Images courtesy New Zealand
New Zealand is on the hunt to do away with the Union Jack, a throwback to their British colonial days, and one of the above four designs might replace it. Last month an independent committee selected 40 semi-finalists from a wealth of over 10,000 crowdsourced designs, and now one of the finalists will be selected to face the current design for a head-to-head grudge match to represent the country at the Olympics, the United Nations, and on customizable underwear.Artists Alofi Kanter, Andrew Fyfe, and Kyle Lockwood (he has two submissions) created the winning designs, and you may notice a stunning similarity between three of them: the silver fern. Already featured on the Kiwi coat of arms, coins, and several sports teams, the silver fern is a safe bet—so why is that swirl in competition with such an established (if repetitive) symbol? Well, it's a Maori symbol meaning koru, which translates to—you guessed it—fern.Fan favorites from the rejected 10,000 choices are lighting Twitter on fire, in the case of our personal favorite, James Gray's Fire the Lazar!, quite literally.What does the world think about flags? Vice News found out.The referendum for which of these four designs will face off with the Union Jack takes place from November 20–December 11, so you have a bit of time to pick your favorite. Give us your hot takes in the comments or on Twitter @CreatorsProject with the #NZFlag.Related:Hooray! The Planet Earth Finally Has Its Own FlagAn Optical Illusion Master Disappears in the Flags of the WorldMoMA Acquires Iconic Rainbow FlagGIF Artist Peekasso Puts a Psychedelic Spin on the American Flag
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With #LaserKiwi not even making this elimination round, support plummets for #nzflag reality show. pic.twitter.com/Kgw8c8iRzq
— Rangi Kemara (@Te_Taipo) August 31, 2015