Weekly Flag Challenge: Discussion & Entries

Larus Marinus · Jun 11, 2015

I had no decent ideas of my own, so I used one of the examples provided in the challenge.

This is a flag of a Tuareg nation on Mercury, combining a stylized Tuareg cross amulet with the astronomical symbol for Mercury. Surrounding this symbol is a circle, representing the planet itself, with the rays behind/around it symbolizing Mercury's proximity to the Sun. The colors are a reversal of the ones used on the proposals for various Tuareg and Berber flags. Tuareg crosses are generally supposed to be silver, so I couldn't very well make it blue.

FlyingParafin · Jun 11, 2015

Japanese Buddhist colony on Chiron

The flag for the Japanese Buddhist Colony on the 2060 Chiron comet. The Red and White colours of the modern Japanese flag are used here, representing the colony's habitants' ethnicity, as well as a combination of the buddhist Dharmachakra and the greek Chiron symbol.

EDIT: Changed size to fit with 300px max height rule.

Larus Marinus · Jun 11, 2015

TPL99 said:
Anarchist Saturn

FlyingParafin said:
The flag for the Japanese Buddhist Colony on the 2060 Chiron comet. The Red and White colours of the modern Japanese flag are used here, representing the colony's habitants' ethnicity, as well as a combination of the buddhist Dharmachakra and the greek Chiron symbol.

I believe the consensus reached in the recent discussion was that we'd be enforcing the 300px max height rule this time around. You might want to resize your entries to fit that standard, though it's not like the rule was written down anywhere reasonable yet.

Martinus Paduei · Jun 13, 2015

Hey, TPL99, I am not usually favorably inclined toward flags with lettering, but I do like this one!

Jonathan · Jun 13, 2015

Really interesting idea for a challenge. Here is my entry:

This space colony was founded in 2051, by a company owned by a rich homosexual, who wanted a colony, which represented love for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
The flag, bares the multi-coloured flag which has been historically linked to the movement, since the Later 20th Century.
The Black Circle, represents Neith the man-made satellite colony of Venus, while the white full circle with in the thin lined circle, represents the planet (Venus) in which the colonial sphere is in synchronous rotation with.
While its motto "Lambda Gamma Beta Tau" as shown in the black circle is the Ancient Greek letters for LGBT.

Krall · Jun 16, 2015

I'm hoping to enter this round, but I'm confused as to the deadline. The challenge post states that the entry period closes on Wednesday, the 17th of June - does this mean that the entry period closes when Wednesday begins or ends? To put it another way, will entries posted on Wednesday the 17th of June be valid?

Larus Marinus · Jun 16, 2015

Krall said:
I'm hoping to enter this round, but I'm confused as to the deadline. The challenge post states that the entry period closes on Wednesday, the 17th of June - does this mean that the entry period closes when Wednesday begins or ends? To put it another way, will entries posted on Wednesday the 17th of June be valid?

It's usually the end of the day specified as the deadline, since the poll only goes up on the next day. Entries posted before the poll, even if it's after the specified deadline, are usually accepted.

Krall · Jun 16, 2015

Kuld von Reyn said:
It's usually the end of the day specified as the deadline, since the poll only goes up on the next day. Entries posted before the poll, even if it's after the specified deadline, are usually accepted.

Ah, awesome. I should be able to get my entry done on time, then.

Sovereign12 · Jun 17, 2015

The Gnarly-Luddites of Mars

In 2155, with the advent of transhumanism, some felt that the meaning of being human was lost. Rejecting much that the past 100 years had given society, some began to espouse a new luddidic philosophy. Not totally rejecting technology, this philosophy sought to make man the master of technology rather than the other way around. Believing that the 1980's was the last decade that humans were still happy as a species, the Gnarly-Luddites will only use technology based up until 1988*. Pooling their finances together, the Gnarlies were able to purchase enough lift capacity to get them to Mars and the abandoned terraforming colonies. Long since ignored by the majority of cyberformed humanity**, the Gnarlies sought to make Mars their new home for the human species.

The flag is that of Mars with a raised fist superimposed over top. The fist represents the striving for natural biological human perfection over the mechanical. The field is black and represents the infinite potential of humans. The 88 in the corner is for the cutoff date for technology as well as the first 88*** families that came to Mars. It also stands for the term doubly infinite: a sequence that is infinite in both directions, that has neither a first nor a final element to its existence.

