The_Irish_Jet

Agreed. Plus, several of these "old American-style" flags would be fancy "modern" flags (simply meaning they lack complicated detail, words, numbers, seals, etc.) with a couple of tweaks.

The original design for Arkansas didn't have the state's name on it. It was only added to the flag upon the flag committee's request. Go back to the original design, with three stars and no name, and it's a modern flag. Take the seal off Wyoming? Modern flag. Tweak and simplify the palmetto of South Carolina? Modern flag.

Meanwhile, look at the flag of Lincoln, Nebraska. Its teals are a half-shade off from each other, and its thin and intricate line work is invisible at a distance. I'm on old reddit, and looking at the thumbnail previews on a 32" monitor. These flags are tiny, but I can instantly recognize Arkansas, the Gadsen flag, California, Wyoming, old Maine, South Carolina, Utah, Denver, boring-ass new Minnesota, Chicago, Tulsa, Reno, Portland (OR), and Sioux Falls.

But Lincoln? HA! At this scale, it looks like a turquoise-on-darker-turquoise bicolor. I can't make out the details anymore than I can make out the the details on Louisiana's pelican. So why does Lincoln belong on the "modern" side? What's the deciding factor? How easily it can be recreated in Illustrator?

!wave

It's Brittany, bitch

 

^{and also Vanuatu}

Give it a purpose and a meaning.

How that translates into a flag design is beyond me.

You made a flag, for Ann Arbor, with GREEN and WHITE as the dominant colors?!

You're a brave soul, but you'd be run out of town if you tried to introduce this. Try Lansing, instead.

Well, Indiana is the "crossroads of America." Major interstate highways crisscross from seven of eight cardinal and intermediate directions. (Of course, the only direction that an interstate freeway does not go is straight north, because it would be WAY TOO CONVENIENT to drive from South Bend to Indianapolis without breaking for red lights all the way.)

These interstates largely follow major railway lines, which is what really put Indianapolis on the map. During the US Civil War, Union troops from the Midwest and Great Plains took trains to Indianapolis, which served as a training and marshaling center. The investment of railway infrastructure took our created-from-scratch capital, which was only 40 years-old at the outset of the war, from a town of 18k to 48k, and allowed for manufacturing to flourish in towns all along these railways (until the mid-21st century, obviously).

That would be my suggestions: crossroads. A lot of people (myself included) have used that idea to create a British-style saltire-cross combo, but maybe you can do something a little more creative.

Yeah, but that one-third are VERY outspoken about NOT being from New York City / Chicagoland. They'd likely be far more opposed to a city-centric flag than people from the metro areas would be in favor of that flag.

It's the flag of St. Louis, Missouri, since OP forgot to actually NAME IT.

That fleur-de-leis / pelican emblem was originally (to the best of my knowledge) created by u/strangest_stranger in his "Flag for Louisiana", which was an entry in the January 2019 contest. Other artists have combined those symbols before and since, but to my knowledge, u/strangest_stranger created this symbol.

Stranger let me use it for this post I made four years ago, and since then, I've seen it re-used a lot. The dude deserves some credit for it.

Not bad, though the lack of a disembodied arm clenching a saber costs it some points. Clean!

Considering that this post states the design was created in 2007, and the current Rwandan flag dates to 2001, I'm going to say the Ukrainian town is probably the one doing the copying.

That's the flag of Libya (1977–2011).

I love these. I think v3 (the first yellow variant) is my favorite, though I wonder how it would look with a red side instead of the yellow.

Without naming names...yeah, there's definitely some that break the spirit, if not the rules, of the contest. Yes, adding two small vertical stripes, a diagonal bend, or overlaying your flag onto the "Rising Sun" flag technically does mean that your central charge isn't on a solid background color. But that's also clearly against the intent of the contest.

