This past weekend was the 50th anniversary of the Canadian flag. It has aged well, while timeless is one of those words that’s overused it actually does apply here, it doesn’t look like it’s from any particular era and it clearly wasn’t an attempt to be hip and trendy, which is good when you’re trying to make something to last for a long time. Plenty of flags have aged poorly because they are too closely identified with the specific time and place where they were created, taking trendy colour combinations or throwing on a few too many symbols, a process which looks good for a time but eventually starts to age rapidly. Here, we have a flag that is simple, direct, endlessly adaptable – stamp it on a coin or a plaque and you don’t lose any integrity – and instantly recognized as a symbol of the country.
It stands to reason that the Canadian flag could be considered an inspiration for other counties. In particular, those countries looking for a new flag. Countries like New Zealand, which is currently in the middle of a highly contentious debate about whether or not they need one. Their problem is that their flag is a bit too similar to the flag of Australia, and some people within the country really hate that. Other people in the country don’t think it’s a very big deal at all, and think a vote to replace the flag is a waste of time and money. That’s only natural, the drive to get a unique Canadian flag wasn’t exactly a time of sunshine and happiness here either. A long and contentious debate happened here as well, even if we’re all proud of it now it wasn’t a case of instant acceptance and pride. Fifty years later we might know we’ve made the right choice, but at the time the answer is significantly less clear.
Still, with the benefit of our example swaying in the breeze, New Zealand can at least take some inspiration from the struggle to get a new standard of their own. They should be able to figure out how to get a decent flag design if they just look at ours and also look at the examples we rejected.
From the start, pick one symbol and stick with it. It doesn’t matter what that symbol is, so long as it’s important to the country, but the moment you’re trying to pick more than one it quickly becomes cluttered. The single maple leaf works because it’s instantly recognizable, it would be a lot less effective if there was a maple leaf and then a bunch of other stuff spread around. New Zealand has gone with a fern, which is good, but then there’s an attachment to the southern cross currently on their flag, which is also good. Both symbols together? It’s a mess.
Also, recognize you can’t recognize everyone. You’re trying to summarize a country in a piece of cloth, but trying to do too much quickly gets out of hand and you’ve got a mess of competing design elements. A good flag is a contradiction, it’s simultaneously specific and vague, it identifies a country but doesn’t identify any specific person or group within it.
If they wish to, New Zealand has an opportunity to create a new flag that really captures the spirit of their nation and carves out an identity distinct from their Australian neighbours. Now they need to take inspiration in design from the countries that got it right. Since Canada is one of those counties, they should be looking at us for inspiration.
