New Flag for Haiti

In a recent post over at Create/Recreate - Flags, etc., a blog with a similar purpose to this one and which is currently finishing a critique and improvement of the flags of the Brazilian states, the flag of the state of Rio Grande do Sul was examined:

This flag has the unfortunate attribute of showcasing the state seal, which in turn features the state's flag four times.  I suppose this becomes an infinite regression, since each of those four flags would have the seal on them, which would each have four flags, which each have the seal, etc.  The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was the flag of Haiti:

As you can see, the coat-of-arms in the center of the flag makes the same mistake Rio Grande do Sul makes, but this time there are six flags instead of four.  Like the old South African flag or the Georgian (US) flag of a few years ago, flag designs which prominently feature flags don't tend to be very successful.

I should reiterate at this point that any critiques I make of the flags of other nations are purely from a design perspective and in no way am I intending to insult or denigrate the ideas those flags may represent for other nations.

The Haitian flag is a nice one overall, and because the coat-of-arms is fairly small proportionally, this flag remains recognizable from a distance.  It is very similar to the flag of Liechtenstein, a problem that was noticed at an early Olympics, but Liechtenstein decided to change their flag to avoid further confusion (they didn't make a big change, just added a crown to the upper-left corner).  The imagery of the coat-of-arms is pretty good, but is also busy with lots of detail.  This is what the coat-of-arms looks like enlarged:

My favorite part of this coat-of-arms is the palm tree in the center, representative of the nation's climate and Caribbean location, which is topped by a Phrygian cap, a symbol (from Ancient Greece) of liberty.  I've mentioned elsewhere how much I love the Phrygian cap as a symbol, but have never seen it utilized successfully on a flag.  It usually shows up on seals as just another detail among many others.  My idea to change the flag was to maintain the tree and cap, but remove the cannons, text, and especially the other flags.  Here is what I came up with:

This flag keeps the red and blue background, as well as the symbolism of the cap and tree.  The palm fronds could be simplified, but I kind of like the little detail that remains.  It reminds me of the flag of South Carolina, which is one of the best American state flags even though the palmetto it features has a fair amount of detail.

Thanks to Leonardo for the inspiration for this post.

One last note on flags that feature flags. I have family in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, a region whose NFL team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  As team names go, I like this one, particularly since pirates are a big part of Tampa's identity (they have an annual event called the Gasparilla Pirate Festival).  However, the team also has a flag which is flown at local businesses and by fans which looks like this:

The flag comes in a variety of shapes and with different background colors, but the common theme is the picture of a flag being the sole feature of the flag.  I suppose without the image, you wouldn't know the flagpole is a sword, but really Tampa?  That can't be the best you can do.  I've also seen flags with just the skull and crossbones on red, but the flags like the one seen above are very, very common.

New Flag for North Carolina

North Carolina's flag isn't too bad:

Of course, I have some picayune problems with it, mostly in reference to the text on the little banners, but by and large this is a neat flag design.  Large blocks of color, no distracting or minute details, just remove the text and we can call it a day:

But you know, I can't help the feeling that I've seen this flag somewhere before, like it may be a design already in use. . .:

This, in case you don't know, is the flag of Texas, a very well-known and much beloved symbol of all things Texan.  In predates the North Carolina flag as a state symbol by about fifteen years and was used before that by the Texas Republic, quite a significant pedigree in my opinion.  In contrast, North Carolina first adopted a state flag in 1861 when it seceded from the Union and it looked like this:

It was changed after the Civil War to its current design, which I think was unfortunate.  With the secession flag, North Carolina at least toyed with the color scheme (plus I think the big star on red looks spiffy), rather than the modern day flag which is essentially the flag of Texas inverted and defaced with text.

