Man behind All Black silver fern offers to redesign shortlisted flags

Dave Clark, the man responsible for designing the All Blacks silver fern as we know it today, has offered to redesign the ferns featured on three of the four shortlisted flag submissions.

The offer follows an article on the front page of today’s New Zealand Herald, in which NZ Rugby warned against the use of its trademarked silver fern logo, which Dave designed in 1986.

“A lot of people including Richie McCaw seem to want the silver fern on our national flag. So if we are going to do it, we need to do it right,” said Dave.

Dave personally agrees with the idea of using a silver fern – “I’ve seen my design all over the world including as tattoos on many Kiwis”.

But he’s adamant that, “The three shortlisted flags in question certainly have merit but the ferns need to look more like real silver ferns.”

Dave knows what it takes to make a silver fern look right, having spent hundreds of hours into getting the All Blacks’ first trademarked logo just right in 1986.

“The reason the All Black fern works so well is because of the stringent design process I used.”

He feels that he and his team would be able to make good designs even better by using a professional design process.

Dave has been watching the new flag debate with interest but did not submit a design.

ENDS

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