NEW ZEALANDERS VOTED FOR THE SILVER FERN FLAG IN THE FIRST REFERENDUM

​NZ FLAG FACT NUMBER 59 
On 15 December 2015, the New Zealand Electoral Commission released the official results of the first referendum to select a flag to compete with the current New Zealand flag in the second referendum in March 2016.

The winning design, drawing 662,160 votes, was the silver fern, the second most popular alternative was the silver fern (red, white and blue) followed by red peak, and then silver fern (black and white), and koru. Just under 1,400,000 people voted, with the number of informal votes being 149,747

-

NZ FLAG FACT NUMBER 60 
KYLE LOCKWOOD DESIGNED THE SILVER FERN FLAG 
Kyle Lockwood, the designer of the silver fern flag, was born in Wellington. He designed the silver fern concept as a student in architectural technology at Massey University in 2000.

Apparently, while one of Lockwood’s lecturers was discussing how flagpoles are attached to buildings, Lockwood sketched a flag to go on top. Since that time, his flag design has undergone six or seven iterations, taking into account feedback he received from vexillologists. 

Lockwood’s interest in promoting the silver fern comes from his own experience and that of his father, who was a national underwater hockey representative, captain and coach. Lockwood spent time in the New Zealand Army and remembers ‘actually [being] more proud of that [the fern] than I was of the flag flying over the parade grounds.’

On hearing the news that his design had won the first referendum, he said: ‘I just stopped and my jaw dropped.’190 Lockwood’s interpretation of his silver fern design is ‘a design that would include all New Zealanders. And I feel like the fern with its multiple points represents multiple cultures coming together and growing upward into the future.’

From New Zealand Flag Facts by historian Malcolm Mulholland. Read more at: ​
http://www.silverfernflag.org/press/new-zealand-flag-facts-book