Judging state flags

Cafe Society
1

Responding to this post:

Funny site. But taking the question seriously, I disagree.

Here’s my ranking:

  1. New Mexico’s flag is just about as perfect as a flag can be. Flag of New Mexico - Wikipedia

It’s simple, it’s distinctive, it’s beautiful, it’s local, it’s original. It’s everything a flag should be.

  1. There are several other flags that purely on the question of good flag design are perfectly fine, if not necessarily pretty or original:

— Alaska: Alaska's Flag - Wikipedia
— Arizona. It’s not my favorite, but it works: Flag of Arizona - Wikipedia
— Hawaii: Flag of Hawaii - Wikipedia
— Maryland: Flag of Maryland - Wikipedia
— Ohio: Flag of Ohio - Wikipedia
— South Carolina. Really, the tree should be rendered more simply, but I’m going to go ahead and give it to them, because everything else is right about this design: Flag of South Carolina - Wikipedia
— Tennessee: Flag of Tennessee - Wikipedia
— Texas: Flag of Texas - Wikipedia

2(a). These flags would be perfectly fine from a design perspective except for their Confederate associations:

— Alabama: Flag of Alabama - Wikipedia
— Mississippi: Flag of Mississippi - Wikipedia

  1. Some flags are fine as far as design principles go, except for one flaw, such as lettering (name of the state, for example):

— Indiana: Flag of Indiana - Wikipedia

3(a). Unfortunate Confederate associations:

— Arkansas: Flag of Arkansas - Wikipedia

  1. Take away the state seal or the lettering or both and you have a perfectly acceptable design (if not necessarily very original or distinctive):

— Colorado. You got so close, but it’s the letter C! No letters!: Flag of Colorado - Wikipedia
— Iowa: Flag of Iowa - Wikipedia
— Missouri: Flag of Missouri - Wikipedia
— North Carolina. Only problem is that it then looks just like Texas’s flag with a smaller star: Flag of North Carolina - Wikipedia
— Wyoming. This would actually be an awesome flag without the state seal: Flag of Wyoming - Wikipedia

4(a). Same except for Confederate association:

— Florida. Only problem is that if you take away the seal, it’s the same as Alabama, but that’s not a violation of design principles: Flag of Florida - Wikipedia
— Georgia: Flag of Georgia (U.S. state) - Wikipedia

  1. Had a decent idea but didn’t execute it properly:

— California. Simplify the bear design and take away the lettering and it works: Flag of California - Wikipedia
— Oklahoma. Simplify the design and take away the lettering: Flag of Oklahoma - Wikipedia
— Oregon (reverse). A beaver symbol is fine except that the one they have is too complex to work on a flag: File:Flag of Oregon.svg - Wikipedia
— Louisiana: A pelican piercing its breast to feed its young is a fine heraldic design, but it is rendered in too much detail, and get rid of the lettering: Flag of Louisiana - Wikipedia
— Rhode Island. Yellow on white is a no-no, the anchor is rendered with too much detail, and get rid of the lettering: Flag of Rhode Island - Wikipedia

  1. The flags that are just state seals on a sheet are the worst (but slightly higher points for the boldface ones on the grounds that “at least it’s not blue”):

— Connecticut: Flag of Connecticut - Wikipedia
— Delaware: Flag of Delaware - Wikipedia
— Idaho: Flag and seal of Idaho - Wikipedia
— Illinois: Flag and seal of Illinois - Wikipedia
— Kansas. Actually, you could make it a decent flag by simplifying the sunflower and taking away everything else: Flag of Kansas - Wikipedia
— Kentucky: Flag of Kentucky - Wikipedia
— Maine: Flag of Maine - Wikipedia
— Massachusetts: Flag of Massachusetts - Wikipedia
— Michigan: Flag of Michigan - Wikipedia
— Minnesota: Flag of Minnesota - Wikipedia
— Montana: Flag of Montana - Wikipedia
— Nevada: Flag of Nevada - Wikipedia
— Nebraska: Flag of Nebraska - Wikipedia
— New Hampshire: Flag and seal of New Hampshire - Wikipedia
— New Jersey: Flag and seal of Idaho - Wikipedia
— New York: Coat of arms of New York - Wikipedia
— North Dakota: Flag of North Dakota - Wikipedia
— Oregon (obverse): File:Flag of Oregon.svg - Wikipedia
— Pennsylvania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_and_coat_of_arms_of_Pennsylvania#/media/File:Flag_of_Pennsylvania.svg
— South Dakota: Flag of South Dakota - Wikipedia
— Utah: Flag of Utah - Wikipedia
— Vermont: Flag of Vermont - Wikipedia
— Virginia: Flag and seal of Virginia - Wikipedia
— Washington: Flag of Washington - Wikipedia
— West Virginia: Flag of West Virginia - Wikipedia
— Wisconsin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Wisconsin#/media/File:Flag_of_Wisconsin.svg

2

Of course, it turns out, I wasn’t the first to have this idea: http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/.a/6a00d8341c3e3953ef0147e3ad7fa5970b-320wi

3

Throwing in the Canadian provincial/territorial flags, I kinda like British Columbia’s sun-on-the-water motif, but I have to admit none of them are especially inspiring.

4

I’m a little surprised by the number of state flags that have the name of the state on them. For some reason, they remind me of cheap Hallowe’en superhero costumes for kids with the name of the superhero written across the chest.

In trying to find a image, I googled “bad hallowe’en costumes for kids” and it turns out a lot of them are hysterical.