In the interest of creating a new design, and in deference to the Texas flag (which, as I've said in an earlier post, is terrific), I present my idea on a new flag for North Carolina:

This preserves the basic idea behind the current flag, but changes it in enough ways as to be easily distinguishable from that of Texas.  I returned to the color scheme of the secession-era flag and removed the star and text.  The template for this flag is actually the flag of the city of Memphis, Tennessee, though it had a seal on the vertical stripe.  The red on the hoist is nice and broad, hopefully separating it from any tri-colors or other Texas-esque flags out there.  No text, images, or crazy designs, just red, white, and blue.  And I suppose, if one was so inclined, the diagonal slant could be reminiscent of North Carolina's western border, but you'll never hear me make such a claim. 

A brief bit of explanation for the slightly ridiculous amount of brown-nosing I did in regards to the flag of Texas.  It is a great state flag, and though that may be my favorite thing about Texas, I feel the few truly original state flags should be defended.  If all the states copied New Mexico, Maryland, and Texas, it would just dilute those designs and leave us with a confusing mess of virtually identical flags, a scenario not too different from what we have now with all the seal-on-blue banners.

New Flag for Rhode Island

Rhode Island is another state that, like Wyoming, is almost great:

As flags with text go, Rhode Island's is about as good as it gets.  Only a single word, "Hope," on a blue banner, providing both the state's motto and a splash of color to the yellow and white of the rest of the flag.  Also like Wyoming, the fix for this flag is fairly obvious and has been done before.  A simple deletion of the blue banner and enlargement of the anchor.  As much as I would like to suggest some amazing new flag, the one I offer is only slightly changed:

It looks like I did next to nothing and I'll admit that is true.  The anchor has been enlarged and centered like in other designs and all I've really done is make the stars a light blue.  My main reason for only minor alterations is that this flag has great history.  The anchor design for Rhode Island dates from 1640, within five years of Rhode Island existing as a colony and that is just too historic to discard (the "Hope" banner also dates from this period, but my commitment to history is only topped by my commitment to eliminating text).  I felt that the splash of color should be maintained though and that it was silly for a state with "Island" in its name to not have any blue.  I tried this with darker shades, but I prefer the more subtle contrast of the light blue rather than the competition with the anchor that navy stars created.  It keeps the flag simple, recognizable, and maintains one of the most successful examples of a white background.

New Flag for Wyoming

Wyoming's flag is unfortunate, for two big reasons:

The biggest reason is that this was almost an amazing flag; the red and white borders, the contrast of the white bison on the deep blue.  But then they had to go and shove their boring, complicated seal into the center.  It's just sad.  The other reason this flag is unfortunate is more personal, in that the fix for it is very simple, but others have already suggested it.  Over at Your State Flag Stinks, the seal was  removed the seal and you're left with a pretty great flag, and I can't imagine that's the first place to suggest that.  I suppose I could chicken out and do the same, but flip the bison so I can pretend to claim originality:

But that feels like a cop out.  There are some other state symbols of Wyoming that would look good up there, if I had any artistic ability, including the Horned Toad (state reptile) and the Triceratops (state dinosaur).  Another option would be the rodeo rider that graces their licence plate and state quarter.  It is a fairly simple outline and used throughout the state already:

In the end, I don't think this looks to bad, but the design of the modern flag (minus the seal of course) is a tough one to dismiss.  It can be hard to fix a flag when the best solution is already taken.  Not that I'm complaining, I wish they were all this easy.

New Flag for Hawaii

It's tough to criticize the flag of Hawaii, but I plan to try:

As American state flags go, Hawaii's is good.  There's no text, no complicated seals, and only three colors.  The eight stripes represent the eight main islands.  It also has a great connection to history, as it was originally flown by the Kingdom of Hawaii.  It was created in the 1840's when Hawaii was a British protectorate, but modeled on both the flag of the UK and USA.  The Hawaiian king, Kamehameha III, hoped to appease the Americans (there were American settlers and missionaries on the islands) while showing respect for the British Empire.

As anyone who has seen my fixes for the Canadian provincial flags will know, I'm not a big fan of using the Union Jack on the flags of non-British places (I don't really like how it's used on places that are owned by the British, but we'll get to that if I ever do a Bermuda or Falkland Islands post).  In Canada it was understandable, they still maintain Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state, but the United States fought a war to not be British anymore.