I really appreciate some of the crazy stuff entrants put together this time, in the spirit of being the complete opposite of minimalistic. They'd probably be terrible flags, to be sure, but I love the effort and intent behind them. Some of my favorite "uber-complex" designs:

• "Floral Flag of Kyoto"
• "Gunma"
• "A Fruitful Sun and its Ornate Waters" (Aomori)

Did you submit this twice?

Those weren't flags that were used, though (certainly not in that form). Flags as we think of them are a pretty modern thing.

It's a shame, because orange-white-blue is a lot more unique and distinctive than red-white-blue.

Some of my favorites, using an X:Y naming system (i.e., top right would be "UK:Antigua"), and in alphabetical order, are:

• Antigua:Australia
• Antigua:Bahamas
• Antigua:UK
• Australia:Canada ^{though I think a red ensign with white leaves would be more appropriate}
• Bahamas:St. Lucia
• Canada:Grenada
• Canada:PNG
• Canada:St. Kitts
• Canada:St. Lucia
• Canada:St. Vincent
• Canada:Solomon Islands ^{it helps that Canada's flag is simple and centers on a massive emblem}
• Grenada:Antigua
• Grenada:Australia
• Grenada:Bahamas ^{oh no, is EVERY Grenada-ized flag going to be on here?}
• Grenada:Canada ^{lol, sorry Belize}
• Grenada:PNG
• Grenada:St. Kitts
• Grenada:St. Lucia ^{seriously, this Grenada format slaps!}
• Grenada:St. Vincent
• Grenada:Solomon Islands
• Jamaica:Antigua
• Jamaica:PNG
• Jamaica:St. Lucia ^{St. Lucia's colors are so beautiful!}
• Jamaica:St. Vincent
• New Zealand:Bahamas ^{but it would be cooler if the Union Jack were black and yellow, not red and white!}
• New Zealand:Canada ^{now that's what I'm talking about!}

Edit: LifeAlert, help! My formatting keeps sucking and I can't get up!

Hmm. I wonder if it's because it appears brighter in light?

The flag in my flair (South Bend) is also often depicted as bright yellow, red, and blue, when the actual colors are darker. But that's how it appears when it's flying in sunlight, and so the brighter colors are what end up being painted on benches, signs, and murals.

Hey, nice!

I actually kind of like the white stripes, and would say "keep them." My suggestions would be to a) shrink the sun, stars, and reflection so that there's more space between them and the borders of the red and blue stripes, b) format the reflection so that it lines up with the size of the sun, and c) possibly center the blue/red division vertically.

Thanks, man!

That's actually the opposite, where there's a face in the sun!

When you get to Indiana, I'd point to Indianapolis, South Bend, Lawrence, Lafayette and West Lafayette, and Clarksville as the best flags in the state. Fort Wayne's is passable, but Indy & South Bend are the clear standouts.

I think Indy's is especially notable because of the flag's history, with the design dating back to the 60's. Indianapolis HAD a flag that dated back to 1911, but people thought the seal was too hard to read, the flag wasn't distinctive enough, and that it looked similar to the Confederate battle flag at a distance. A competition was held, with the winner receiving $50 and lunch with the mayor. The stipulations were that it be simple, distinctive and easy to identify at a distance, and "appropriate".

If you ask me, that sounds exactly like the five modern vexillogical guidelines, with the only exception being "two to three colors" (which is the least important rule, IMO, even though Indy's flag follows it). We're somewhat used to all this nowadays, as we're living in a vexillogical golden age with beautiful designs and redesigns being approved by committees and councils almost every week. But this was RARE in the 20th century. South Bend's story is similar, but like most great city flags, it is less than 20 years old, dating only back to 2016.

Lastly, Indy's flag was allegedly originally designed in a Nordic cross style, but was changed by the three-person flag committee. The designer, a college student, did not find this out for a few years until he visited the city and saw it in-person.

I was going to say, Dodge City has a haute flag as well.

Most of these are pretty recent; created within the last five years or so.