* When launches of the former USA space shuttle program resumed.
** The leaders of the cyberform humanity believed it would be good to keep a breeding stock of non-transhumanists around in case something went wrong out in the universe.
*** It was actually 87 families, but one couple divorced on route to Mars and split their children evenly between the mother and father into two separate families.

# Would think it wouldn't be so hard to draw a fist using illustrator! But it was.

Krall · Jun 17, 2015

Is there any estimate for when the voting thread will be posted? I've done the main part of my entry, but I'd like to know how much time I can waste on fiddly details.

Krall · Jun 17, 2015

Krall said:
Is there any estimate for when the voting thread will be posted? I've done the main part of my entry, but I'd like to know how much time I can waste on fiddly details.

Well, it doesn't look like the voting thread's been posted yet, so this entry should be in on time. Unfortunately the size restrictions mean most of my hard work is hard to see.

FLAG OF THE COSMIC HETMANATE OF THE MARTIAN HOST

In 2078 Mars' orbit took it to the opposite side of the Sun from Earth. It was at this point – when the two planets were farthest apart – that a wave of revolutions and unrest swept across Mars. Known as the Arean Mutiny on Earth and the Apogee Secession on Mars, these revolutions heralded the end of Terran colonisation of the red planet, and the inception of numerous independent states founded around nations of Areo-humans – people who, having been born on Mars, had never known Earth as anything more than a dot in the sky.

Chief among these new states was the Cosmic Hetmanate. Founded around the Areo-Cossack community, known as the "Martian Host" – which had its origins in the Soviet's policy of Interplanetary Transportation for suspected dissidents – the Cosmic Hetmanate was one of the most militarily powerful and stable of the new Martian states, quickly assuming a leading role in the All Mars Protectorate in their quest to fortify the planet against future Terran exploitation.

viperhawkz · Jun 17, 2015

Voting thread is up.

Laqueesha · Jun 18, 2015

Sovereign12 said:
The Gnarly-Luddites of Mars

Black, white, red, and 88? Hmm...

Krall · Jun 27, 2015

Here's the new challenge - let's hope I did this correctly.

FLAG CHALLENGE № 132: Convention Schmonvention

Your challenge is to make a flag that defies normal flag design conventions - specifically your flag must not be any of the following:

-A rectangle (non-rectangular quadrilaterals are permitted),
-A simple tricolour, vertical or horizontal,
-A simple cross flag,
-A flag incorporating a canton.

Submissions Open: Now
Submissions Close: Saturday July 4th, at midnight GMT
Voting Opens: Sunday July 5th
Voting Closes: Sunday July 12th

Edit: The height limit for this round is 400px - all entries must be 400 pixels or fewer tall.

Larus Marinus · Jun 28, 2015

Congrats on the victory, Krall!

---

Here's my entry: a US flag done in the style of the Qing/Manchu Eight Banners.

The Professor · Jun 29, 2015

Oooh nice.
The gauntlet has been laid

shiftygiant · Jun 29, 2015

My first crappy attempt at a flag challenge

Flag of an independent Scottish Kingdom as a square swollowtail thing. Based on the Royal Standard.

Larus Marinus · Jun 30, 2015

The Professor said:
Oooh nice.
The gauntlet has been laid

Thanks!

It would be nice if this challenge got as many entries as the last one, but I wonder if it's perhaps difficult to do different flag shapes in some of the programs people here use? I remember it being a bit of a pain back when I used GIMP, anyway.

shiftygiant said:
My first crappy attempt at a flag challenge

Flag of an independent Scottish Kingdom as a square swollowtail thing. Based on the Royal Standard.

The height limit for entries is 300px.

Krall · Jun 30, 2015

Kuld von Reyn said:
Thanks!

It would be nice if this challenge got as many entries as the last one, but I wonder if it's perhaps difficult to do different flag shapes in some of the programs people here use? I remember it being a bit of a pain back when I used GIMP, anyway.

If anyone's having any trouble with that, I'd recommend trying out Inkscape. I'm willing to help anyone who's having issues using Inkscape to make flags, too.

Kuld von Reyn said:
The height limit for entries is 300px.

I may be biased, due to my overly detailed last entry, but I feel like that height limit is a bit low. Is there any way it could be revised up to 400px or 500px?

The Professor · Jun 30, 2015

Krall said:
I may be biased, due to my overly detailed last entry, but I feel like that height limit is a bit low. Is there any way it could be revised up to 400px or 500px?

More a generally followed guideline than an exact rule.
If you specify in your challenge the height restriction that should settle things a little.
Part of the point is to have all flags comparable and 300 was the best at the time since 600 took up too much space.