One of the more admirable qualities of this flag is it's attempt to evoke the American flag but with symbolism that is unique to the islands, the number of stripes and their coloring being the most prominent.  With that in mind, I offer the following as a possible replacement:

And just like that, no more United Kingdom.  I can understand the criticism that the stripe colors don't really differentiate it enough from the American flag.  The number of stars is appropriate, since Hawaii was the 50th state, but that could just compound the problem of confusion.  My other thought was to dispose of the canton altogether, producing something like this:

This design also suggests the American flag, but does so in a way that looks less like a direct copy.  The empty blue canton could symbolize the ocean that surrounds the islands and I'm prone to just leaving it empty.  Someone with more artistic skill could easily fill that space with some sort of symbol of the islands (the state fish, the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, might look snazzy up there), but I for one like the uncluttered look of the blank canton.

New Flags for Oregon and Arkansas

This week we return to the USA, at least for a little while.  Arkansas and Oregon will be the subjects, with a minor tweak for the former and three suggestions (though there are eight more) for the latter. 

Arkansas is one of those flags that tripped at the finish line:

This could have been a great flag.  The shapes are simple and evoke the diamond mines of the state, the four central stars are all about the history, the red field helps it stand out from it's 49 siblings, and it even lets them use some Confederate imagery without being too obvious about it.  Why, oh why did they put the name in the middle?! 

The blog I often think of as a predecessor, Your State Flag Stinks, did the expected and removed the name and enlarged and centered the stars:

In the spirit of uniqueness (which I don't always follow, but will this time) I need to do something different and this is what I came up with:

The diamond shape is retained, along with the colors and the perimeter of stars, which denote Arkansas' place as the 25th state.  In the original design (circa 1912) there were only three central stars with three different meanings: 1)The three nations to which Arkansas had belonged (Spain, France, USA), 2) 1803, the year of the Louisiana Purchase, of which Arkansas was a part, and 3) the fact that Arkansas was the third state admitted from the area that had been the Louisiana Purchase (Louisiana and Missouri were the first two).  The fourth star was added in the 1920's and stood for a fourth nation, the CSA.

I like the three star design better, mostly because those stars can have three separate meanings, while with a fourth star they only have one.  I filled in the white space because, I dunno, lots of flags have significant white space, and I thought it looked good.  Plus, if you squint and use your imagination, those three stars are almost in the shape of an "A."

Oregon's flag is unique among (current) state flags in that it has different designs on the obverse and reverse sides.  The front side is the typical seal on blue arrangement:

The use of only one color helps simplify it a bit, but the wagon train, eagle, date, and state name all combine to make this a pretty terrible flag.  The one saving grace can be found on the reverse:

A friendly little beaver, all alone on the back of the flag.  Again, only one color was a good decision, but the attempt at shading and detail only serves to detract from the design.

My original thought for Oregon was to use the flag of Portland, the state's largest city, which is pretty cool.  It consists of distinct colors, a simple design, and no text or complicated imagery:

The colors here can stand for generic flag things (agricultural, mineral wealth, peace, rivers and oceans, etc.) and I was going to leave it at that, but then I discovered that the people of Oregon had already taken matters into their own hands.  Back in 2008, to celebrate the sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of the state, the Oregonian (a major newspaper in Portland) ran a contest for new flag designs.  Sadly it wasn't recognized by the state government, but they still came up with some pretty neat ideas:

This was the winning design, a valiant effort which took the beaver, an important symbol of the state, and turned it into an appealing, four color design, vaguely reminiscent of Thailand or Costa Rica.  The beaver is taken directly from the current flag and is a little busy for my taste, but it is head and shoulders above the original.  It won the plurality, but with only 20% of the vote, it was hardly the clear victor.  Most of the designs were good (though there was one that appeared to be mimicking Maryland's flag and wasn't able to pull it off) and I'd encourage everybody to take a look.  My personal favorite came in a close second with 17% of the vote:

If you have read any other entries on this blog, you'll realize I'm a sucker for tree imagery on flags.  Not sure why, but they just look good.  This one could be simplified a little, but as the entrant described it, "Blue for our Pacific Coast, white for our snow-capped mountains, green for our forests and golden for the grassy plains of eastern Oregon."  "Wish I'd thought of that," is about all I can say.

