similarities to show connections
I thought I’d follow up my post on Oklahoma flags with a link from Tom Coates’ del.icio.us bookmarks. Good Flag Bad Flag offers five principles for designing flags, and the first is “The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.” The current flag of Oklahoma clearly violates this principle with its feathers, crosses, olive branches, and symbols with obscure referents. (These symbols also violate the second rule.) Speaking from personal experience, this is a difficult flag for a child to draw. I’ve always thought the lettering “Oklahoma” at the bottom of the flag was superfluous, and it also violates the fourth rule, “no lettering or seals.” I suppose the original state flag violates this rule for having the “46″ in the center of the star, but it doesn’t seem as redundant as using the name of the state. The fifth rule is “be distinctive or be related,” and I think that the old Oklahoma flag trumps the current flag. The red field alludes to red flags used in the US labor movement, as well as socialist movements around the world, while the symbols in the current flag make little sense to anyone, and a blue field is used by 20 other states. Based on these recommendations, I think Oklahomans should take pride in their socialist history and revert back to the origclusioninal flag design.
As a final note, the site likes the Colorado state flag, which Coates found to be the worst, but it makes no mention of translating flag designs into running shorts.
