Achillean Flag (Simplified Carnation, 2016)

Overview

Reproducibility, in the maker’s own words: to make the flag easier to sew and paint. ^[1] Nothing in either post says the meanings were meant to change, and nothing in them proposes a new reading of the design.

Mod Hermy published the design on ask-pride-color-schemes on 29 September 2016 under the heading “Simplified Achillean flag!”, describing the work and the reason for it in one sentence: “So with the help of Face and a lovely anon I finally managed to finish(?) a simplification of the achillean flag so people can have an easier time sewing/painting/etc it.” The post adds that “Carnations are HARD to simplify”, invites suggestions, and offers the PSD to anyone who wants it. It carries pridenpositivity’s original alongside, captioned “(The original, for reference)”. ^[1]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

Achillean people: men, partial men and male-aligned people attracted to men, partial men and male-aligned people

Subcommunity

An umbrella rather than a gay-men-only label

The DeviantArt description states the scope: achillean describes “men, partial men, or male-aligned people who are attracted to other men, partial men, or male-aligned people”, and “is not necessarily synonymous with gay because people who are bi, pan, ace, etc can also use it”. ^[2]

Creators

The Creators

Attribution notes

The 29 September post is signed “-Hermy” and states the division of work in the first person: “with the help of Face and a lovely anon I finally managed to finish(?) a simplification of the achillean flag”. Mod Hermy is the principal simplifier and the publisher; Mod Face, of ask-pride-color-schemes, and an unnamed contributor helped. ^[1]

The DeviantArt description of 5 October gives the same collaboration but its surviving wording duplicates a word: “Simplification is a collaborative effort between me, mod Face (on ask-pride-color-schemes) and me.” ^[2] The collaborators here follow the Tumblr post rather than an interpretation of that typo.

The underlying composition is pridenpositivity’s, and both posts say so. Pride-Flags is the publishing account, not a designer.

Origin

Digital Origin

Tumblr, ask-pride-color-schemes; republished on DeviantArt

Origin Type

first_publication

Physical Origin Status

Not documented.

Published on Tumblr and then on DeviantArt. No physical origin is documented. ^{[1] [2]}

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2016

Exact date

September 29, 2016

First published

September 29, 2016

In circulation

2016 to the present

Creation Bounds

Two publication events, six days apart, of one design. Mod Hermy posted the simplified carnation on Tumblr on 29 September 2016 and said in the same post that it would go up on DeviantArt “once I get my laptop fixed”. ^[1] The Pride-Flags account published it there at 5000 by 3000 on 5 October 2016. ^[2] Nothing records when the redrawing was done.

The Pride-Flags account republished the design on DeviantArt at 5000 by 3000 on 5 October 2016 under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. ^[2] In July 2021 the Wikimedia Commons user Pradejoniensis uploaded that same file to Commons under the title Achillean flag.png. ^[3] Reference pages and pride flag guides generally reproduce this version rather than the drawn original.

The change is confined to the flower. The bands, their proportions, their measured values and the meanings pridenpositivity published in June are all carried across; what the redrawing replaced was a graded illustration with a flat one that survives being sewn or painted at small size. ^[1]

Lineage

Evolved from

Achillean Flag (Original, 2016)

Related flags

Achillean Blue Rose Flag (CatColors, 2020), Gay Men's Pride Flag (Seven-Stripe, 2016, Anonymous and Mod Hermy), Gay Men's Pride Flag (Five-Stripe, 2019, gayflagblog)

A simplification of pridenpositivity’s June 2016 composition, stated as such by both of its own publications: “a simplification of the achillean flag” on Tumblr, and “Design based on pridenpositivity’s design” on DeviantArt. ^{[1] [2]} The relationship is precise: the field and the symbolism are retained and the emblem is redrawn.

The Sapphic Flag is a counterpart to the parent rather than an ancestor of this design; the gay men’s striped flags, the CatColors blue-rose alternate and the diamoric flag are neighbours in the register, not descendants of it.

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 2 records across 2 generations.