New Flags for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador

This will be another post in which I look at some flags which are on the right track, but which I feel need a little extra push to become good flags.  Today we'll be examining 3/4 of the Atlantic provinces of Canada, continuing my series of Great White North posts.

New Brunswick is first up, a beautiful flag that went a step too far:

Objectively, this is not a great flag.  It was way to much detail on both the ship and the lion.  However, for some reason I can't fully explain (even to myself), I'm a sucker for nautical imagery on flags, particularly when it hearkens back to the Age of Sail.  With that in mind, there is little I can do but turn my wrath on the lion.

I understand the British connection, I even like that it appears to be sticking it's tongue out at me, but it doesn't need all those line to help the viewer understand it is a furry creature.  I suppose it could be simplified, but that isn't for me:

I have done away with the lion altogether, ending up with a flag that vaguely recalls a horizontal tri-color.  Though the ship could be simplified, I like the fact that this flag uses black, white, and the primary colors to depict a complex image.  Not very simple, but highly recognizable, and it continues the apparent mission I have been on in my Canadian posts to dispense with any provincial ties to the United Kingdom.

Nova Scotia's flag is only ok.  It has a shield like several other provencial flags, but that is filled by an ornate lion and nothing else.  There is no attempt to sqeeze 46 other symbols of the province into that small field and even the background blue cross on white is clean and distinct:

As with the previous flag, the lion is the thing that needs to go.  As Nova Scotia means New Scotland in English (translated from Latin, though originally Scotia was a name Romans had for Ireland), the blue cross presents a great flag opportunity squandered by the crest and so my only change will be a bit of removal:

Clean, simple, distinctive colors, historic connection, this flag has it all in an elegant little package.  This flag is simple a reversal of the Scottish flag, and while it is almost identical to the ensign of the Russian Navy (the ratio and thickness of the cross being the only real differences), I don't think that should prevent the use of this flag.  I mean, how often would the two ever be displayed in the same place?

Last for this week is the flag of Newfoundland and Labrador:

Adopted in 1980, it is one of Canada's newer flags, appropriate since Newfoundland and Labrador are the newest province.  It also has the nickname "The Golden Shaft," which caused me to stop for a second.  I suppose it could just be Wikipedia messing with me, but it fits the design.  This flag could easily go without any changes, as it seems to represent the British connection, their natiucal heritage, and a clean, clear design all at the same time.  My only suggestion came after looking at an unofficial flag of Labrador, the mainland component of this province:

 This flag is also very nice, and thus I will steal from it to improve the flag for the entire province:

I dunno, I just really liked that little spruce twig, and I think the touch of green looks good here.  I tried adding two, with the second being a mirror image of the first on the other side of the yellow stripe, but it reminded me too much of antlers.

New Flag for British Columbia

This week is part two of my Canada appreciation month (I guess, or at least until I get bored with it).  On the docket today; British Columbia, land of Sasquatch, the Winter Olympics, and probably other stuff too:

This is a great flag.  It's busy, but there are only four key elements, each with an important link to the province, so the problem is too much detail rather than too much going on. 

1) The setting sun, denoting BC as Canada's westernmost province
2) The wavy blue and white lines, representing the provinces position between the Rockies and the Pacific
3) and 4) The Union Jack and the crown, both linking BC as a former colony within the British Empire.

Straightforward and distinctive, but not very easy to draw.  I toyed with a number of ideas, including removing the Union Jack, simplifying the sun, and starting from scratch, but none seemed right.  However, I recently stumbled across a site that advocates independence for the Pacific Northwest under the name the Republic of Cascadia (http://zapatopi.net/cascadia/), an intriguing idea to say the least.  The website which is fairly tongue-in-cheek (the Cascadia Defense Force would be made up of 2,000 bigfoots (bigfeet?)) states that they wish to see British Columbia and the states of Washington and Oregon break away, reminiscent of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia.  What makes the site relevant to this blog was the flag proposed for the future nation:

