This Week In Vexillology: Special #SideProject

God Bless this brilliant individual.   Seriously...  it was pure random happenstance that I checked Wired.com and found an article entitled 'Could These Redesigned State Flags Bring America Together?'  And sure enough, someone had launched a #sideproject to redesign every single state flag with several unifying features running throughout the redesign.

First of all, let me just get this out of the way:  YES YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES THIS IS A BRILLIANT EFFING IDEA!

Second of all, now that I've got my Vexillological 'Squee' done with, let's get down the brass tacks.  There is a problem, from a vexillological standpoint with our state flags.  To be frank, the vast majority of them are, well, boring.   Somewhere along the way, some bright and well meaning individual had the notion that the State Seal on a field of a randomly selected but usually blue color would make for a good state flag and far, far too many state followed suit.

There are exceptions:  Colorado (I'm sure The Quiet Man would agree with me on this one), New Mexico (hailed as one of the best-designed state flags), Ohio (a pennant.  Points for creativity), California, Alaska, Maryland and Hawaii all spring to mind as being creative, nice to look at and more or less emblematic of their respective states.  (I suppose you can throw Arizona in there if you want.)   So the fact that someone actually took the time to do this and use an unifying set of colors and symbols throughout the redesign- seriously awesome and what's even more awesome?

The designs actually kind of rock.

I'll be honest, I loved all of them but a few stand out.  This is the proposed redesign for Kentucky:

"The intertwined arrows represent the joining of the frontiersman (red) and the statesman (blue) who are shaking hands on the existing state seal. That image (illustrating the motto, 'United We Stand, Divided We Fall') also appears on the flag. The angled lines suggest a 'K.'" 

Pennsylvania I just love to death:

 "A nib of a pen occupies the lefthand side, representing the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Three stars represent the state motto: 'Virtue, Liberty and Independence.'" --Ed Mitchell.

Seriously.  I love that... there's a PEN.  A freaking PEN! In the flag of Pennsylvania...  if someone in the Keystone State doesn't get on this right away, they are missing a huge opportunity.  California is intriguing:

"This is the only flag with curves, because I wanted to convey the feeling of driving along the coastline." --Ed Mitchell. Image: Ed Mitchel

Of all the redesigns this is probably the most interesting.  There are a few flags out there that are iconic in their own right and the Bear Flag of California is one of them- but to be honest, I don't hate this...  it draws a nice parallel with Colorado- and the curve does convey the feeling of driving along the PCH- probably one of California's more iconic features.

These are bold redesigns and many of them are worthy of consideration.  From the point of view of vexillology, many of America's state flags could use a refresher and if there are conversations to be had about changing them up, these proposals are a damn good place to start.

(No, I didn't include Iowa, Minnesota or New Hampshire.  Can't give all the fun away--  click the link above and find out for yourselves!  :-) )