Pale Blue Dot flags (original) (raw)

This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

[ [Pale Blue Dot Flag] ](../images/q/qp-3-pbd.gif) [](../images/q/qp-3-pb2.gif) images by Dean C. Wayland, 28 Jun 2017 (left) and Pete Loeser and Tomislav Todorovic, 24 Aug 2025 (right)

Introduction
Pale Blue Dot Flag by Dean C. Wayland and its variants
Earth Flag by Erik Kennedy
Common Earth Flag by Philip Kanellopoulos See also:
Earth flags External links:
Pale Blue Dot photo at Wikipedia

Introduction

The Pale Blue Dot flag design displays a blue disc on black field, representing Earth in the universe. Several variants of the design exist with the details varying somewhat, their authors often claiming to be inspired by the famous Pale Blue Dot photo of Earth, taken by the Voyager 1 space probe on 14 February 1990 from a distance of over 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU). Even though not all of the authors claim the same source of inspiration, their creations are all preceded by the photo, so it cannot be excluded as the common source of inspiration for all of them.
Tomislav Todorovic, 26 Aug 2025

Pale Blue Dot Flag by Dean C. Wayland and its variants

The Pale Blue Dot website has disappeared from the Web so thoroughly that it was not saved e.g. by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
Another report [on the flag]:

The concept of the Pale Blue Dot flag, also known as the Flag of Earth, or the Pale Blue Dot Home Flag, was inspired by Dean C. Wayland. He feels it is a perfect iconic image and emblem for our home planet. The design finds its origins in NASA's Pale Blue Dot image, inspired by Carl Sagan and Carolyn Porco in 1990, and earlier flags such as James Cadle's 1969 Flag of Earth. Wayland feels it is the "perfect icon beneath which to make our stand and set our sights upon the stars."
Wayland adds on his website that "After some 70 years of unprecedented relative peace, the world is entering a potentially deadly era of disunity, wherein people of small minds and narrow vision are seeking to divide humanity into warring camps. Some are even beginning to think the unthinkable - once again."
There are several very similar "pale blue dot" designs being used, differing with the size of the dots and using different shades of pale blue. Type #2, for example, sports a very small pale blue dot and reportably was used in the United States by a female demonstrator who was seen waving this particular design.

Pete Loeser, from Historical Flags of Our Ancestors

Up to this date, the above report is the only one which mentions the real-life use of this flag design in any variant.

Tomislav Todorovic, 24 Aug 2025

Earth Flag by Erik Kennedy

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 25 Aug 2025; derived from the SVG drawingprovided by Erik Kennedy

The earliest known variant of the Earth flag displaying a blue disc on black field is currently the one created by Erik Kennedy, a US-born resident of New Zealand [1]. The flag has been presented online since at least March 2009 [2]. Unlike most of the later promoters of this design, Mr Kennedy has not cited the Pale Blue Dot photo as his inspiration; as his presentation suggests [1, 2], he might actually have been inspired by the work of James W. Cadle, having simplified his flag design by removing Sun and Moon and shrinking the size of Earth disc somewhat, as well as by the novelThe Holy Terror by H.G. Wells, where the flag of Scotland, from which he borrowed the shade of blue, was described as being used as the world flag. The flag of Japan was also cited as the source of inspiration, especially regarding the proportions applied to the design.
Regarding the design details, the flag ratio is 2:3 and the disc radius is 3/10 of the flag width. The colors are "a sensible black" (RGB 0-0-0) for the field and Pantone 300 (RGB 198-114-0) for the disc.
While no information on intellectual property is given by the author, the fact that the SVG drawing of the flag is linked to the presentation page suggests that he has no requirements in that regard, wishing to spread the flag use as much as possible.

Sources:
[1] Erik Kennedy's website - Earth flag
[2] Erik Kennedy's website at Internet Archive - Earth flag (saved on 2009-03-12)

Tomislav Todorovic, 25/30 Aug 2025

Common Earth Flag by Philip Kanellopoulos

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 26 Aug 2025; derived from the SVG drawing provided by Philip Kanellopoulos [1]

Another variant, allegedly created in 2011 [1], but presented online since February 2025 under the name Common Earth Flag [2, 3] was created by Philip Kanellopoulos, a member of environmental activist group Knights of Gaia and promoter of a "modern Pagan" religion named Perístanom (could be classified as a New Age belief system). The source of inspiration has not been specified yet. The design was placed in the public domain in order to "ensure free and open access for everyone" but, unlike several other flags designed by the same author, has still not been offered for sale online [1]. Regarding the design details, the flag ratio is 3:5 [2] - now defined as 6:10 [1] - and the disc diameter is 2/5 of the flag length; shades of black and blue are defined either as Pantone colors PMS Black 6 C and PMS P 115-7 C, respectively or as web colors #000000 and #00AAFF, respectively [1, 2].

Sources:
[1] Perístanom website - Heraldry - Common Earth Flag
[2] Perístanom website - Heraldry - Common Earth Flag (saved by the Internet Archive on 2025-02-08)
[3] Perístanom website - Heraldry (saved by the Internet Archive on 2025-01-20)

Tomislav Todorovic, 26 Aug 2025

A vector image I submitted this year to Wikimedia Commons, with the file name Common Earth Flag, is mentioned on [FOTW] website, as being "allegedly created in 2011". I wanted to clarify that the reason I hadn't published my kindred version of the pale blue dot flag before this year is that the design seems so... well, common (hence the name I chose). It's essentially James Cadle's Flag of Earth without the Sun and Moon included. Seeing Erik Kennedy's 2009 version recently reminded me that I too had created one long ago. I felt he didn't have the proportions and color quite right, and so I finally published my version this year. For whatever it might be worth, I came up with the idea of a black flag with a blue disc as an earth flag back in 2004, and the one with a light-blue disc in 2011. Neither was published at the time, which means, of course, they don't count. However, I'm quite sure I wasn't the first person to think of putting a blue disc on a black flag and calling it an earth flag. If Erik Kennedy and I thought of it independently, many others surely did too and likely earlier than 2004. (I've attached to this email a screenshot documenting the dates of last modification, for my 2004 blue-disc version and its 2011 light-blue-disc refinement published this year.) Thank you for your indulgence in letting me clarify.

Philip Kanellopoulos, 22 Sep 2025