Their proposal looks really good.  I might take issue with the way the top stripe gets cut off, but straightening the stripes out would make it look an awful lot like the Utah flag I recently proposed.  This flag combines a number of of the symbols of the old BC flag, but in a simplified manor, disposing of the British imagery.  Using this flag as the template, I would only make a few changes:

As you can see, I've kept the basic design, but toned it down a little.  Some of the main elements from the original flag are still present, but the royal symbols have been discarded.  The green is meant to stand for the temperate rainforests of the province, but could also work for the many other vague ideas green tends to indicated on flags (agricultural, prosperity, etc.).  Were I more talented, I would replace the pine cone with something more species specific but I'll leave that to someone who isn't using Paint.

New Flags for Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Nunavut

In this first international edition of Fix the Flags, we'll be looking at a few Canadian provinces that could use a bit of work.  Each of these is just a little tweak, I'll get to the ones that really need fixing in later posts.

First off, we have Saskatchewan:

One the surface, not a bad flag, especially compared to the flags of many other provinces.  The green and yellow combination make for a unique color-scheme that really stands out.  The two issues I have with it are the intricacies of the flower and that mess in the upper-left corner.  While the lion looks really cool, it also looks like a pain to draw and the wheat is, well, just wheat.  I get that Saskatchewan is one of the prairie provinces and is a major grain growing area, but wheat just doesn't seem very inspired, so it's gone.  What I had left, after a little rearranging, was this:

I know I said the flower was too busy, but it also looks good.  The red contrasts nicely with the green and the stem extending into the yellow both ties the two color bands together (preventing it from looking like Ukraine) and can be symbolic of the prairie, which is incredibly flat.  I also changed the ratio, bringing it to the common 2:3.

Next comes Ontario:

After working with state flags of the USA, the red field of this flag is a refreshing change of pace.  However, the Union Jack/red field/shield design is also used by Manitoba, making these two nearly indistinguishable from a distance (both are versions of the Canadian Red Ensign, the flag used by the Canadian government from 1957 to 1965). 

The shield of this flag, unlike the many seals in the US is comparatively simple, just three maple leaves representing Canada and the cross of St. George to denote allegiance to King George III, the monarch when the Loyalists who fled the 13 Colonies formed what would become Ontario.

As an American, I'm not a huge fan of ol' Georgie 3, but that's not the reason I'm removing the cross from the shield.  I'm also taking the Union Jack, because even though both speak to an identity within the British Empire and their colonial heritage, they are symbols that can be easily applied to many other places around the world (like Bermuda, the Falklands, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, etc.).  I feel like Ontario should use items a little closer to home.  The resulting flag maintains the red field, but shifts the shield and symbols around:

As I said, the cross of St. George is gone, as is the Union Jack.  The shield was enlarged and moved to the center of the flag, and I tweaked the ratio.  The only addition I made was the inclusion of two stylized trillium, the state flower of Ontario.  They seemed to be a better symbol of the province than the attachments to faded imperial glory.

Last, we come to Nunavut, the northern Canadian territory that covers 7 billion square miles and is home to 18 people (these are just rough estimates):

Admittedly, their flag is really nice, combining the heritage of the Inuit and a nod to geography into a simple and highlyy recognizable design.  It really should be in a "fine as is" post, but I have one small suggestion.  I would switch the colors of the star and left field, so it would look like this:

On further reflection, it may have looked better as it was, but oh well.

New Flag of Florida

Florida's flag isn't so bad, despite the use of the seal and the similarity to the flag of Alabama:

Maybe I'm being too easy on it, there is a lot of stuff going on in the middle of this flag, but the imagery of the Native American watching the steamship sail by is appealing, ignoring the fact that a scene like this probably never happened.

The easiest way to fix this flag would be to remove all the stuff in the middle:

This flag still resembles Alabama, but the large golden disk could easily be said to be the sun, Florida is the Sunshine State after all.  It would be simple, easy to draw, and probably be fairly recognizable.  However, suggesting this as the alternative makes me feel a little lazy, so let's see if we can do better.

