The April edition of our newsletter is out early, featuring an insightful article political science professor and psephologist Erik Herron on last year’s referendum in New Zealand. (That vote determined the design that Kiwis are deciding this month whether to adopt as their new national flag.)
Contents for Vexilloid Tabloid #57:
- Introduction: Psephology and NZ; Mississippi (Ted Kaye)
- How would you re-design the US flag?
- Plan to attend NAVA 50 this October in San Jose
- State of Jefferson’s Symbols Evolve (Ted Kaye)
- Feature Article: New Zealand’s Flag Referendum and Theories of Voting (Erik Herron)
- Flag Design Questions (Max Pickering)
- South Bend, Indiana Has a New flag
- Vexillographic Doughnuts for the PIFF
- “Get Well” Flags (Michael Orelove)
And, as always: notes from our last meeting, the Portland flag miscellany, the What’s that Flag? quiz, and more!
Portland Flag Association 
Great! What is your take on the current referendum?
The PFA as a group doesn’t have a position. We’re just interested observers.
The Feng Shui people in NZ said that “The alternative to the New Zealand flag is “bad feng shui” and could bring bad luck, instability and even a stock market crash”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11605003”
Does the PFA consider Feng Shui in flag design? ;p
Well, Good Flag, Bad Flag design principle 2 is Use Meaningful Symbolism, a corollary of which is Don’t Use Symbolism Which Has Negative Meanings. So insofar as Feng Shui, or any other spiritual understanding, is meaningful to the people of New Zealand, the answer is: yes! :-)
ha…ha… it would be interesting to have a feng shui analysis for the whole set of national flags, and see if there is a strong correlation between economic development and the feng shui score given to a flag… Do you have any feng shui specialists in Portland? That would be good fun!!! :)
BTW, they say that black on top is very bad for feng shui, but the German economy is the strongest in Europe… I don’t trust feng shui-based vexillology :p