Ancestor

Achillean Flag (Original, 2016)

This record

Achillean Flag (Simplified Carnation, 2016)

Colors & Symbolism

The meanings are the parent’s, unchanged: blue for joy, and the carnation for the flower Victorian men wore on their lapels, popularised by Oscar Wilde, with green indicating gay affiliations. ^[4] The simplification was made for reproducibility and its makers proposed no new reading. ^[1]

Green carnation, simplified

The parent’s emblem redrawn flat. Its meaning is the parent’s: the flower worn on Victorian lapels and popularised by Oscar Wilde. ^[4] The DeviantArt description adds that “in ancient Rome, as in 19th-century England, green indicated gay affiliations”; that wording is the redesign’s, and no independent historical source for the Roman half of it has been located. ^[2]

Neither publication of the simplification assigns a meaning of its own to any band or to the flower. The readings above belong to the parent design and are documented on its entry. ^{[1] [4]}

No specification was published. All four values are measured from the creator-published 5000 by 3000 file, and the same four appear in the 1280 by 768 file first posted on Tumblr. ^{[1] [2]}

The bands are the parent design’s exactly, which is what makes the relationship a simplification rather than a recolour. Two other band values circulate for this flag, #9AC6EB and #FBFEEB; both are properties of the lossy JPEG rendition DeviantArt serves for preview rather than of the file the creators published. The flower is the one part that is genuinely new: two flat greens in place of the parent’s graded illustration.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · as published

Ratio Notes

The file published on DeviantArt is 5000 by 3000 pixels, exactly 5:3, and the file first posted on Tumblr is the same proportion at 1280 by 768. ^{[1] [2]} No prescribed ratio is stated anywhere; 5:3 is the proportion the creators published at, not a specification.

Orientation

horizontal

Stripe Count

3

Layout

horizontal_stripes_with_emblem

Stripes (Top → Bottom)

Light blue, Green-tinted near-white, Light blue

Center Symbol

Simplified green carnation

Three horizontal bands at exact thirds of the height, light blue above and below a green-tinted near-white centre. The carnation is flat rather than graded, drawn with two spreading leaves, and occupies 31.2 per cent of the width and 30.9 per cent of the height, centred at 49.98 per cent across and down. Measured from the 5000 by 3000 file. ^[2]

Against the parent, the field is unchanged and the emblem is redrawn: the parent’s flower is graded across five or more greens and stands about 18 per cent of the width, this one is two flat greens and stands about 31 per cent. ^[2]

Three horizontal bands, light blue above and below a green-tinted near-white centre, carrying a flat green carnation with spreading leaves at the middle. ^[2]

Usage & Adoption

Online Usage

The makers’ own Tumblr and DeviantArt publications. ^{[1] [2]}, Wikimedia Commons, where the creator-published file was uploaded in July 2021. ^[3]

Current Status

active

This is the version reference pages and pride flag guides reproduce, and the file on Commons is the creators’ own. How widely it is flown, as against reproduced online, is not established by any located source.

Image Archive

Parent design

Primary creator artifact

Discourse & Debates

Common misidentifications

• Confused with the parent design, which shares its bands and palette but carries a drawn, graded carnation rather than a flat one. ^[4]
• Read as a gay-men-only flag. The term is an umbrella covering bi, pan and other men and male-aligned people attracted to men. ^[2]

Achillean is not synonymous with gay, and the flag’s own publication says so. ^[2] Vincian circulates as an alternative term; no located source establishes which is preferred.

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

The creator-published file, 5000 by 3000

• The hero is a 1000 by 600 derivative of the creator-published 5000 by 3000 file. ^[2] · Credit: Mod Hermy, with Mod Face and an anonymous contributor; composition by pridenpositivity · DeviantArt · 5000 × 3000Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, as published on DeviantArt. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
• The parent for comparison: pridenpositivity’s original of 23 June 2016 at its native 296 by 166. The bands and their values are the same; the flower is drawn and graded where this design’s is flat. It has its own entry. No reuse licence located for it. ^[4] · Credit: pridenpositivity; flower illustrator unidentified · Tumblr · 296 × 166
• The creator-published file, 5000 by 3000, placed unaltered from the Pride-Flags DeviantArt post of 5 October 2016. Published under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Measured bands #99C6EA and #F9FDEA, carnation #ACDD4D and #659533. ^[2] · Credit: Mod Hermy, with Mod Face and an anonymous contributor; composition by pridenpositivity · DeviantArt · 5000 × 3000