Fun With Flags!!!!

[Gothamite]

On 7/17/2019 at 6:49 PM, Dolphins Dynasty said:

When I was in the Milwaukee area last year, I went shopping at a Pick 'N Save and came upon this...

 

 

The brewing company is using the city flag for one of their beers. Thought it was a cool find.

 

Worth pointing out that's not the official city flag.  It's an unofficial one, albeit very popular.

 

You can find it everywhere around Milwaukee.

 

 

It's even in the suburbs.

 

 

 

 

[Dynasty]

Yeah I saw it used in the Brewers Team Store too; I forgot to mention that one. But wow, that's pretty awesome that it's being used in a bunch of capacities... talk about city pride! It should give them more of a reason to make it official.

[SFGiants58]

On 7/20/2019 at 3:14 PM, the admiral said:

Scandinavians are torn between two lovers: drinking lots of alcohol, and following intricate sets of rules.

 

Have you ever heard the tale of Matti Nykänen?

 

 

Booze, ski jumping, stabbings, and music releases abound! 

[JQK]

New Jersey flag concept:

[IceCap]

I'm getting some unfortunate SS vibes. 

[Cosmic]

^^^ Pretty low contrast for, you know, a flag. They’re supposed to be easily identifiable from a distance. 

[JQK]

1 hour ago, Ice_Cap said:

I'm getting some unfortunate SS vibes. 

You must get big mad when you see the KISS logo then, eh?

[IceCap]

47 minutes ago, JQK said:

You must get big mad when you see the KISS logo then, eh?

I don't care enough about Kiss, to be perfectly honest. Though there's a reason they have to modify their logo in Germany  

[MDGP]

2 hours ago, JQK said:

You must get big mad when you see the KISS logo then, eh?

 

They’ve got two other letters in front of it though, this just creates the illusion of the two lightning bolt S’s with nothing else. I definitely saw what Ice Cap saw before reading his comment. If multiple people are seeing that, it’s a problem. Otherwise, the design is interesting, though I also agree the contrast is pretty low, a very slightly lighter gold color would fix that.

 

Maybe I missed it in another post, but what was your rationale for the different parts of the design? I always love hearing where inspiration came from on flag design.

[Gothamite]

Yeah, that was the first thing that jumped out to me as well. 

 

What’s the rationale behind the lightning bolt anyway?

[JQK]

It wasn't a lighting bolt. Was meant to be a abstract representation of the state. 
Here's another take...

[IceCap]

Ah. That's much better actually. I like the shade of blue. 

[MDGP]

So, this year is Maine's Bicentennial, and they've created a special flag that will fly through 2020. And well? It's :censored:ing garbage.

 

 

What makes it even more frustrating and embarrassing is that the state legislature turned down a plan to return to the 1901 flag.

 

 

The tree design could use work, but that's a million times better.

[-kj]

On 7/24/2019 at 12:58 PM, Gothamite said:

 

At least something makes the hideous ball-in-glove look decent.

[Gothamite]

On 7/29/2019 at 8:50 AM, JQK said:

It wasn't a lighting bolt. Was meant to be a abstract representation of the state. 
Here's another take...

 

I like the dusty blue, but the buff looks a little dark on my screen.  I think one of the colors needs to be brighter for contrast, and that’s the one I’d lighten.  

 

[BrandMooreArt]

On 7/28/2019 at 2:00 PM, JQK said:

New Jersey flag concept:

 

i think your execution is perfectly fine, its the idea i would challenge you to revisit. is there anything more interesting or representative of NJ than the state’s shape?

[JQK]

On 7/31/2019 at 9:44 PM, BrandMooreArt said:

 

i think your execution is perfectly fine, its the idea i would challenge you to revisit. is there anything more interesting or representative of NJ than the state’s shape?

As a New Jerseyan? I mean... i don't think there's a whole lot anyone from this state identifies with symbolically. If you ask North Jersey, they'd say smoke stacks and traffic, the Shore would say traffic and BENNYs, and south Jersey would be a mix of farms and multi-million dollar houses.

Yes, we have a state flower, state bird, state tree, etc... but if you asked the person on the street they wouldn't know what those are. LoL

So, as with anything, i tried to simplify, and make something recognizable to everyone while not being a heraldic crest or spelling out "NEW JERSEY" on the flag.

I revisit this and my other state flag ideas periodically and do other versions to see how it plays...

 

[BrandMooreArt]

2 hours ago, JQK said:

As a New Jerseyan? I mean... i don't think there's a whole lot anyone from this state identifies with symbolically. If you ask North Jersey, they'd say smoke stacks and traffic, the Shore would say traffic and BENNYs, and south Jersey would be a mix of farms and multi-million dollar houses.

