Phlegmish posted:

I hate to say it but even the stars and stripes is barely passable

SlothfulCobra posted:

It followed in the footsteps of the United Kingdom and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and would later be followed by the vast bulk of countries as they became modern states, all adopting an official name that describe themselves as just government type of more commonly accepted region name, like the Republic of Korea, People's Democratic Republic of Korea, People's Republic of China, United Mexican States, or Federal Republic of Germany. Some countries choose to just have go adjective government type like the French Republic (Mk V) or the Russian Federation.

Of course, America has issues falling back on its region name like most other countries do, because all of the other countries in the Americas get grumpy about it, but it made sense at the time when there was only one independent group of Europeans in the New World.

SlothfulCobra posted:

Brittany's modern flag makes me panic for a moment before I notice there's no blue.

I feel like flag nerds overvalue simplicity, which is why all the samey forgettable tricolors that are more glorified color swatches get a pass, but America's distinctive flag from before tricolors were invented always gets people's ire up.

If you're gonna just have a few colored stripes, don't even bother reserving a neutral color to balance it out. Do like Ukraine does and just take the two symbolic colors you really care about for a more distinct bicolor.



Simple, unusual, eye-catching, and illustrative.



Of course, if you're talking about formerly soviet nations, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have some of the best flags out there for being eye-catching and still simple.





When I think of the simplicity needed for a flag, I think of being a kid and having to draw the flag fairly accurately, so America is like right on the edge of being able to do it, because it's hard to count right, although it's easy to get the gist of it across. The Mexican flag is a real example of a design just a bit too complex to consistently get just right, and if you look at their history, every few decades they tweaked the eagle with a snake on a cactus a bit.

Angepain posted:

which reminds me of this rejected proposal for the EU flag, created by combining the flags of all member states in 2002:

Can't see why it didn't catch on.

Ikasuhito posted:

Idk I've always been rather partial to the other finalist.



Though I suppose it could have been worse.

BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:

Phlegmish posted:

It's been interesting watching these extremely non-indigenous countries discuss Columbus. Maybe slightly ironic too, but I get it.

What about the actual country of Colombia, do they have a movement like that?

SlothfulCobra posted:

It's naming something after Columbus as a generic reference to the New World with no real consideration to the man who had been dead for around 300 years at that point, at around the same time that Columbus, Ohio was founded and named for similar reasons. At least British Columbia is actually named after a river (which itself was named after a boat).

I do think the wavy line for the river on the flag is a good idea. Let's see the Mississippi in other flags.



St. Paul's flag is pretty distinct, even if it does cram too many symbols in there. I do wonder whether most flags of smaller entities like cities often have the problem of nobody knowing the flag of where they are, so even if it makes for a bad visual up on a pole, it might make things faster if the flag just labeled itself for convenience so people know what it's celebrating.

RagnarokZ posted:

So, Danish Municipalities don't have flags, but they do have (Almost all) have municipal coat of arms.

This was the arms of the municipality I grew up in, can you tell the drat thing was made up in the 1970's reforms? I bet you can.



Fortunately, the municipality was merged with it's neighbors in 2007:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordfyn_Municipality

Go on, have a look at them: https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommunev%C3%A5bener_i_Danmark

Note the significant drops in quality sometimes, that's because some of those arms are like 800 years old, others are from the 1970 reform, some from 2007, some couldn't agree on one for whatever reason.

Guavanaut posted:

Death to anyone who threatens the freedom of working people, or something along those lines I think.

SlothfulCobra posted:

Also very distinctive, as well as having a cool notable pattern to compliment it. I'm not really sure how this is supposed to be a whole word, but if it is, what an efficient as well as artistic language.

Cat Mattress posted:

Love that sickle and fleur-de-lis one. "We're a socialist agrarian monarchy; everyone is equal except of course for our divinely-mandated king."

Cat Mattress posted:

that was mine, did someone actually submit it?

Phlegmish posted:

Both poor whites and poor blacks in one of the poorest states of the USA can probably agree that a blood-sucking insect isn't the best symbol for them.

On the other hand, it still made the finals so maybe it is

Guavanaut posted:

No ring 2/10

Imagine if European states used their coat of arms for flags, it'd mostly be animals making

expressions, sur une plat azure.

Phlegmish posted:

The raised fist, star, and red background aren't bad in themselves, but the current design is just too similar to many other flags/posters. It's uninspired and generic at this point. If people see this they're going to think it was made by another Internet leftist trying to be edgy but who doesn't have enough spoons to put real effort into it.
The 'solidarity' text also seems unnecessary, it's already implied by the other elements. Definitely get rid of it - that would additionally give you more ambiguity and plausible deniability towards the less politically tuned-in, if that's what you're after.

What I would do is keep the fist and red background, and the star if you really want to, but rework it so that it's clear that it's for a gym. You're missing an element that would make it stand out in a fitting way. Maybe the fist is holding a dumbbell, something like that.

That'll be €69, and €4.20 for expenses

Guavanaut posted:

Needs more flags in it.

BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:

The American flag is like the Beatles. Its very good but its also extremely famous so flag nerds have to show off about how bad it is so everyone thinks "hmmm this guy knows something I don't"

Phlegmish posted:

It's not awful, but I do think it suffers from a case of too many stars and perhaps also too many stripes. It's like they didn't know when to stop. Now take Liberia ??'s flag, it's like the American flag after a decent (flag) editor's had their say, which makes it superior in my eyes.

Count Roland posted:

With all this stars and stripes chat I may as well share something I made a while ago.



This is hacked together, nothing is properly centered or aligned

BonHair posted:

It's a Eurocentric projection really, which seems odd when Usan maps are usually centered on the Americas.

Arglebargle III posted: