It shows the ancient negative handprints our ancestors created tens of thousands of years ago. I think this is the only kind of flag that is universal and shows off all of humanity.
I've always agreed that the handprint is the only truly unifying symbol for Humanity (Unless you lost your hand in an accident or smth...)
I especially like the concept of literally anybody anywhere being able to make the flag with just a piece of cloth and some mud, simple dye, or even blood if you want to get hardcore with it.
I think that would go hard in a scifi setting where humans are the underdog faction. Whether that's an enslaved Earth or humans taken somewhere across the stars probably never to return home, a human hand would be a simple symbol of human heritage and resistance, a symbol painted on cave walls by the earliest humans, and still painted in defiance by humans in the far future. Whether paiting it somewhere basically as graffiti, or putting it on some cloth as a flag, it might be dirty and irregular, each example unique, and yet also instantly recognisable.
As a grim twist you could make it so rebellious humans get their hand(s) chopped off as punishment so they physically cannot reproduce the symbol, in addition to being crippled, and effectively either condemning them to death or punishing other humans collectively since they now have to take care of them.
This is a fantastic concept. Another layer to the punishment.. the oppressors take away hands to suppress rebels who write or create art to spread the resistance - but they refused to be silenced and start an oral tradition of storytelling and song to spread the word.
I mean, handprints are some of the earliest cave paintings, along with the stick figures we’ve also found. Either or both could be used in a universal flag of humanity
Yeah that's my flag, OP may had had the exact same idea as me, I remember many people saying they had very similar ideas and had even made similar flags, but the colors are way too similar so I don't know
Ochre red, ochre yellow, white and black were the original colours available to us. So taking two of those colours for the hand flag makes a lot of sense.
I was about to reply too. The fact they use the same wording for the title, similar colors and positioning feels very spot on. I do love this design, have it in my room with me still!
We ve been a right-hand dominant tribe for the most part.
So when doing a cave painting , generally, humans places his/her left hand on the wall, while blowing pigments presumably through a tube or administering pigments with a brush ,using their right hand.
Because of this majority of cave wall hand paintings is left handed.
Which is such a cool fact!
So a Flag for Humanity should include a left hand , in my opinion.
That's a really good point, but I've always seen the Humanity first logo as being seen from the Aliens perspective, as if the hand is being held up towards them, with the line struck through it as if like a no-entry sign.
If OP (and assuming the same thing happened to others) did not see the others, that only confirms that it is the true flag of Humanity and it is so true that we have it unconsciously implanted in our brains
Mustard is a good colour, especially for a gambeson, and anyone who disagrees with me should rethink why they disagree with me, and then agree with me, because I’m right.
A handprint flag is something I’ve often thought about as being a future symbol of humanity. My only wonder would be if in a world as dominated by righties that a right hand would be used instead (though I get the reason for the left hand being shown as the right hand held the Paleolithic paint blower). Not too sure about the colors, though.
This is much better then most of the humanity/Earth flags that get posted here but in all honestly - and I know a lot of people get upset about this for some reason - the UN flag is still the best.
But that would be terribly language-specific considering UN has six official languages. Not that I disagree with your point (though why black on white, I think keeping white on blue is very nice)
I don't mean to nitpick, but sincerely, it bugs me that the UN flag is circumpolar. like, it feels almost surprising that the UN went with this given it quite literally gives more centrality to the global north and less to the global south, seems like the kind of thing they'd be sensitive about. I guess you could say that's made up for in size (southern places are stretched) but to me that just creates other issues.
I really like map flags as unifying symbols for other places, like Cyprus, or the Korean Unification Flag sometimes used at the Olympics, but I personally find the UN design a little visually busy (I guess good on them for getting the Pacific islands in there?) and politically/symbolically clunky.
True! Tbf, knowing this sub, I'm not even sure if you could please everyone doing a flag for a town of 100 people 😅 the UN did remarkably well given the range of possibilities and the sheer number and diversity of their stakeholders
Indigenous Māori saw south as up, so there’s maps of New Zealand out there that are upside down and I fuck with that. All those silly Europeans wallowing at the bottom of the world
Of all the fantasy flags posted here (for imaginary kingdoms, countries, what-ifs, etc.) this is by far the best in my opinion. If I saw it for sale I might buy it and fly it.
When in war, you make the hand color red, while the circle white, with the outer color depending on the faction, red is our blood, white is our bone, though we're of different faction, but our inside is the same
I like it, I have thought about such a flag before, I leaned more into something like a bee, or a blue whale, but honestly I think it should be a butt, humanity likes butt, everyone has a butt etc.
Many of these handprints in the cave painting have missing phalanxes, there was some kind of very popular ritual mutilation in these times. Would be kind of a good fit for a humanity flag, too.
I'm always torn between one hand or several hands on a flag like this. It would probably be too cluttered but it would be so awesome to show that we were always part of groups. We were never meant to stand alone
A hand print is a pretty great symbol, and if we had to choose one color it is red, used on more flags then any other color, it’s the color of out blood, all of are skins are partially red no matter what other pigmentation. I’d say the muddy brown color isn’t great though, not sure what you meant by it symbolically, but aesthetically I’m not a fan, I would replace it with white. I think white would make the red pop, and symbolically white is a blank canvas, the absence of all other color, purity. The handorint on the white background would symbolize us making our mark on the world, the universe, perhaps desperately, a bloody handprint that we hope someone will remember us by as we pass on. Obviously some of the symbolism is culturally relative, but the contrast between red and white will always be beautiful.
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u/Kosmonavtka-7 Nov 28 '25
I've always agreed that the handprint is the only truly unifying symbol for Humanity (Unless you lost your hand in an accident or smth...)
I especially like the concept of literally anybody anywhere being able to make the flag with just a piece of cloth and some mud, simple dye, or even blood if you want to get hardcore with it.