Yes, we have a state flower, state bird, state tree, etc... but if you asked the person on the street they wouldn't know what those are. LoL

So, as with anything, i tried to simplify, and make something recognizable to everyone while not being a heraldic crest or spelling out "NEW JERSEY" on the flag.

I revisit this and my other state flag ideas periodically and do other versions to see how it plays...

 

 

thats the perpetual struggle of the Designer; to find that relevant “thing” that represents a culture, and turn it into a symbol. but NJ is not unique in that it is made of diverse cultures across the state

 

you’re right, state fauna and flora are not relevant and are lame symbols anyway. look to what other flags represent, like the US flag. it represents the physical  (states) with shapes, but a set of values with color. keep digging deeper; dont settle for the obvious

[tBBP]

9 hours ago, JQK said:

As a New Jerseyan? I mean... i don't think there's a whole lot anyone from this state identifies with symbolically. If you ask North Jersey, they'd say smoke stacks and traffic, the Shore would say traffic and BENNYs, and south Jersey would be a mix of farms and multi-million dollar houses.

Yes, we have a state flower, state bird, state tree, etc... but if you asked the person on the street they wouldn't know what those are. LoL

So, as with anything, i tried to simplify, and make something recognizable to everyone while not being a heraldic crest or spelling out "NEW JERSEY" on the flag.

I revisit this and my other state flag ideas periodically and do other versions to see how it plays...

 

 

7 hours ago, BrandMooreArt said:

 

thats the perpetual struggle of the Designer; to find that relevant “thing” that represents a culture, and turn it into a symbol. but NJ is not unique in that it is made of diverse cultures across the state

 

you’re right, state fauna and flora are not relevant and are lame symbols anyway. look to what other flags represent, like the US flag. it represents the physical  (states) with shapes, but a set of values with color. keep digging deeper; dont settle for the obvious

 

Well...just from my short time having practically lived there (Bordentown, if you're curious), and all the other many times I've gone through there...

 

- NJ is the Garden State. I'm sure there's a reason it got that nickname, and while flora floral symbols may not be the greatest, if you can find a way to render them in an interesting manner, it could work. That to the side, gardens are mostly what color? Green...so a green field could work as the base (or field) color.

 

- For some reason, I always associate yellow with the state of NJ...it must be the license plates. (Or the fact that the current state flag is yellow...but I see license plates first!) So that could also be a color to work in. (And I do know the state colors are "buff" and blue, but those colors get overused, so...)

 

- New Jersey was the third state admitted to the union. And while I don't recall the name of the guy to whom the "Garden State" nickname is credited, he did mention something about both ends of the state being open, with Philadelphia eating from one end and New York eating from the other. Make of that what you will.

 

- I think you got something with the current stripe. Most of that state, the way its shaped, lies in a northeasterly orientation, as do its main freeways, the Garden State Parkway and of course the NJ Turnpike. Perhaps translated vexillologically (jeez--there's a tongue-twister for you!), you could blazon it as "pierced per bend sinister or vert or, in bend sinister three bezants or". Translation: a field diagonally divided into thirds, direction from bottom left to top right, yellow/green/yellow in color (yellow because current state flag, green because garden), with three six-point stars (because third state admitted to the Union) adorning the middle green center part (which, if extracted on it own, would be a rough approximation of the state itself). It'd be simple, but it'd get the job done. If you don't beat me to it, I may have to work up a concept of that.

 

(Yeah I've long had a huge love of heraldry, so pardon me if a little bit of that slipped into here!)

[RevNet]

The Stranger, Seattle's alternative bi-weekly newspaper and the flagship newspaper for Dan Savage's Savage Love column, has been holding a contest of their own to determine Seattle's unofficial city flag. The newspaper has narrowed it down from 130+ submissions to just 10 finalists. Those ten are below:

 

1. 

 

2. 

 

3. 

 

4. 

 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

 

9. 

10. 

I apologize for the gif for #5. Explanations for each flag are listed in the source below.

 

For context, here is Seattle's current city flag:

 

 

Check out the prizes for the winning flag designer:

 

Quote

• Fame
• Four tickets to the Seattle Art Museum ($119.96 value; valid one year)
• A one-year "Supporter" level membership for two people to Town Hall Seattle, including a voucher for six free tickets ($60 value)
• Two tickets to any regularly scheduled tour or lecture by the Seattle Architecture Foundation ($36 value)

 

Source: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/08/05/40965554/hey-seattle-vote-for-your-new-city-flag