5 July 2004

Dick Frizzell designs a new New Zealand flag

Leading New Zealand artist and designer Dick Frizzell has designed a new New Zealand flag.

One of over 50 prominent kiwis providing endorsements of the NZflag.com campaign to change New Zealand's flag, Frizzell said "I can't imagine why anybody WOULDN'T want a new flag!! 'Our flag' simply doesn't feel like OUR flag...it feels like a massive compromise to me...bits of a lot of other country's flags...and surely that can't be a good thing!"

A supporter of the NZflag.com campaign, Frizzell says of his new design, "I've been struggling with this off and on for years...gobbling up huge hours in the studio...and it always comes back to that fern ... and/or that Southern Cross. I'm not particularly bothered that the cross is not unique to us, it can always be re-interpreted ... and it's so damn FLAGGISH ... some traditions are hard to beat and 'stars on flags' is one of them. But it's the fern that does set us apart..."

"The corner to corner arrangement is also an existing flag design tradition.The fern and the star look pretty good ALL in black, but I'm keen to introduce that Pohutakawa green ... partly to strike a note for our green image, and partly to get away from the sports thing."

Frizzell's new design appears in a recently added section on the www.nzflag.com website titled 'New Designs'. The section will highlight new designs that arise as a consequence of the NZflag.com debate.

Over fifty prominent kiwis across a range of disciplines including sports, the arts, education, religion and business are pushing for a referendum on a new national flag.

Their names, photographs and endorsements appear on the www.nzflag.com website (http://www.nzflag.com/endorsements.cfm) and include Olympic gold medallist, Barbara Kendall; world champion squash player Susan Devoy; musician, Neil Finn, and businessmen Stephen Tindall, Dick Hubbard and Chris Liddell.

The www.NZflag.com Trust, established in April seeks to gather around 300,000 signatures early next year to hold a referendum asking New Zealanders to have their say on whether New Zealand should change its flag.

ENDS

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