Stuff piece on Red Peak

Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, September 13th, 2015 - 23 comments
Categories: identity, International - Tags: ,

Stuff has a piece up on how the popular Red Peak / First to the Light flag resembles a logo from a small American engineering firm. (At time of writing Red Peak still dominates the poll.)

Oddly there are no Stuff pieces on the things that the shortlisted fern flags resemble:

flag-ferns1

flag-ferns2

flag-ferns3

flag-ferns4

flag-ferns5

flags ha ha

23 comments on “Stuff piece on Red Peak ”

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  1. weka 1
    13 September 2015 at 10:33 am

    “The couple, from the town of Apex (population 42,000 and recently named the most desirable place to live in America) received an email about the flag debate “from a random New Zealand citizen” on Wednesday.”

    Was that you BM? (he’s been running a line about the engineering logo for the past week or so. Didn’t manage to convince anyone it was a problem though).

    • weka 1.1
      13 September 2015 at 10:36 am

      Julie Schmidt, the North Carolina designer who created Peak Engineering’s logo seven years ago, said she could see immediate similarities when comparing the two designs as drawings.

      “But when I see it as a flag, I feel like it’s a different kind of thing.

      “I think it’s probably safe to say that shapes like triangles or squares lend themselves to certain ways that you would dissect them – I don’t know that there’s any original ideas anymore . . . with the Internet, we can see lots of images, but if we could really see all the things in the world, there would probably be a 1000 things that looked like that.

      “I think if they were an engineering firm in our state, that would be a concern. But a flag in New Zealand? That makes it kind of cool – and again, they could say it’s different because there’s a blue triangle. I’m all for people putting more good design and more good work out into the world. And if it is enough to make people have a conversation, I think that’s a good project.”

    • BM 1.2
      13 September 2015 at 10:37 am

      Wasn’t me.

      I originally saw it on the trade me forums.

    • sabine 1.3
      13 September 2015 at 11:03 am

      I did mention that it looked like a corporate design. but I was told that that was heresy, cause its awesome.

      I still think the whole process is a sham, a farce, a fucked up piece of brain dump, and the support of the triangle corporate engeneering feat is nothing more then people wanting to vote for something that the PM does not support. It has got nothing to do with this country, does not present this country, and is just crap,.

      there i state it again.

      someone in the Herald or another of the NZ fishwraps called for the process to be canned and at some stage be started again, this time not as a legacy for a Rugby Fan boy who likes to pull heair, but as a process that involves the country, raises the necessary questions about who we are, what we are, what our history is, and what the history will be that we will write in the future.
      But hey, everyone vote for the fern, the triangles, the rubbish bin that is our national discourse, because that is better then doing nothing. right?

      Sharon Murdoch as always nails it.

    • joe90 1.4
      13 September 2015 at 11:50 am

      (he’s been running a line about the engineering logo for the past week or so. Didn’t manage to convince anyone it was a problem though).

      A natz line.

      Keeping Stock (10,164 comments) says:
      September 11th, 2015 at 8:38 am

      Oh wait; there’s another one, and it’s even more like Red Peak

      http://peakengineeringdesign.com/

      Did nobody promoting Red Peak do due diligence?

      • sabine 1.4.1
        13 September 2015 at 12:16 pm

        red peak, like the others just look like a cheap knock off of something that is already in use.

        but aside from the odious choices presented to the public to vote on, my issue is not so much with the designs, – we are just re-inventing the wheel and it seems that square wheels are fashionable- for me it is the lack of discourse and defining of our countries future that is the missing aspect.

        Red Peak by itself would not win, it wins because its the anybody but the Hairpullers choice. And that is the fucking saddest reason to vote for a national flag that i could possibly think of.

  2. weka 2
    13 September 2015 at 10:44 am

    Murdoch on Vanity Flags (warning for content of naked Key).

    https://twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/642804762186924032

  3. dukeofurl 3
    13 September 2015 at 10:53 am

    Where can you buy the ‘party plates’

  4. marty mars 4
    13 September 2015 at 11:14 am

    I was a bit shocked to see, above, the gnat and labour ‘flags’ superimposed upon one of the designs shortlisted – not even pretending anymore, are they.

