Best and Worst State and Provincial Flags

Back in 2001, the North American Vexillogical Association asked its membership to rate the U.S. state flags, the Canadian province flags, and flags of the U.S. territories.

The average ratings the members gave the various flags resulted in the top ten flags being those of New Mexico, Texas, Quebec, Maryland, Alaska, Arizona, Puerto Rico, District of Columbia, the Marshall Islands, and South Carolina.

The ten worst flags were New Hampshire, Idaho, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, South Dakota, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, and Georgia.

Actually, the NAVA membership tended to downgrade any state flag that incorporated the state seal on a monochromatic background.

A good flag design should be simple, with clear colors, and not too many elements.  State emblems make them hard to distinguish.  They should be identifiable at a glance.  One commentator's opinion, is one that a good design can be identified at a glance (even in a stiff breeze!) and be easy for people to sketch.

I can add a new element: Can the state flag be incorporated into a swimsuit?  At present, there seems to be only two states' flags that are so utilized: Texas and  Maryland.  (Thanks to Heidi for the information.)

A recurrent problem of this type of item is, quite frankly, the design limitations emanating from the flags themselves.  Most seem to incorporate the state seal, and the flag design is hardly simple.  And seriously dull.

In my opinion, the best potential swimsuit ones are for states with simple, straightforward flags: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Texas*.  Alabama uses a dull, red-x design that could work, but provides little interest.  Arizona has that really neat sun, and that could work, partcularly on the bikini bottom!. The neat anchors on Rhode Island's could serve for one cup of a bikini top, as could the three stars in the circle that appears on Tennessee's. 

In my opinion, the most replicable pattern for bikini-makers is that of New Mexico's state flag.  Imagine a yellow bikini with the stylized sun one one or both cups of the bra!