True colours
stuart May 6th, 2009
We’re big fans at Figures of Shahee Ilyas’ flags as pie charts. That got us thinking about the following information based on national colours. But this post has a clear antecedent in Uriah’s post, The personal body as information design. Have you ever pondered why so many nations seem to have two sets of national colours? Notice how with these examples, Australia, Italy, The Netherlands and Germany, the national football strip does not follow the national flag colours? And there are many more nationalities where the two do not coincide.
In Australia, for all the carry on in recent years surrounding our national flag, when we refer to our national colours we do not refer to those in the flag, the red, white and blue, but instead to the ‘green and gold’. The colours of the wattle, not the flag. In Italy, the blue, once the colour of the royal family, has been clung to despite the abolishment of their monarchy in the 1940s. Similarly, there’s a historical connection in the Dutch strip that precedes the current flag (rather allarmingly, the orange has historical connections with militant protestantism. Surprising for a famously broadminded culture).
In many cases, the national sporting colours seem to have a deeper connection to a national psyche, or to grass-roots sentiments about that country than do the colours imposed upon a nation via national flag through a top-down approach. What are your thoughts on these disconnections between flags and ‘true’ national colours?
Tags: Clothes, Colour, Flags, Football, Geography, information design, Soccer, Sports
May 10th, 2009 at 5:19 am
What are your thoughts on these disconnections between flags and ‘true’ national colours?
What does it say when the colours are the same. Does Switzerland have a stronger connection with its people?
I think sport could represent the grass roots nature of the people, its a physical representation of a crowd and it breeds competition. Are the colors the same in the Olympics?
June 20th, 2009 at 3:21 am
Well, I can only refer back to my country of birth for this.
The national colours the Bosniak people in Bosnia and Herzegovina use are yellow and blue, the colours of teh Bosnia flag (the Bosnia Serbs and Bosnian Croats never use these to represent themselves). Only in the past 20 years have the Bosniaks asserted their own identity, it has been supressed and problematic since the exodus of the Ottoman Empire in 1878.
However, the Croatian people (within Bosnia and in Croatia) use the chess board red and white, of their national Coat of Arms. The Croatians as a distinct Slavic culture have existed since the Slavic migrations into Europe (and the Balkans) and have used these colours since the mediecal times.
In Autralia, the yellow and green, is used, rather than the blue, red and white of the current Flag. I believe that flag is a symbol of Australias birth from the Brittish Empire. I also believe most Australians identify more with their locality than the far away ‘Empire”. That locality is more effectively represented by the wattle colours rather than the coloniser state.
Thus I assert that it might have to do with national identity and the specific cases and experiences of diefferetn Nations, perhaps, post colonised countries are slightly different than others.
In saying that, I have to note that Brazil. A former colony, uses the colours of its national flags in their Soccer Uniforms. However, I doubt that the flag is a remainder from the Portuguese colonisers ( I hope to be corrected by someone reading this if my interepretations are wrong)
Igor
June 24th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Having read the previous two posts, it might seem a little obvious to suggest the opposing national colours could well be perceived as the class colours of each country. The proletariat have little if any say in the colour of the national flag, as this is a decision guarded zealously by those in power. However the national pasttime is the domain of the people and as such is influenced on a grass roots level.
It is an interesting idea that were there to be a civil war in Australia the footy strip could well become military colours.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:13 am
Really like this post, thanks for writing.