This article was approved as a good article on 2 October 2022

Flag of the Gymnasium State

From MicroWiki, the free micronational encyclopædia
  (Redirected from Flag of Gymnasium State)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Flag of the Gymnasium State
See adjacent text.
Flag of the Gymnasium State
Name State Flag (Státní vlajka)
Use National flag and ensign
Proportion 5:8
Adopted 29 December 2017
(Original design)
13 June 2018
(Current design)
Design A horizontal bicolour of white and light blue; charged with the national emblem in canton
Designed by Tomáš Falešník

The flag of the Gymnasium State (Czech: Vlajka Státu Gymnázium), commonly called the state flag (Czech: Státní vlajka) by Gymnazists, consists of a horizontal bicolour in Gymnasian national colours, white and light blue, charged with the national emblem in the canton. The design was originally designed by Tomáš Falešník in December of 2017 and adopted on 29 December, but went through minor changes on 13 June 2018. Prior to this design, the Socialist State of Gymnasium used a red banner, charged with the emblem in the canton.

History

The Imperium

The Imperium was the first state-like community before the Socialist State of Gymnasium to have it's own flag. The design was created in 2016 by Radek Vastl with the intention to resemble medieval banners, although no coat of arms ever existed. The original design has since been lost, but the flag was described as quartered, with red first and fourth quadrants charged with a pair of swords and a pair of key respectively and white second and third quadrants. It is unknown whether the white quadrants also contained any charges. The flag was never actually flown and was abandoned as The Imperium dissolved in 2017.

Socialist State of Gymnasium

With the establishment of the Socialist State of Gymnasium on 1 September 2017, a plain red flag was considered as the national flag. Before it was formally adopted by the Council, however, a flag for alternate history communist Great Britain[1] by a Northern Irish vexillologist Samuel McKittrick was discovered and adopted on 4 September instead of the proposed red banner. The flag was monochrome red with a ration 1:2, charged with the emblem accompanied by a hammer and a sickle in canton. The design was however quickly determined by the Council to give the impression that the micronation was a communist state and could be associated with the communist regime of Czechoslovakia, and by extension with the show trials of 1950s or the Soviet occupation, or the contemporary Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, and a replacement was considered.

On 6 September, an unusual arrangement was proposed that called for two official flags. The first proposed flag was nearly identical to the previous flag, removing the hammer and sickle, and was intended to be used as a civil flag for internal uses as well as for interactions with other micronations. The second flag followed a similar concept, featuring a black school logo in canton of a white banner, and was intended as a state flag and for representation outside micronational diplomacy. Both proposals were also accompanied by monochrome war flags of red and white to be used in case of war. The designs were ultimately abandoned, however, as the proposal favoured the use of the white flag, which was considered uglier than the current flag and could also imply that the micronation was an official school project.

Gymnasium State

Proposed vertical version of flag of Gymnasium State

After the dissolution of the Socialist State, a new flag had to be designed for the new government. The new design was created by Tomáš Falešník, and used the emblem of the Socialist State with the hammer and sickle removed on a white-light blue bicolour, taken from the flag of Sušice. The flag was also shortened randomly to the current proportions of 5:8. The new design was intended to only feature the emblem on observe side, with the reverse side only consisting of the bicolour, but this was rarely used. In June 2018, it had come to the government's attention that the flag, especially the intended reverse side, was very similar to the flag of the Republic of Aenderia. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that the blue used on the flag was different from the intended shade, and on 13 June 2018 a new design was adopted. In addition to the shade correction, the emblem was also slightly moved and the different reverse side was abandoned. On 19 April 2019, the flag design was codified by the National Symbols Law.

Design

The dimensions of the flag as seen in the annex of the National Symbols Law

The flag of the Gymnasium State is defined by Article 4 of the National Symbols Law as follows:

The national flag of the Gymnasium State consists of top white and bottom light blue stripe, in top left quarter the national emblem of the Gymnasium State is placed. The ratio of height of the flag to it's width is 5:8.

— National Symbols Law of the Gymnasium State, Article 4, Section 1

The second annex of the National Symbols Law also features the design of the flag as it was adopted by the Government in June 2018. Since the annex still uses the original designs, a number of graphical errors were unintentionally codified as part of the design. The blue stripe of the design as seen in the law is slightly larger than the white stripe and the old low quality official design of the emblem is used that includes a number of digital artifacts, but flags with some or all these errors fixed are also used. Similarly, not all flags follow the official ratio of 5:8 for various reasons. A vertical variant of the flag was designed, but was never adopted.

Colours and symbolism

Flag of Sušice

While the colours are not defined by the text of the law, the annex defines the colours as follows:

Scheme RGB Hexadecimal CMYK
White 255-255-255 #FFFFFF 0, 0, 0, 0
Strong blue 000-060-080 #0099CC 100, 25, 0, 20

The colours were taken from the flag of the town of Sušice, which they are also supposed to represent according to the National Symbols Law. Originally, the colours of the town's flag represent silver and the town's cleanness and status as the "Gate of Šumava" (white) and clear sky above the city and the flow of the Otava (blue).[2] The white-light blue combination also influenced a number of designs both within and outside the Gymnasium State.

Proposed regional flags

The Gymnasium State is a unitary state comprising of a singular top-level administrative division. In late 2018 however, proposals for annexation of more territories were considered, and flags were designed for each considered territory. The proposals followed a simple pattern inspired by the British ensigns and consisted of a single colour representing the proposed territory with the national flag in canton. It was expected, that the territories would also use an unofficial flag of it's own choice alongside the official ensigns. The designs were ultimately abandoned alongside the proposals for territorial expansion. With the establishment of Sušice-Gympl, the orange ensign (symbolising the colour of the gymnasium located on the claim) proposed for the territory it consists of was considered as it's official flag, but was never used as it was deemed unnecessary by the government.

Presidential standard

Flag of the President of the Gymnasium State
See adjacent text.
Flag of the President of the Gymnasium State
Name The Standart (Standarta)
Proportion 1:1
Adopted 2018
Design National emblem surrounded by a circle with text "PRESIDENT OF [THE] GYMNASIUM STATE" in Czech and English lined with white and light blue stripes
Designed by Tomáš Falešník

The Presidential standard of the Gymnasium State (Czech: Prezidentská standarta Státu Gymnázium) is the official symbol of the president of the Gymnasium State and one of the national symbols of the Gymnasium State. It was designed in 2018 by Tomáš Falešník, and codified by the National Symbols Law on 19 April 2019. It is described as

The presidential standart of the Gymnasium State consists of a white sqare banner lined with stripes and flames of white and light blue colour. In the middle of the standard the national emblem of the Gymnasium State is located, surrounded by two black circles. Between the circles there are black texts PREZIDENT STÁTU GYMNÁZIUM on the top and PRESIDENT OF [THE] GYMNASIUM STATE on the bottom half of the standard

— National Symbols Law of the Gymnasium State, Article 5, Section 1

Like the national flag, the design of the standard is included in the National Symbols Law as its third annex, and similarly to the national flag the the original design features a number of graphical errors.

See also

References

  1. MCKITTRICK, Samuel: Communist British Isles (Alternative History). Sam's Ramblings. Retrieved 23 October 2022
  2. Symboly města. SUŠICE A OKOLÍ. Retrieved on 23 October 2022