Picks 'underwhelming', Otago flag designer says

Gregor Macaulay
Gregor Macaulay
As New Zealand takes sides on the future of its flag, the man who designed Otago's flag has dismissed all four proposed options as ''underwhelming''.

''There's nothing particularly fresh or original in them,'' Gregor Macaulay said.

Mr Macaulay is the editor of the New Zealand Heraldry Society's magazine, and submitted the winning entry to a 2004 competition that gave Otago its flag.

New Zealanders will choose between four flags unveiled yesterday in a poll in November, the winner going up against the current flag in a poll in March.

The 12 person Flag Consideration Panel selected the four designs from thousands submitted by the public. Their selections were approved by the Cabinet before the announcement yesterday.

Mr Macaulay thought all four potential flags unveiled yesterday were ''more complicated than is necessary''.

He favoured keeping the current flag, although, he admitted, it was ''probably a little busy''.

''But it seems to have done the job very well for a very long time.''

University of Otago political scientist Dr Bryce Edwards was similarly underwhelmed by the options.

''The flags aren't likely to be terribly controversial ... but by the same token, they're not particularly exciting or groundbreaking,'' he said.

''They're more likely to be controversial because they're a bit bland.''

Dr Edwards said the blandness of the flags was a problem, because the flag referendum process was, by nature, a nationalistic one.

If no one was excited about it, it would fall flat, he said.

And from an aesthetic point of view, Design Assembly director Louise Kellerman was not enthused by the four flag options either.

She said the flag consideration panel was offering the public only two truly different flag designs; a flag with a silver fern, and a flag with a koru.

''They're presenting us with something that should be further down the design process in terms of looking at variations in colours and layouts rather than concepts.''

There should have been at least one professional designer on the panel, Ms Kellerman said.

But former Dunedin mayor Peter Chin, who is a member of the 12 person panel, said ''the panel is the panel''.

''There are criticisms all over the place; the reality is the panel was appointed by the Government,'' he said.

''I have no issues with that.''

He was equally unmoved by other critiques of the flag referendum process, including the criticism that it was politically motivated.

''We had no political considerations,'' he said.

''We made our decision on the basis that the four flags that were selected were, in the opinion of the panel, the best flags that were presented.''

Mr Chin declined to comment on what he thought the outcome of the two flag referendums would be.

-carla.green@odt.co.nz

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