direct quote from the call to action website www.nzflag.com. The quote supports my concept of confusion and frustration with New Zealand's current flag design.

For my final approach, I wanted to incorporate the more well known Kiwi colours, reflected in our national rugby team. This serves to give the poster a nice border, as well as drawing attention to the maori flag in the top right of the image. This supports the theory that changing the flag will give New Zealand our identity back, as well as standing out and being completely unique to the other 49 flags. Using a tiled mosaic of the flags, combined with intentional shading using the horizontal lined flags in the question mark flags, is intended to give the '?' a 3-D block look. I hope to reinstate a sense of pride in our country with the black & white border and body, as well as a happy feeling when the audience discovers the hidden question mark.

Concept development

Rendition of a tattooed Maori chief, vandalised with the union jack. The symbol of the union jack has associations with power and authority, when contrasted with old style and with use of bold colour I think the message becomes quite clear. 

Researching further into the union jack flag confusion, came across tens of flags including the symbol or having similar traits to the N.Z flag. More than half of the flags shown belong to a country, the minority on the other hand are mostly Australian & American states, obscure islands, and one or two historic flags. This in turn shows the identity crisis our country is facing, confronting the audience with a "?" displays a visual metaphor of confusion in a very tightly aligned manor. Could perhaps include some body text to direct the audience to a place of discussion on the topic.

Similar to the question mark poster, this drawing explores the countries that have flags containing the Union Jack. Using a sort of parodic approach, using the surplus of names to construct the dominating features of the symbol scaling it to the edges of the poster. An interesting concept, but when it comes to the Ihi quite finicky. Might be too obscure to expect an observer to stop and read enough names to understand the message.

If executed in a cleaner manor, this poster could be quite effective but the flag change stance isn't clear. Would need back up text or catchphrase, but this would likely be too busy and too much to read.

Further research

The Gadsden Flag

A historical American flag, named after American general Christopher Gadsden who designed it during the American Revolution. It symbolises independence, similar to Benjamin Franklin's drawing of a dissected snake with the words "Join or Die" written above it representing unity. It would be interesting to utilise this powerful image and do some sort of parodic take, such as the monarchy treading on us by not representing New Zealand's diverse culture in our flag.

New Zealand referendum cartoon

Although defending New Zealand's current flag, this cartoon argues a good point. Juxtaposing the flag referendum with an opposing list of somewhat more important issues N.Z cannot vote for, this is against my chosen stance on the topic but it may be effective to use in a context displaying the fact 'We don't often get to vote, lets take the opportunity while we can and change the flag' or 'We don't have much of a say in N.Z, let's take advantage of this opportunity"