5

First thoughts:

  1. If it has any writing on it at all, it goes.

  2. Confederate flag motif means we send Sherman in again. Gone.

  3. No state seals. Period.

That means at least 30 states go back to the drawing boards.

6

Come on. Virginia has violence and bare nipples! Virginia FTW!

7

You could come up with a great design with the starting concepts of violence and nipples, but Virginia has failed to execute them in terms of a good flag design.

8

Just to show their total lack of class, New Jersey stole Idaho’s flag? :smiley:

Well, theirs isn’t all that inspiring, so do you blame them?

And yeah, the flags with the state names on them makes me wonder if they were going to forget what they named the state.

9

My personal favorites (in strictly alphabetical order) are Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, and South Carolina. I think South Carolina may be my hands-down favorite, but all of those are excellent.

I also kind of like Maryland in all its barbaric, medievaloid glory, though I can see why it might not be to everyone’s taste.

California violates the cardinal vexillological rule of “No words, dammit! And especially not the name of the thing you’re representing!”, but it is pretty badass–a bear! a big giant bear!–and maybe gets a pass on that for historical reasons.

Rhode Island is also not bad at all; it has a word, but it’s not “Rhode Island” (or “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”), just a nice dignified motto.

Wyoming missed it by that much–lose the illegible and completely unnecessary state seal and that’s an excellent flag, distinctively American but also unique and distinct from other American flags. Still a good flag, despite the unfortunate and unneeded “logo on a bedsheet” aspect of the design.

Alabama in strictly design terms is good (possibly a sneak-Confederate reference, but at least it’s not too overt); of course Florida had to go and copy off their paper. Failing grade for you, Florida! No cheating on the State Flag Final Exam!

Indiana and Louisiana aren’t bad–Louisiana could probably lose the motto in a scroll, and one wonders why Indiana bothered to put the word “INDIANA” on there–it’s not like there’s a bunch of other state flags with stars-and-torches motifs.

If Oklahoma would just go back to their first try at the design it would be a lot better.

I totally agree that Kansas should just go with that Sunflower Flag idea.

I guess Oregon could go with the reverse of their flag, but they’d never live it down: “You said beaver–huh, huh, huh!” It still might be better than what they’ve got now, though.

10

Are the white stars in side the blue enough to invoke the Confederate flag? Maybe its because I grew up with the Arkansas flag that I never noticed. I was taught that the only thing that represented the Confederacy was one of the four stars, which I’ve always advocated should be removed–but that’s something you’d only know about if you knew the flag history.

Would it still seem racist if we reduced it to this redesign someone came up with?

11

Maryland’s is the best in my opinion, I realize Lord Baltimore’s coat of arms isn’t ‘American’, but still, there is way too many blue flags with two coonskinned capped dudes standing next to a circle.

12

Yeah- Zombie Sherman, take that KKK!

13

Even that is too busy IMO. Flags shouldn’t have fine details, like the separations between the petals here.

I agree that the flag of New Mexico is just about great. It’s simple and it says it.

I disagree with you on Arizona, though. Looks like a colourblind superhero motif. Asymetric sunburst in *four *different colours, each more garish than the next ?! Get out of here. Also, orange star is orange. Y’can’t have an orange star. In fact, y’can’t have orange on yer flag, period. Thems are the rules, wot I make 'em up.

[QUOTE=BigT]
Are the white stars in side the blue enough to invoke the Confederate flag? Maybe its because I grew up with the Arkansas flag that I never noticed. I was taught that the only thing that represented the Confederacy was one of the four stars, which I’ve always advocated should be removed–but that’s something you’d only know about if you knew the flag history.
[/QUOTE]

Blue diagonals on a red field studded with white stars, yes. The flag of Arkansas is basically the CBF cut down the middle with each half flipped then sewn back together.

Also it looks like the logo for a gas station, stop that. :slight_smile:

14

True, but it’s almost there. Just needs s slight tweak.

As I said, I don’t find it attractive, but it doesn’t have any basic design errors. It’s easily recognizable from s distance waving in the breeze.

Four colors? I only see two in the sunburst.

I think the asymmetry is fine. It’s distinctive and it’s distinguishable. In terms of visibility, it’s better than 50 teeny stars and 13 narrow stripes.

I don’t like the way orange combines with the yellow in this design, but I have no general objection to orange.

It’s so obvious that that’s what it is. It practically smacks you in the face with it.

15

Well, what are we trying to do—keep a design based on the Confederate flag but changing it just enough to hide that fact?

If this design were used in any other concept, I wouldn’t have a problem. Given the history, though, I’d prefer they scrap it and start from scratch.

16

Oklahoma should ditch the flag with the Commanche shield on it, and just use a real Commanche shield. That would look hard core, like the horse tails the Mongols flew. When they raided settlers’ cabins, they’d steal their bibles and glue the pages into the shields for lamination. That should make it an easier sell to the Oklahomans.

17

Yeah, I went from CA to CT and neither flag is exactly a work of art. In most cases, CA especially, the problem is that they were designed by committees that didn’t get along very well in the first place. We should thank our lucky stars most of them aren’t worse. A lot worse.

18

That Ohio flag is a pennant, not a flag, they need to try again.

Hawaii’s is busy, but distinctive.

19

The Flag of Arizona looks like it should be the flag of some newly Communist Asian country. Hawaii’s flag would work if it seceded and joined the Commonwealth. The only problem with the Arkansas flag, though, is it feels the need to put the name of the state on there.

20

In all fairness the proper color is copper, it’s just commonly rendered as orange. And I’m not seeing the asymmetry.

I’m biased though. I so appreciate the design of the AZ state flag I have painted a large mural of it in my home and everything.