Florida has a diverse flag history, going back to its colonization by the Spanish in the early 1500's.  Here are three of the flags used over all or part of the state in the intervening years:

The flag of the short-lived Republic of West Florida (centered on the Gulf coasts of Mississippi and Alabama and part of Louisiana, there is some dispute over if it ever claimed any of today's Florida).  This flag is interesting, it has a good historical connection, even if geographically it may be a little tenuous.  However, the single star is a bit dull, particularly with the profusion of stars on other states' flags.  Plus, it was used as the flag of secession across much of the South during the 1860's, so I'll just avoid that whole mess.

The flag Florida adopted in 1861, its first state flag.  This one is also interesting, but mainly because it echos the 1st Confederate National flag in a way that seems to be unique; the flag is divided in half, with one side being blue and the other holding the three stripes.  This one could serve as template for another Southern state in the future, but I think I have a better idea for Florida.

The flag Florida used from 1868 to 1900.  This one is an approximation, as the seal has been changes in minor ways over the years, but it gives the same impression as the other would have.  This flag is not the source of that better idea, I just wanted to let you know that Florida's flag used to be a lot worse.

The improvement idea comes from a flag that has been shown on this blog before and currently acts as one of the inspirations for Florida's currents design; the Cross of Burgundy:

It struck me as I studied this flag that it has twenty four little notches on it (or whatever you want to call those things) and Florida was the 27th state.  It wouldn't be too hard to add three more and this would provide an unique way of denoting the state's position without using only stars again.  Here is the end result:

I've changed the colors for two reasons, because I got sick of red and white, and because the green cross now resembles palm fronds, a type of tree synonymous with Florida.  There are now 26 notches, one for each state at the time Florida joined, and one central orange star to represent Florida itself.  This star can also symbolize the Sun and the orange color can point to one of the state's most famous products, citrus fruit.  It has a distinct design, each element is (fairly) specific to Florida, and could easily be turned into a bumper sticker.

New Flags for Indiana, Iowa, and Mississippi

There are a number of flags out there that need fixing, but only require minor alterations.  This could be because they used to have a perfectly good flag, because a major city has a nice one that could fit the whole state, or maybe they just need some text removed.  I'm going to deal with a few of these today, starting with Indiana:

This is an overall nice flag, the stars are symbolic, it has unique imagery, and it is a fairly simple design.  However, it also gives the name of the state, which needs to go.  No matter how well designed your flag may be, it needs a fix as soon as you start putting text on it.  The obvious alteration here would be to just remove "Indiana."  Sadly for me, someone has already done that and in the name of originality, I'm going to come up with something else:

This is from the blog Your State Flag Stinks, and I like it a lot, so I won't devote too much time to trying to one-up it, just give a suggestion of my own:

This is the flag of Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana.  Both the city and the state claim the motto "Crossroads of America" and so this flag could work for both.  Admittedly, it looks like a traffic circle if you stare at it long enough, so let's move on:

Iowa, land of corn and . . . um, caucuses, I guess?.  Their flag is intriguing since it is based on the French tri-color (the French were the first to explore the area and it was part of the Louisiana Purchase) and has the bald eagle in the center.  But here again, we have a text problem, plus the eagle looks like it is trying to  be a ribbon dancer, so let's do away with all that, shall we?:

Removed the ribbons and the text and re-centered the eagle.  It could probably be simplified more, but I'll save that for some sort of "Fix the Fixes" post in the future.  On to our last competitor:

On aesthetic merits, Mississippi's flag looks pretty good, but that is not so much the case in an historical or racial setting.  I've long thought it was a shame that the Confederate battle flag has become so intrinsically linked with slavery because it has such a great look, but them's the breaks and we'll just have to live with it.  In light of that, here is my suggestion:

Behold, the flag of Mississippi during the Civil War.  This flag would allow Mississippi to maintain their link with their Confederate past, but without the pesky implications that come along with the use of St. Andrew's cross.  Plus the tree is a magnolia, another symbol of Mississippi (it is the Magnolia State, after all) and one which also avoids reference to past racial injustice.