Comments on: Best and worst U.S. city flags

Best and worst U.S. city flags

Tlogmer — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:06:45 -0800

The best and worst city flags in the U.S. (Plus, how to design a good flag.)

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:10:18 -0800

By: donovan

donovan — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:29:04 -0800

Cities have flags? Who knew?

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:51:59 -0800

My favorites were the ultra-cool seventies designs from Texas: Arlington and Plano.

By: PrinceValium

PrinceValium — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:54:52 -0800

Graded national flags. Congratulations, Gambia.

By: cell divide

cell divide — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:57:18 -0800

That Provo one is great-- looks like a Vitamin or Cereal label.

By: contessa

contessa — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:58:01 -0800

I lived in Tampa for 3 and a half years and never realized its flag was so asstastic.

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 18:07:08 -0800

I'm kind of frightened of Wichita's flag. Sure, it's cool and all, but doesn't it remind anyone else of the scary flags of Evil Invading Aliens from 1950s science-fiction movies? And is anyone else disturbed that the Seattle flag bears an astonishingly close resemblance to the Starbucks logo? Coincidence? I think not. That Pocatello flag was clearly designed by a committee. "Well, we need the mountains, yep. And that "Proud to be Pocatello" slogan--that's a must. And don't forget the trademark symbol. And the copyright information. And those little red horizontal lines that Bill's so crazy about..."

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 18:10:44 -0800

Also, the respondents seem to me to be way too biased against the tried-and-true "superimpose the 19th-century city seal on a white or blue background" solution. No way that Boston's perfectly reasonable, if a little staid and boring, flag should be #133 while that Tampa abomination is #75. It's an outrage, I tells ya! An outrage!

By: clevershark

clevershark — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 20:09:54 -0800

A general rule seems to be "if it belongs on a NASCAR vehicle, it's not a proper flag".

By: mikeh

mikeh — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 20:13:15 -0800

#14 baby, oh yeah.

By: philfromhavelock

philfromhavelock — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 20:37:50 -0800

> Simple Check > Meaningful Symbolism Check > Use 2–3 Basic Colors Check > No Lettering or Seals Check > Be Distinctive or Be Related Check I nominate Tuktoyaktuk, North West Territories. (Slight off topic. I like how the old Colorado Rockies jersey was essentially the state flag.)

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 20:57:31 -0800

The seal idea is bad -- not necessarily aesthetically, but medium-wise -- because it's not readable from a distance or from both sides, wears out easily, is expensive, etc.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 21:54:59 -0800

Even though it's ranked low, I like the flag for Provo -- it looks like it should be on an antacid bottle.

By: aladfar

aladfar — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 22:37:57 -0800

The Second City . . . AGAIN!! We're so much more attractive than those vexillologists think we are. Damn you DC!! Your flag is but a malformed clone of ours!

By: shepd

shepd — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 00:49:57 -0800

Is that guy in Tuktovaktuk playing tennis in the snow? Or is he trying to conduct a non-existant orchestra? I knew we had tar sands, but, uhhh, I don't think they look great on a flag. At least the tennis conductor is wearing an appropriate jacket, but, uhhh, those pants don't look right. That and him stepping into tar sands. Yuck. Man, we let these new territories make their own flags and they come up with that. Yikes. BTW: Does anyone else think that Toronto's flag is depicting someone wearing a blue outfit, with an open fly, using a maple leaf to cover up the family jewels?

By: Shoeburyness

Shoeburyness — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 03:13:40 -0800

Arlington's flag looks like a beer label. I lived in Colorado Springs for 25 years and never knew there was a city flag. In Denver, however, you can't miss the flag, as there is a little bitty flag emblazoned on every street sign in Denver proper. A lot of the Denver metro area cities have logos of the city on the street signs. Most of them are some sort of stylized version of the first letter in the city's name-- the rest are mystifying and random.

By: Shoeburyness

Shoeburyness — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 03:17:18 -0800

Oops, I meant Lubbock's flag looks like a beer label. Arlington's looks like a corporate logo from the '70s.

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 05:57:05 -0800

It was nice to see the Austin coat of arms again. The Milwaukee flag is a little busy for a flag -- it might make a nice collage, but a flag's imagery ought to be simpler, more direct and powerful, I think.

By: chrid

chrid — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 06:59:16 -0800

New York: Proud to be French!

By: chrid

chrid — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 06:59:56 -0800

Errr I meant Freedom. Proud to be Freedom.

By: lathrop

lathrop — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 08:02:47 -0800

aladfar: I think the Chicago flag's design is better than DC's; and in any case the rankings aren't really statistically stable or methodologically precise. On the whole, though, it's very on the mark. The city seal on a blue b/g is almost always a bad idea -- you can't "read" them in use or from a distance. P.S. Disclosure: I was formerly in the flag business.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 08:40:16 -0800

That St. Louis flag is kind of cool. I guess I never noticed it before but I guess those ribbons are meant to symbolize the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 14:40:07 -0800

I've always been disappointed in Minneapolis: 1950's seventh-grade textbook, or Devo album cover logo? You decide.

By: Mars Saxman

Mars Saxman — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 15:19:02 -0800

What the hell? Since when does Seattle have a flag? I've never seen that design anywhere before. Where do they get these things from? And why does a city need a flag in the first place?

By: psmealey

psmealey — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 15:58:33 -0800

Mars, that's what I said. I'd never seen it before either, and I lived and walked by the Municipal Building every day for 2.5 years. It definitely looks like they redesigned it about the same time they redid the Seahawks' uniforms. Maybe the designer threw the flag in as a part of the deal.

By: me3dia

me3dia — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 17:19:32 -0800

Some of these (Glendale AZ, Pocatello) don't look like flags at all -- they're just logos that somebody printed on fabric and ran up a pole. Anyway, there aren't many cities that actively use their flags. Chicago and DC are the only ones here I can remember ever seeing -- if New York used theirs, you *know* it would have come up in the whole anti-French movement. Instead, you'd be forgiven if you thought the NYC flag was the NYPD & FDNY emblems on a navy blue background.

By: majick

majick — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 19:45:57 -0800

I rather like the straightforward design of the Alameda flag, except for the weird blue-white inversion thing, although it's more common to see the yacht club's version than the official city flag. The San Francisco flag looks perfectly lovely when flown adjascent to California's bear and star, which is one of my favorite flags.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 20:08:05 -0800

Problem with the NYC flag shown here is that it's depicted with non web safe colors. It's not the blue, le blanc, le rouge as others have cited... it's blue, white and orange... you know, Knicks and Mets colors.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 17:01:59 -0800

In your face Rapids City! When I clicked the link, I knew Milwaukee would be near the bottom. The funny thing is, the city had a contest to redesign the flag a little while ago. One of the winning entries was the basic idea I had, but I think the city decided to stick with what it's got.