Graphic designer Daniel Quasar has added a five-coloured chevron to the drapeau LGBT Rainbow Flag to place a greater emphasis on "inclusion and progression".
Quasar's Progress Pride Flag adds five arrow-shaped lines to the six-coloured Rainbow Flag, which is widely recognised as the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.
The flag includes black and brown stripes to represent marginalised LGBT communities of colour, along with the colours pink, light blue and white, which are used on the Transgender Pride Flag.
Quasar's design builds on a design adopted by the city of Philadelphia in June 2017. Philadelphia's version added black and brown stripes to the top of the Rainbow Flag, to represent LGBT communities of colour.
The city of Philadelphia's updated flag incorporates a black and brown stripe to represent communities of colour
In addition to the black and brown stripes – which Quasar says also represent those living with AIDS, and those no longer living – he introduces the colours used on the Transgender Pride Flag.
The transgender flag, designed by Monica Helms in 1999, consists of one horizontal white stripe, surrounded by two horizontal pink stripes and two light blue stripes. Quasar has reshaped the form of this flag into a chevron in his updated design.
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The Portland-based designer felt that the six-striped LGBT flag should be visually separated from the newer stripes due to their difference in meaning, as well as to "shift focus and emphasis to what is important in our current community climate."
He says the main section of the flag incorporates the six-stripe flag so as to not take away from the initial meaning, while the additional elements form an arrow shape that points to the right, to represent "forward movement". They are placed along the left edge of the flag to state that "progress still needs to be made."
Monica Helms designed the Transgender Pride flag in 1999
Quasar hopes that his design will place greater emphasis on inclusion and progression. "We need to always keep progress moving forward in all aspects of our community," he said.
"When the Pride flag was recreated in the last year to include both black and brown stripes as well as the trans stripes included this year, I wanted to see if there could be more emphasis in the design of the flag to give it more meaning," Quasar explained.
"The initial idea was important because I felt like I could bring something to the table when it came to the way the flag was shifting within the community. I am a designer and I wanted to make a [positive] change where I saw there was an opportunity."
"We still have forward movement to make. There still is work to be done. I wanted to highlight that," he continued.
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Since the redesign began generating interest on social media this month, he has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise $14,000 (approximately £10,500) to manufacture flags and stickers.
Quasar has exceeded his goal, with 322 backers contributing a total of $17,386 (approximately £13,013) on the 12 June 2018, with 10 days still to go. He hopes to start production as soon as 16 July this year.
The multi-coloured Rainbow Flag was originally designed by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978 in San Francisco. It has since been recognised as a design classic and has been added to the permanent collection at the MoMa and London's Design Museum.
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