Did you know that Australia's flag was crowdsourced?
Back in 1901, Australia officially farewelled the British (who had colonised Australia in 1788) and began governing itself. What does any new state need? A flag to unite the people!
So, Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmond Barton, announced an international contest to design a new Australian flag. Genius idea, right?!
Here's the contest (by the numbers) ...
- 32,823 design submissions
- £200 prize (lucrative for the time!)
- 5 winners (who split the prize)
We believe Australia's flag design contest is one of the first examples of design crowdsourcing. It appears to be one of the largest ever and most successful examples of design crowdsourcing. The contest was held 35 years before (and received more submissions than) Toyota's 1936 crowdsourced logo contest which received 27,000 entries.
Front Cover of the"Review of Reviews For Australia"
announces the new Australian flag. |
Every year on Australia Day (26 January), Australians debate whether we should design a new flag. The lobby group calling itself Ausflag, asked if it's time for a new flag design that would differentiate Australia's sport teams from other 'Commonwealth' countries who use the Union Jack in their country flags.
Every year, Australia's national broadcaster the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) fans the flames of debate and invites the public to submit new design ideas via Flickr. The annual contest always causes a stir and the 2013 contest was no exception. The contest caught the attention of design blog Design Taxi. Check out the sample of proposed new flag ideas below and the full set on Flickr.
New flag designs from ABC's 2013 Australia Day contest. |
Written by Jo Sabin on Thursday, August 1, 2013
Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.