    • weka 4.1
      13 September 2015 at 11:30 am

      Yep. And look at the ratio of red to blue.

    • b waghorn 4.2
      13 September 2015 at 2:22 pm

      I’ve noticed any right winger asked in the last couple of weeks pushes the Lockwood one with black in the corner. Can’t have red on planet key I guess , but Winny will be happy.

  5. swordfish 5
    13 September 2015 at 11:32 am

    Red Peak also bears some resemblance to the City of Denver’s flag … https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Flag_of_Denver,_Colorado.svg/2000px-Flag_of_Denver,_Colorado.svg.png

    (click on the wee magnifying glass, ignore the yellow sun, and you’ll see what I mean)

  6. AmaKiwi 6
    13 September 2015 at 11:39 am

    Key’s fiasco! I love it.

    Government is supposed to SOLVE problems, not to create them.

    Key’s huge ego has micromanaged him into this delightful mess and he’s set the timeline so he can’t escape from a trap of his own making.

    • Bearded Git 6.1
      13 September 2015 at 8:26 pm

      +1 AmaKiwi Key’s messy (3rd) preference design is set to lose. but even if it was to scrape in with 51%, 49% of people would not be happy. Not what he wanted.

      That will teach him to politicise the process-very poor judgement. Yet again.

      Why do some people still believe Key is some kind of political genius?

  7. Lanthanide 7
    13 September 2015 at 1:21 pm

    That aircraft patch is actually because Lockwood’s flags have been around since about 2003 or so, and someone in that airforce copied his design. So it’s not so much that the flag looks like the patch, as it is that the patch is infringing on Lockwood’s intellectual property.

    Also here are two more pictures for you (logos of government departments):
    http://www.immigration.govt.nz/Images/logoPrint.png
    http://generateaccounting.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Companies-Office-logo.jpg

  8. katipo 8
    13 September 2015 at 5:35 pm

    Red Peak also is reminicent of the old NZ Rail logo.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nzr_logo_old.png
    and to me, both of them look a lot more flag-like than the chosen 4.
    So best options for this entire screwed-up process are…
    FIRST VOTE: Either spoil voting paper or rank 1-hypno, 2-B&W, 3-Black_fern, 4-Red_fern
    FINAL VOTE: Vote to keep the current flag, as this will cost us the least.

  9. Gaby 9
    14 September 2015 at 2:19 pm

    The original flag is fine and should remain as the NZ flag. There are so many on-going issues such as housing crisis and the Syrian refugees that could benefit from the money, instead of wasting it on a flag. Besides, i feel that the current NZ flag represents New Zealand’s history and people, a change would only mean a loss of identity.

    “The New Zealand flag is the symbol of the realm, government and people of New Zealand. Its royal blue background is derived from the ensign of the Blue Squadron of the Royal Navy. The stars of the Southern Cross emphasise this country’s location in the South Pacific Ocean. The Union Jack in the first quarter recognises New Zealand’s historical origins as a British colony and dominion” (Nzhistory.net.nz).

    Yes, good effort in creativity, however, why the wastage on cost of changing something that nobody had a problem with to begin with, when it could perhaps be invested into the NZ housing crisis for example?

  10. John Hughes 10
    14 September 2015 at 3:53 pm

    I take your point about how the fern looks like some other designs. The Major League Baseball, although it admittedly looks a bit like the blue and red silver fern, is the other way round and doesn’t have stars on it. Correct me if I’m wrong- I’m not a baseball fan.

  11. NZJester 11
    14 September 2015 at 8:24 pm

    If we just wait a few years I’m sure our flag will look nothing like the Aussie flag as they will change their one as they become a Banana republic

  12. Lloyd 12
    15 September 2015 at 11:47 pm

    red peak peeks into the latest Mark Ten e-cigarette advertisement – of course it doesn’t look like a corporate logo…

    I had a thought. If we adopt a black flag with white on it, New Zealand troops will have to be withdrawn from the middle east. The reason – Any black flag with white squiggles on it will be classified by american pilots and drone-jockeys as being the Isis flag and the area around the flag will become a free-fire zone. All peace loving New Zealanders should support the flag with the greatest amount of black in the desgm

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