🇧🇧 The colours of Barbados
National colours.
Barbados uses ultramarine and gold on its flag, with ultramarine for the sea and sky and gold for the sand. The central black trident, broken at the base, marks the break from colonial rule and stands for democracy.
Where no official value is given, the swatch shows the colour family, not the exact shade.
- The flag was chosen from over 1,000 contest entries.
- Ultramarine stands for both the sea and sky.
- The broken trident marks independence from Britain.
- Each trident point stands for a principle of democracy.
- Official colour codes are British Standard BCC 148 and BS O/002.
The colours of the flag of Barbados
The flag of Barbados has three vertical stripes: two outer ultramarine bands and a gold band in the centre. Ultramarine is said to represent both the sea and the sky, though some sources say both blue stripes stand for the ocean. The gold stripe stands for the sand of Barbados. In the centre of the gold band is a black trident head, known as the broken trident. The broken base of the trident symbolises the end of colonial rule. The three points of the trident stand for the principles of democracy: government of, for, and by the people. These meanings are officially stated.
How the colours were chosen of Barbados
Before independence, Barbados used the Union Jack and later a Blue Ensign with the colonial seal. From 1958 to 1962, during the West Indies Federation, a blue flag with an orange sun and white waves was used. After returning to British rule, Barbados adopted its own flag at independence in 1966. The design was chosen through a public contest, with Grantley W. Prescod's entry selected from over a thousand submissions. The broken trident was taken from the colonial badge, where it was held by Britannia.
Official shades and rules of Barbados
The flag's official colours are specified by British Standard codes: ultramarine (BCC 148) and gold (BS O/002). No Pantone or hex codes are given in the source. The flag is a vertical triband with the trident centred in the gold band. The design and proportions are set by law.
The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Barbados", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
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