Trains and Flags

Auckland Train Route

When constructing my map I wanted it to be spacious and visible of where each route was to be going. I decided on a rotating square focusing on the final destinations breaking away from the circuit in the middle at each corner to show the seperations. My choice in colour was not intentionally chosen until being informed of my first use of red, black and green and how I could bring a bit of New Zealand culture into the map. I was thinking if I wanted to take it further I could go for a more artistic look that could loop in with the Maori koru patterns by circling the end parts of routes.

I found this map of an imaginary world wide train route. I found it to be interesting in the fact that not only are the train destinations not geographically accurate but also the way the world is shaped to fit in with the the train routes as if telling us that it is only there as a representation and not to be taken into real life context.

My map of the current train stations plus the proposed city loop.

New Zealand Flag 

The flag seems to have gone through a lot of changes in history to endeavor the nation of a suitable symbolism. I see the original flag, the United Tribes flag as a better representation of the historical culture and has more individuality to it than the current flag. As stated in this website the original flag was decided by Maori chiefs who I think wanted to represent their belonging to the country and show themselves separately and independently from the British. With this being replaced with the Union Jack and later with the current flag I feel this constitutes a sense of British forces dominance over what was at the time the first New Zealanders. I also like to see myself as a New Zealander, not a Briton who came to New Zealand. The flag to me looks like a map for the British to use to sail to here with the southern cross as a direction. Also the current flag has a large resemblance to the Australian flag which does not help us to be referenced as a separate country.

A flag I came across that brings in a lot of depth and meaning yet is very simple in its state. http://johnansell.wordpress.com/category/general/flag/

For my interpretation of what the flag should be I went for something more like the NZ Coat of Arms to show the collaboration and association between the Moari and the British. I also went for something that was unique to New Zealanders to help identify who we are. The choice in colours was constructed from our national colours similar to what most other countries have for their flags. The symbol of the crown would not be my first choice if I had more choice of British symbols as I don't think it shows current times, the only symbol I could find to represent the British was the crown or the Union Jack but I think the Union Jack is too complicated for my map. I would also consider maybe making the entire background black instead of splitting it into threes because I think it looks too much like an equation as if saying British + Maori = NZ. This was more of an idea than a construct, I would not want our flag to be this but have a similar concept with different symbols of our belonging.

My version of the flag, I did not create these symbols which can be found here:

http://www.christchurchmusic.org.nz/files/u761/tikidub_logo.jpg

http://www.vinylvault.biz/images/Silver%20Fern%20-%201.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0e/Columbia_College_of_Columbia_University_crown.svg/286px-Columbia_College_of_Columbia_University_crown.svg.png