History of Europeia's Flag
From Then to Now
Written by Ervald and PhDre
Edited by Zynoid
Did you know that Europeia's flag was not always the prominent circle of stars with a simple five color backsplash? The history of Europeia’s flag is somewhat difficult to explore due to the many broken Photobucket links and incomplete sections of the Wayback Machine’s timeline, but your intrepid reporter was able to uncover some ancient history on the history of the Europeian flag.
The original Europeian flag (which is posted above) which was flying since Europeia’s inception was a flag made up of three elements: a flag of Spain, a flag of the United Kingdom, and a backward white and black map of Europe with a gold star. The gold star appears to be situated in the Benelux region or Switzerland. For a region called Europeia, it is quite European - which is fitting. And for a region whose many original inhabitants were from imperial European-inspired regions such as the Land of Kings and Emperors, founder HEM says the original flag "leaned into the vibe of European monarchy."
If you were to rank this flag based on the five principles of good flag design established by the North American Vexillological Association, it does terribly nowadays but not so much back then. It is not simple but you could argue its symbolism was meaningful back then although not so much today. It has far more than 3 basic colors, it doesn’t have lettering or seals, and while it is distinctive…I think many people would say it is not distinctive in a good way.
On May 16 2007, HEM asked if folks still liked the flag and if there were suggestions for a new one. Some people did not mind the original flag but some responded with negative feelings about it with Mr. Verteger saying “thats terrible. make a new one plz”, and Lethen stating “That is a flag? no, no, no. It just won't do.” Linkin agreed with the previous comments.
The flag was then redesigned by Tweedy (which is posted below), a member of the NationStates community who designed art on request, and adopted on May 25th 2007. Tweedy "took the lead on the art direction," with HEM only requesting that the design retained its original star feature. The new flag was "perfect for our Republican age," according to HEM - but it was presented to the public in Grand Hall to very mixed reactions. Lord Alphanesia and Rotalsia said they liked it while Hyanygo and Mr. Verteger said it looks horrible and hated it, respectively. Pine said he liked it but there was enough opposition that it should be fixed or replaced. Hyanygo and P.R.A proposed their own designs but they never went anywhere. However, Danoboy63 asked about the meaning of the flag including a question that many of us today are still seeking an answer for: “(Like the number or stars stands for what?)”. The opposition to the current flag did not stop there.
On December 25th, 2007, a citizen named nasalivesII proposed that the region should have a new flag as the current flag is associated with “bad memories”. While most defended the current flag, there were others who expressed their dislike for it such as Hyanygo said they still think it “looks gay” and Mr. Verteger stating that while he doesn’t like it, it should be kept. Pez201 pointed out the flag’s asymmetry noting that “the white and green sections on the flag are right-angled triangles, while the brown and red sections are quadrilaterals”. This is an aspect of the flag many citizens still discuss today. But alas, the proposal to replace the flag failed once again.
There have been discussions about the flag since then such as a proposed Europeian Flag Act, joking and casual submissions for a new flag (including one from yours truly), and questions about what the colors and symbolism even mean (according to HEM, the designer of the new flag never revealed what each color stands for in the current Europeian flag). However, there have been no sincere attempts to fully replace the regional flag in almost 18 years.
If you compare the current Europeian flag to the five principles of a good flag design - 1) It is not that simple but neither that complex, 2) the symbolism isn’t meaningful but Europeians clearly like the symbolism, 3) it most certainly does not only have 3 basic colors, 4) there are no lettering or seals, and 5) it is most definitely distinctive in good ways. But quite frankly, a lot of flags on NationStates and real life don’t follow all of those rules. Think about South Africa’s flag or 10000 Islands. At the end of the day, if everyone loves the flag and finds it perfectly Europeia, isn’t that all it matters? Although, we may have just gotten a "new" flag very recently.
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