Flags, Seals, and iconography

[Claude Desmoulins]

Since our distinguished former colleagues in Port Neualtenburg are keeping the Wittelsbach blue and white and keeping the chicken, AFAIK, we may want to look at creating new iconography. Even though Moon did the current red yellow and black city seal, the chicken association is still an issue.

Also, there is the question of images/flags/seals for Neufreistadt vs. images/flags/seals for CDS. Each entity probably needs its own set. The former could probably be germanic while the latter might need be more general.

So, creative folk of the community, what ideas do you have?

[Brian Livingston]

It should be something that communicates a set of values, themes even.

Values such as strength, integrity, civic mindedness, as well as an over arching theme of freedom, not neccessarially in the uncle sam sort of connotation, but perhaps in another sense.

I'll think some more and post an actual concept soon.

[Pelanor Eldrich]

Freedom: The torch (right hand raised)
Progress: The light from the torch
Justice: The scales (left hand at body)
Democracy: A avatar (modelled on Gwyn)
Multiple Sims: A star for each one (2 currently). Mid-point, large black or white to either side of the avi.

It's like the statue of liberty on a flag.
Maybe wrap the whole thing in a thin UN style wreath symbolizing peace. And make the background blue, just cuz I like it.

Or we just use the Swiss flag with our old blue as the background instead of red.

Problem with this: It's *painfully* American. However the statue of liberty was made in France and I'm not sure where the scales of justice come from. Also, the US cannot take credit for using stars, although it's an old practice to have 1 per state.

[Dianne]

I would like to suggest something simpler.

Unfortunately we can't post images so I can't show the pictures I have, but teh design is this:

We still have a bavarian or at least germanic sim, so I propose we keep the blue and white. We use an accepted variant of the bavarian flag which is simply a field divided either horizontally or vertically into two stripes of blue and white. We could also use the bavarian diamond lozenges, but I feel the stripes are cleaner looking.

Ulrika and Kendra have the chicken, (hopefully it is a female chicken as the rooster has some baad juju heraldically speaking. ), so we stick with the bird theme and use a [i:2vj1ae0l]white heraldic owl[/i:2vj1ae0l] figure as our defining motif (symbolising sagacity), on a [i:2vj1ae0l]shield of black[/i:2vj1ae0l] for strength. This would float in the middle of the flag sort of like the way the bavarian coat of arms floats on some of the flags Kendra used.

If we like, we can go further and pick helmets, badges and other heraldic elements to make up a proper coat of arms in keeping with heraldic tradition. Since we are a medieval city, this would be the most appropriate approach to our flag I think. If we need some kind of graphic logo for the "overarching" entity, then that is something different again.

If anyone is interested in this idea at all, I can make up some flags in a jiffy and hang them in the platz for a critique.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

A most symbolic insignia would naturally be a roaring phoenix — from the fire we rise again, younger and stronger

[Brian Livingston]

I was playing around with a logo based around the phoenix earlier today, but hit a creative block and moved on to working on my essay on Geomorphology and the Metaverse.

I do like the idea Dianne floated, although I would be interested in seeing a coat with a phoenix as well

[Diderot Mirabeau]

A phoenix owl?

[Dianne]

Well heraldically speaking one can combine any number of beasts and get clean away with it. I hung a fairly primitive mock-up of a flag up outside my store if anyone is interested.

The more I think of it I [i:bhav5xj9]really[/i:bhav5xj9] like the idea of adding stars to the flag as we add sims. This need not be a reference to our American friends, I see it more as a kind of European Union affair. It would show a sense of history to see the stars populate the flag one by one.

If anyone knows of a free site that doesn't need registration that we can post images to for linking here, please email me. This discussion is crying out for pictures, but I don't really want to give out my RL information to "anyone and everyone" reading this forum for the sake of posting a single picture on one of my web sites.

You never know what evil lurkers there are out there.

[Dnate Mars]

One thing that should be remembered is that colors have very strong meanings behind them. We should be mindful of that if we really are going to be our own country.

[Claude Desmoulins]

[quote="Dianne":3fs69a1q]Well heraldically speaking one can combine any number of beasts and get clean away with it. I hung a fairly primitive mock-up of a flag up outside my store if anyone is interested.
[/quote:3fs69a1q]

I looked at this and like the overal concept. However, I wonder. If we really intend to broaden the theme out from Bavarian to Gerrmanic, should we keep the Wittelsbach blue and white?

Purple has royalist associations, but we could try using that or some other color not commonly seen in flags. I guess if we wanted blue, we could do a deeper Sarum blue or some such. I assume here Dianne that you're talking about a sim flag for Neufreistadt rather than the whole thing.

[Dianne]

Yes I am thinking only of Neufreistadt here.

I looked at other colours also. The Munich flag for instance is identical to the bavarian one except black and yellow diamonds instead of blue and white, so thinking of the same general thing of having a coat of arms centered on a field of colours, I tried the owl motif against that background and a black and white diamonds background etc. I also tried various combinations of the "German colours" of black red and orange/gold, but I just didn't personally like it so I did not put that forward.

I just personally kind of favor the blue and white with perhaps gold, black or red as accents. To have an entire flag made from the starker colours is a bit harsh to my eyes I find.

The blue and white with gold accents, are also the same colours as the flag of my province in RL so perhaps that's why I like them.

[Claude Desmoulins]

Of course even if one settles on blue there's

blue #33ccff
or
blue #003366

or of course blue #0000ff

and all the ones in between