Evolutionary
Statistical series
I thought the American flag re-design by MGMT was a better approach at re-designing an iconic flag. The concept based approach made more sense practically and also in the event that it was actually commissioned. I am going to respond to MGMT's series by creating a UK equivalent, with different statistics and facts.
Average Income
My concept behind this flag is that it kind of looks like the iconic spitfire aero plane emblem. The first has a more traditional colour scheme which I think looks more legitimate and iconic.
The statistic that is being represented is the differences between the average incomes of the richest, and the rest of the UK. So I tried to graphically show this by the different scales of circles.
The top 0.1% average 1,000,970
The top 1% average 271,888
The top 10% average 79,196
The other 90% average 12,969
www.equalitytrust.org.uk
Inflation
National minimum wage has risen 75% since 1991, yet the price of a loaf of bread has risen 175%
The red squares represent the the percentage of inflation of the bread and the white represents the raise of the national minimum wage.
National Smokers
This obviously looks like the UK with the exception of Scotland. I found the statistics for how many people smoke in Northern Ireland, England and Wales. The black represents the percentage of smokers. I choose the colour to look like a lung blacked with tar. Below you can see the alternative colour scheme.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2370456/Number-smokers-UK-set-fall-20-time-century.html
National Debt VS GDP
I have decided not to use this statistic because it is hard to show visually on a flag and also the actual figures involved I don't believe to be correct.
Electricity Production
For some reason screen capture won't show this flag with the yellow I used. Whenever I screen capture it it turns this dirty yellow. When it's vibrant yellow it looks great.
Child Poverty
1 in 6 or 2 in 12 children are categorised as being officially in poverty. I think this is a pretty shocking statistic. I started by creating 24 columns because I think the columns were too wide looking for the flag. 2 in 24 works as a representation for child poverty. In the end I think the 1 in six makes more sense and actually, visually makes more sense.
Literacy rates
This flag was based on the fact that 15% of thew country wouldn't be able to pass GCSE level English. I couldn't find the statistic summarising the amount of people who can't actually read. My idea was simple. To make the flag look like an open book, with one element making up 15% of the area.
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/adult_literacy/illiterate_adults_in_england
GDP Vs Bailouts
Energy prices
'Energy firms: Big Six profits rise from £30 to £105 per UK household - more than threefold in three years'
'The total profit that British Gas, Scottish Power, SSE, EDF, npower and E-on make from households leapt by 75 per cent last year to £1.2bn. This looks set to rise by even more in 2013, to somewhere in the region of £2bn.'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/energy-firms-big-six-profits-rise-from-30-to-105-per-uk-household--more-than-threefold-in-three-years-8963176.html
With the price of energy inflating so high people are questioning the big energy firms incentives. 'Market price', 'cost of production'.
Stephen Fry just tweeted this which I though highlighted the problem of the greedy firms.
The difference between this gradient colour and the one above is that I used the violet from the 20 pound bank note. I thought this seemed more relevant. The orange represents the perceived colour of energy to me. It's like we are burning our money.
Corporation Tax Vs Bedroom Tax
How do the housing benefit changes work?
'The government predicts that savings to the taxpayer will amount to £505m in 2013-14, and £540m in the year after.'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21321113
Corporation tax avoidance apparently means the people of the UK miss out on an estimated 32 billion pounds. When you compare the two doesn't it seem ridiculous.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2242008/32-billion-reasons-nail-tax-dodgers-Google-Amazon-Starbucks.html
I tried to work out what the ratio was if the total number was 77. I divided 77 by 32 which gave me 2.4. 2.4 multiplied by 1 makes 2.4. I'm not 100% but I think this means that if there was 77 billion, 2.4 would be the bedroom tax...
I simplified the flag more as I felt the information wasn't being shown effectively. The last pattern was too confusing to look at.
Leave your comment