I’ve come to realize that, aesthetically, I don’t really like the American flag. I’m not crazy about the colors, and I’m even less crazy about the design itself.
I’m sure you know what it looks like, but just in case, here is a picture of it. I think the Union Jack and even the confederate flag make better use of the same colors.
But I don’t know. Maybe I just like symmetry. I’m no designer. For you design geeks, what do you make of the U.S. flag from a purely aesthetic viewpoint? Take away the symbolism behind it - do you like the way it looks?
What you linked to is not the confederate flag. It’s the confederate battle flag. When you see someone fly it, they’re not flying the flag of confederate ideals, they’re flying the confederate battle flag, a flag under which half a million Americans died and almost as many were injured.
They’re flying the flag of a war, and of death. Not of ideals and independence.
I completely agree as to what Todderbob said. Here are the Confederate national flags (they averaged a new one almost every year during the CSA’s fortunately brief existence): Flags of the Confederate States of America - Wikipedia
Also, the proportions of the British Union Jack you posted are incorrect: Union Jack - Wikipedia
Patriotism aside, I like the design of the American flag. It’s distinctive and makes a clear statement. There’s a lot of history behind it.
Here are some of my favorite historic American flags:
In counterpoint to Todderbob’s note of the Confederate battle flag not being the CSA state flag, the US flag is vexillogically a national flag and ensign, which means it is used as a battle flag as well as all noncombat uses.
I like our flag. Mainly because it’s our flag, gosh darn it.
The only problem I have with the U.S. flag is that there are too many stars and they tend to look cluttered at a distance. But that’s not a problem with the basic design – we just need to combine a few states.
While I will agree that the American flag has become iconic at this point, I also agree with the OP that it isn’t particularly creative or inspiring in its own right without historical and patriotic hidsight.
Personally, I’d have prefered to have broken away from the red, white, and blue colors of the British flag as a stronger sense of separating ourselves symbolically. I’m not sure what colors we perhaps should have chosen, but I think we could have put some thought into it.
I also think the symbolism of 13 is just a little too much. We didn’t need both 13 stars and 13 stripes on the original flag. If we were going to choose to incorporate numerology, why don’t we also have some play on say July 4 or 1776 or the like?
I do like that the overall design is fairly simplistic, whereas some flags have complex designs on them. However, I dislike that the flag lacks symmetry. For instance, to compare to my state’s flag, Virginia, I think our state’s flag has nice symmetry but the seal is just too complex, so it has sort of the opposite problem. That’s one thing I think the British have right, as the OP points out, in that it has nice symmetry and isn’t overly complex.
I’m also not a fan of the idea that our flag needs to be changed every time we add new states. Does any other country have so many revisions of their flag as we do, not including initial time when they were deciding on an official design?
For some possible alternative designs. What if we had an eagle design? We could work both the 13 and 1776 numerology into the flag by including 13 stars broken up into one row or group of 7 and another of 6.
My biggest complaint with the American flag is that it’s too cluttered: A good flag, you should be able to draw it by hand and get all the basic elements right. Even if you know that it’s 13 stripes and 50 stars, how many people know which stripe the blue field comes in at? What’s the pattern of the stars? And even if you know, will you be able to do the whole thing without your hand cramping up?
My second criticism is that it doesn’t really do a good job of symbolizing the country. A good flag, someone who’s never seen it before, but who’s otherwise familiar with the various countries (or states, or whatever) should be able to make a pretty good guess of which country it represents. Though I’ll grant that few flags meet this standard.
Flags that I think meet these standards include Canada, Japan, New Mexico, and Alaska. All of them are simple designs, and all tell you something about the place they stand for. Canada is a place with a lot of maples, hence a maple leaf. Japan is Land of the Rising Sun. New Mexico is the land of the Navajo, and very sunny, hence a Navajo sun-symbol. Alaska is way up north, hence the most distinctive northern constellation.
A tricolor like Ireland or Italy (which look almost identical) is good on the simplicity front, but fail on recognizability. A detailed scene like Mexico’s is good for recognizability, but is too complicated. There’s really no excuse for being both complicated and unrecognizable.
It’s a little cluttered, but other than that it’s a pretty good flag. Not too many colours, simple symbols, no words or numbers, very recognizable. There’s a reason it’s much-copied.
By comparison, most state flags are atrocious. (There are a few exceptions, like South Carolina or New Mexico.) Generally speaking, the further you go down the governmental chain of command, the worse the flags get. This is true in Canada as well; the national flag is beautiful but many of the provincial flags are cluttered and noisy, with just the odd exception, like Quebec.
One point to make about the Union Jack’s symmetry is that it only has 180 degree rotational symmetry. If you fold it either horizontally or vertically, St. Andrew’s cross and St. Patrick’s cross do not overlap themselves but rather each other.
I think the US flag would be a lot more appealing if the blue chunk with the stars were the entire top half and not just a quadrant. I’m sure someone has drawn that somewhere, but I can’t find an image. It would still be distinctive but more symmetrical and also more logical.
PS: Oh, and off topic, the UK flag could be improved both symbolically and aesthetically by placing the Welsh dragon in the centre.