Aro Arrows is an archive of free aromantic-spectrum stock images, beginning with arrow header and divider images, bunting banners and gradient pride flags.
Use – Non-Commercial
All the images on this site, with the exception of the site header and widget images, are available for all non-commercial uses. You are welcome to use these on your websites, publications, artwork, moodboards and other creative projects. Please feel free to change and modify the designs as needed!
Text banners should only be used for non-commercial purposes.
Use – Commercial
You are permitted to use the arrow, banner and bunting images as a component within larger commercial designs and artworks. Please also feel free to use these arrows as logos, headers on a sales website or book covers. You are not permitted to sell these images as the product you are selling, however, without some modification or addition to the design.
As an example, I’ll frown on folks uploading my bunting to Redbubble (using these images to sell T-shirts, coffee mugs and other products) without some change to the image or additional text placed alongside these designs. Or selling these images on another stock image website! This library is for aro-specs who can’t afford to commission or make their own pride images but still wish their websites or zines to speak of their aro-spec pride. It needs to remain a free resource.
Gradient flags and high-res versions of pride flags have no restrictions on their use.
Sources
I modified and detailed free-to-use arrow bases by gabmarper.
The bunting banners drew inspiration from this image by AnnaliseArt.
Most of the flags I used for source colours come from the DeviantArt PrideFlags account or were downloaded directly from the creator’s Tumblr posts.
Unless otherwise stated, I am not the designer of any of the pride flags reproduced in my arrows, bunting, banners or frames. Please note that due to the volume of images on this website, I’m only linking to the creator (where possible to do so) on the aro pride flag archive posts. These posts collate high-quality versions of flags for newer identities, variants and proposed flags.
If I can source the original announcement post for a flag or flag variant, I will be reblogging it to my @aroflagarchive Tumblr.
If you’re unsure about the origin, use or meaning of these terms, you can also try checking the lists of terms and identity creation posts I’ve collected on my Aro Worlds Articles and Links page. Searching the identity name as a tag on Tumblr will often come up with bloggers discussing their experiences and even blogs created around a theme of that identity (and avoids Google’s tendency to provide questionable, antagonistic wiki entries). As much as it would be nice to provide this information on the flag posts, not providing it lessens my workload!
Content and Inclusion
This website takes a neutral stance on any conversations or discourse about which flags are and aren’t acceptable to use. I seek to collate, archive and provide all possible variants of aromantic-spectrum pride, no matter how new the identity, widely-used the flag variant or objectionable the creator. You may need to do your own research to find out which designs are most accepted by the community or identity in question.
While media outside the aromantic community still perpetuates the belief that there is no “formally” recognised flag, a vast majority of aro and a-spec communities use the green and white five-striped flag to showcase aromantic pride. A majority of allo-aros also use the yellow and gold five-striped flag to showcase allo-aro pride.
Identities with more than one flag will be tagged as “[identity] variant [number]” (for example: demiromantic variant 5) in addition to a general identity tag (for example: recipromantic). Many aromantic identities will have more than one pride flag variant; some (aro-ace!) possess many variants. It should be noted that the variant numbers do not indicate frequency of use–only the order in which I added this design to the website. Please do not assume that a flag tagged “variant 1” is used more frequently than any other variant.
(I recommend Tumblr’s tag search by image if you wish to check what designs are in more common usage by members of said community.)
Many flags are not so much formal flags as proposed options, particularly those that combine identities (for example: angled aro-ace agender) or alternate colour variants (the pink-striped aromantic flag). Others belong to new microidentities that may or may not gain a stronger foothold in our developing community. As it’s impossible to draw a distinction on what is and isn’t “accepted” in the bubble of a new community experimenting with language, this website doesn’t try.
Please note that as much as I would wish every flag here to be designed by a creator of the identity in question, it’s likely some of the proposed variants, combination identity and alternate flags don’t fit that criteria.
Crediting
When using arrow, bunting or banner images, please credit the Aro Worlds WordPress account, the Aro Arrows WordPress account or the @aroworlds Tumblr.
If you want to support me in making more of these community resources, I hope you’ll consider buying me a ko-fi or subscribing to my patreon.
Accessibility
Please note that this website will not be accessible to folks who use screen readers: no images, aside from sidebar widgets, have descriptions. I have chronic finger, hand, wrist and shoulder pain, and I often find typing difficult. I can only run this website, archiving stock images, in addition to my other blogs if I lessen my workload. The easiest way for me to do that is to not provide image descriptions.
If anyone is interested in helping me by providing descriptions, please message me on Tumblr.
The Creator
I’m an allosexual aromantic (abrosexual nebularomantic/idemromantic) who writes, blogs and muddles about in InDesign and Photoshop when my chronic pain allows me. I’m not a visual artist, but I do have training in text layout and design. I also sew and craft, creating stim toys, miniatures and clothes for dolls. If you want to know more about me, my other shapes of creativity, my blogging or my fiction writing, here’s some helpful links:
- Hallo, Aro: a flash fiction series centring on allosexuality as shaped by aromanticism.
- Marchverse: a series of interconnected short stories and novelettes, largely about aromantic, trans, queer characters.
- @aroworlds Tumblr: a blog collating and celebrating aro-spec creativity.
- @alloaroworlds Tumblr: a blog collating and celebrating all things allosexual aromantic.
- @aroflagarchive Tumblr: a blog collecting and collating aromantic-spectrum pride flags. Just the pride flags!
- The Aro Worlds Allo-Aro Hub: an online resource for allo-aro media, representation and discussions.
- Artist Profile and About: two pieces where I spend a few words talking about myself.
Aro Arrows 