Flag of New Eiffel

Flag of New Eiffel
	Flag of New Eiffel
Use	National flag and ensign
Adopted	11 August 2018–1 November 2020
Designed by	Zabëlle Skye

The national flag of the Principality of New Eiffel was a red canton with an equal-height horizontal band of blue and yellow beside it. At the bottom right corner of the canton where the blue and yellow meet, the colours turn diagonally to reach the bottom right corner of the flag. Designed by Zabëlle Skye on 9 August 2018, the flag was adopted on 11 August and based on the previous flag of the Kingdom of New Finland—the predecessor state to New Eiffel. After the dissolution of New Eiffel on 1 November 2020, the flag was adopted by the State of New Eiffel in the Grand Duchy of Australis on 12 January 2021 until the state's dissolution on 9 September. It was later adopted by the unaffiliated Republic of New Eiffel on 20 March 2022 and is currently used by the revival of the Principality of New Eiffel since 2 July, which Skye is not involved in but had given permission for.

The Republic of New Finland, founded on 31 December 2017, first adopted a national flag on 1 January 2018. It consisted of a canton of five vertical bands in five colours, with an an unidentified artistic orange symbol made up of four unequally-sized lines fronting a white background as the charge. The republic adopted a second flag on 9 February—a brown Latin cross in front of a white square background as the canton, charged with the coat of arms amidst an orange background. The Latin cross represented Christianity in the micronation. When New Finland transitioned into a kingdom on 4 June, it adopted a new national flag—two equal-height horizontal bands of yellow (above) and blue (below), with a red square the same height as the yellow band in the canton. The flag had five five-pointed grey stars in the centre; three small stars on the yellow stripe and two, larger stars below in the blue portion of the flag.

Variants of the flag included a state flag with five five-pointed stars; war flag with a rifle and red shield; and a ribbon. Neither the flag's colours nor design had any formal meaning. Though, one account asserts that the red symbolised the national military, and the yellow happiness and wealth; the apparent meaning of the blue has been lost. The flag of New Eiffel polarised public opinion; receiving praise for its simplicity yet unique design, it was also criticised for its lack of symbolism. Additionally, the layout also received criticism for its apparent resemblance to a three-dimensional room if the canton was viewed as being the back wall and the blue banner as a floor.

History

First flag

Prototype flag of the Republic of New Finland (left) and national flag

The earliest predecessor state to the Principality of New Eiffel was the Republic of New Finland, established on 31 December 2017. The first prototype for a national flag was designed by then-President Zabëlle Skye on 1 January 2018 at 12:48 a.m. (UTC). When designing the flag, Skye was influenced by the flag of South Africa, and this prototype he designed used all the same colours except for black. The flag was a square bisected by four equal vertical bands in four colours—blue, yellow, green and red—to the left, and an unidentified artistic orange symbol made up of four unequally-sized lines fronting a white background to the right. Although the four colours are identical to that of the flag of Mauritius, it is unknown whether this had influenced Skye. The orange symbol's origin nor intended meaning is unknown. The flag itself may have represented unity. The final version and first official, national flag of New Finland, was finished later that day at 6:35 p.m. The design was similar to the prototype, but the aspect ratio was changed to 1.927 : 1.536, and the bisected bands were inverted—with the addition of an orange stripe—and they were moved into the canton of the flag amidst the white background.

Later flags of New Finland

Flags of the Republic of New Finland (left) and Kingdom of New Finland

The second national flag of New Finland was adopted on 9 February. It consisted of a brown Latin cross in front of a white square background as the canton, with the coat of arms of New Finland charged amidst an orange background. The Latin cross represented Christianity in the micronation but the meaning of the colours of the flag are unknown, as are Skye's influences when designing the flag. However, the location and portions of the cross have been noted to resemble the Christian Flag. The third national flag was adopted on 4 June when New Finland transitioned into a kingdom. Designed by Skye the previous day, the flag consisted of two equal-height horizontal bands of yellow—above—and blue (below), with a red square the same height as the yellow band in the canton—the same colours as the final New Eiffelic flag. The flag had five five-pointed grey stars in the centre; three small stars on the yellow stripe and two, larger stars below in the blue portion of the flag. The stars represented the five residents of New Finland, and the meaning behind the colours is unknown.

Flag of New Eiffel

The final flag of New Eiffel was designed by Skye on 9 August, and based on the design of the flag of the Kingdom of New Finland. Both a state flag and war flag were also designed that same day. This new flag design was officially adopted on 11 August—the same day the Principality of New Eiffel was established. A physical copy of the flag was purchased by Skye in late December. Following the dissolution of New Eiffel on 1 November 2020, the flag would be adopted by the State of New Eiffel in the Grand Duchy of Australis on 12 January 2021, until the state's dissolution on 9 September. It was later adopted by the unaffiliated Republic of New Eiffel on 20 March 2022 and the revival of the Principality of New Eiffel on 2 July, which Skye was not involved in but had given permission for.

Design and reception

The flag of New Eiffel consists of a red—slightly lighter than cardinal—canton, with an equal-height horizontal band of blue—similar to Prussian or navy—and yellow beside it. At the bottom right corner of the canton where the blue and yellow meet, the colours turn diagonally to reach the bottom right corner of the flag. The flag was based on the previous flag of the Kingdom of New Finland. The flag of New Eiffel's design nor colours had any formal meaning. One account asserts that the red symbolised the national military, and the yellow happiness and wealth; the apparent meaning of the blue has been lost. One retrospective account asserted that it represented New Eiffel being "a friendly and welcoming nation."

The design polarised public opinion; receiving praise for its simplicity yet unique design, it was also criticised for its lack of symbolism. Additionally, the layout also received criticism for its apparent resemblance to a three-dimensional room if the canton was viewed as being the back wall and the blue banner as a floor. In the Third Annual Drunkiz Gadurō Micronational Flag Contest held in May 2019—which received votes from the public—the flag of New Eiffel made it past three rounds, beating the flags of Ponderosa Hills, the Empire of Austenasia and Kingdom of Pöllömaa; but lost in round four to the flag of the Republic of Litvania.

Colours	Red	Blue	Yellow
Hex triplet	#c6132d	#00335b	#fdd116
RGB	198, 19, 45	0, 51, 91	253, 209, 22
CMYK	0.00, 0.90, 0.77, 0.22	1.00, 0.44, 0.00, 0.64	0.00, 0.17, 0.91, 0.01
Similar colour(s)	Cardinal	Prussian blue	Bright gold

Variants

The national flag had several variants. The state flag featured five five-pointed grey stars; two large stars on the top-left of the canton and three smaller stars below in the top-left of the blue. Created on 9 August 2018—the same day as the national flag of New Eiffel—and based on the flag of the Kingdom of New Finland, the stars represented the five residents of New Eiffel. There was also a war flag; the first design featured a rifle at the top of the canton, and an off-centre—to the right—red three-pointed shield as the charge on the yellow. It was also created on 9 August 2018, and was never used. A ribbon variant created by 24 October 2019 also existed, as did a variant of the national flag created on 29 October 2019 with a white—with black outlines—five-pointed star in the canton. An unofficial pride flag created to represent LGBT rights in New Eiffel also existed, with the red canton replaced by the 1979 six-tripe rainbow flag. It was created on 11 April 2020. The flag of New Leeds—the largest city of the principality—used the same colours in a horizontal tricolour design.