Wednesday, September 4, 2013

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!

8 comments:

MarkD60 said...

I was going to nominate Maryland for one of the worst, but I like the bikini. It would be a better photo if there was a girl wearing it with really big boobs though.

TexWisGirl said...

well, i think the n. mex flag is beautiful any way it is used. :)

Mike said...

After seeing the state flag of Georgia in the article I went to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_flags) to see if that was really the state flag. It seems it was from 2001 to 2003. Georgia changes their state flag often.

Elvis Wearing a Bra on His Head said...

My state flag (Alabama) is so boring that even a surrender flag is more interesting.

Big Sky Heidi said...

I like Alaska's best.

Nice idea -- a state flag is good if it provides a motif for a swimsuit.

Cloudia said...

Love this topic!

And thanks for praising our Hawaii flag - only one in the US to incorporate the Union Jack
(or to be the flag of a former independent nation)

ALOHA from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
=^..^= <3

Bilbo said...

The Ohio state flag is colorful and of unusual shape, being more or less triangular or pennant-shaped ... which would make it an appropriate flag to use for those 50's retro conical bras or swimsuit tops.

Sinner Bob said...

It seems that most state flags are an afterthought when dreaming up a state seal. The idea of making a state flag bikini is great, except for the piss-poor Georgia one.