aro flag ramblings

[iyote]

(Is there an Aromantic Musings and Rantings type of forum that this would fit better in?  Because it's definitely more of a ramble than a discussion, but it's not about asexuality...  Hope it's okay here.)

The aromantic flag has gone through a LOT of redesigns, and the more I think about it the more mixed I feel about each iteration.  

Note: this is a very superficial design-focused ramble.  Expect to find nothing of substance regarding aromanticism, and I'm not honestly proposing another design change for the aro flag.  That'd just be annoying for everybody.  This is just me typing things out somewhere.  

 

OK, so the first aro flag was kind of a disaster: 

This was the flag I first saw when I realized I was aro.  It's a bunch of very bright colors, and from what I heard not many people liked it.  But honestly, I never hated it, and it's kinda grown on me.  It's bold and unique and just weird somehow.  But I agree that it's kinda too much to look at sometimes, and besides, popular opinion seemed against it. 

So, it was redesigned: 

This was the second aro flag I'd seen, and I really like the color scheme.  However, as I understand it, it was changed because the yellow stripe caused some sensory problems.  That's not personally an issue for me, but I do find the bright yellow rather jarring, especially sandwiched in between the pale green and grey.  The colors seem to be getting lighter towards the middle, and then BAM there's a bright yellow stripe.  

So naturally, to make the design look better and make more sense, that middle stripe was changed to white: 

This flag looks really nice in my opinion.  Definitely more visually appealing than the previous two designs.  But I can't help but miss the yellow.  Back in the previous design, the middle yellow stripe represented friendship, like a yellow rose.  I think that's some pretty cool symbolism.  

But more than that, I miss the unique color scheme.  This aro flag looks pretty different from other flags, but its color scheme is much less distinct now.  It's basically the same as the agender flag: 

These flags are somewhat similar in design, but I don't see that as a problem.  The black-grey-white color pattern is pretty common.  The bigger problem, in my opinion, is the similarity in terms of color scheme.  Shades of grey plus green.  Sure, it's slightly different greens, but if I wanted to make art with these color schemes, you couldn't really tell which is which that easily.  Is this a minor nitpick?  Yes, of course.  You didn't expect SERIOUS things in this thread, did you?  But it bugs me all the same.  

So I wish that the yellow was still on the flag.  I really liked the bold yellow and how it stood out from the rest of the color scheme, just like purple stands out on the ace flag.  

This is the sort of design that I was thinking of: 

Here, the yellow stripe isn't as jarring because the white stripe is there as well to mellow it out.  AND the color scheme is clearly unique, with the platonic color of yellow.  It's no longer similar to the agender flag.  

Or, alternatively, this design I made: 

In this one, the gradients fade more into the yellow, so it's not as sudden.  Plus, there's dark yellow.  I like dark yellow.  Dark yellow is a good color.  And this is VERY different from the agender flag.  No grey or white though, which is a bit of a shame because, as someone who's aroace, I liked the similarity with the asexual flag.  

 

But at the same time, these designs are not as soothing to the eye as the current aro flag, and besides, there have been far too many redesigns already.  I like how much the current aro flag has been accepted by the community, and it seems that we HAVE found a redesign that fits.  And for that, I am glad.  

 

Side note: one of the proposed androsexual flags would have made a really nice aro flag with how it parallels the ace flag: 

      

Look at that.  (Of course, it doesn't have yellow, but the use of only dark green would still set it apart from the agender flag in terms of color scheme.)

 

But in the end, I like all the redesigns of the aro flag, even the weird ones.  But I also like thinking about our current flags and having fun with redesigns.  And color schemes are rather important to me, as an artist.  

I just like vexillology, what can I say.

[Dreamsexual]

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[iyote]

12 minutes ago, Dreamsexual said:

Man that's a lot of flags  ...  Kudos for you for having such an artistic eye combined with a desire to make something symbolic and pretty and important to you.  

 

 Do you use the flags in anyway, like at pride marches on on tees or whatever?

Thank you!  And no, not really.  Honestly, I'd like to have some sort of shirt or pin with a flag on it, but I've never gotten around to actually getting or making one.  

Sometimes I draw things with the color schemes, and that's about it.  

[A. Sterling]

Well, entirely superficially, I like the third flag (no yellow), and prefer no yellow because I don't like the color but with the yellow the only one that I like (the others kinda hurts my eyes) is your new design which I think looks very nice. (Though without the yellow I like the aro flag better than the ace flag, probably just because I have a preference for greaan (or any earth tones) over purple.)