#1 is the best of the bunch. #2 is just weird, why devote 25% of the space on Mississippi's state flag to the geography of Louisiana. #3 is horrible and a classic example of a designer over-designing.
New Mississippi State Flag
- Thread starter Sigmapolis
- Start date
#1 is the best of the bunch. #2 is just weird, why devote 25% of the space on Mississippi's state flag to the geography of Louisiana. #3 is horrible and a classic example of a designer over-designing.
Just to show everybody the five finalists together --
(Ignore the white lines above/below them for those of you in dark mode, not part of the design.)
WINNER
SECOND PLACE
HONORABLE MENTIONS
I would tier them out as...
1.) "State border" flag... the unique thing about Mississippi is the river, so highlight it
2-3.) the two with three colors... both are solid designs, and they are not...
4-5.) the two that are just seals on blue backgrounds... we really need to fix all of those
(Ignore the white lines above/below them for those of you in dark mode, not part of the design.)
WINNER
SECOND PLACE
HONORABLE MENTIONS
I would tier them out as...
1.) "State border" flag... the unique thing about Mississippi is the river, so highlight it
2-3.) the two with three colors... both are solid designs, and they are not...
4-5.) the two that are just seals on blue backgrounds... we really need to fix all of those
I would agree with your number one. I also think the "Blue, White, Red" one is the better of the two tri-colors as it still has the blue for the river. I also would like them better if you combined the shield with the tri-color flags. The flowers are to similar to the seals we see on other flags.
I'm not sure that I follow you. Yes they're highlighting the Mississippi, but by default they are displaying a portion of the state on the other side of the Mississippi. My explanation of how I see it is shown below as an example for Iowa (I used the eastern half of the state since the "nose" of Iowa might be more recognizable) and if that were our flag it would have Illinois/Wisconsin on it.
I really think people are looking at it backwards. We are talking about the outline of Mississippi or Iowa. If you include an outline you are going to "have other states". The blue part is the flag. The red is the extra that was cut off.
Ditch the words that exclude 5-20% of people.
Why would you swap a wildly non-inclusive flag for another less offensive but still non-inclusive flag?
Iowa flag text is much better as an example and has religious freedom built into it in an inclusive way.
Colors of the official recommendation are contemporary but still timeless, best part of the design.
Why would you swap a wildly non-inclusive flag for another less offensive but still non-inclusive flag?
Iowa flag text is much better as an example and has religious freedom built into it in an inclusive way.
Colors of the official recommendation are contemporary but still timeless, best part of the design.
Hawaii takes offense
Just imagine the state flags that could technically be mexico and canada flags.
Could be, but the blue part was cut off too. I think if it would be the outline of the entire state perimeter (which would basically defeat the purpose of focusing on the Mississippi River) then Louisiana wouldn't be as visible. But since the whole state of Mississippi isn't shown, we end up with two states partially shown (3/4 flag as Mississippi and 1/4 flag as Louisiana).
Probably also since the Mississippi River doesn't turn 90 degrees to the east at the SW corner of Mississippi (the state), but actually continues to meander to the SE (obviously not going to just keep boundary at the river since it would show the leg of the Louisiana "L" in Mississippi territory). So it's basically the border of the two states, and the river runs along 80% of the boundary in the flag image.
Imagine if they cropped that one like this...
...and moved the seal up and to the left and re-scaled it.
You get the colors and the shape of the course of the Mississippi out of it.
Here's my group of "winners" on the current flags.
I like that Arizona isn't trying to hide that they live on the surface of the sun.
Awesome bear and some hubris to call themselves a Republic on the flag.
Biased, but I genuinely think this is the best design of the dozen or so general American patriotism themes.
Seems like a European soccer club, points for original.
I'd like New Mexico's even if it didn't speak to native heritage, just cool and understated.
Ohio points for the original shape as OP mentioned, also like the "O".
Always liked this tree and how weird it seems like it should be some middle eastern country...but it's South Carolina which is very different than the middle east.
I like that Arizona isn't trying to hide that they live on the surface of the sun.
Awesome bear and some hubris to call themselves a Republic on the flag.
Biased, but I genuinely think this is the best design of the dozen or so general American patriotism themes.
Seems like a European soccer club, points for original.
I'd like New Mexico's even if it didn't speak to native heritage, just cool and understated.
Ohio points for the original shape as OP mentioned, also like the "O".
Always liked this tree and how weird it seems like it should be some middle eastern country...but it's South Carolina which is very different than the middle east.
I think the key is to be timeless but still unique. The option that won is timeless but not real unique.Here's my group of "winners" on the current flags.
I like that Arizona isn't trying to hide that they live on the surface of the sun.
Awesome bear and some hubris to call themselves a Republic on the flag.
Biased, but I genuinely think this is the best design of the dozen or so general American patriotism themes.
Seems like a European soccer club, points for original.
I'd like New Mexico's even if it didn't speak to native heritage, just cool and understated.
Ohio points for the original shape as OP mentioned, also like the "O".
Always liked this tree and how weird it seems like it should be some middle eastern country...but it's South Carolina which is very different than the middle east.
Here's my group of "winners" on the current flags.
I like that Arizona isn't trying to hide that they live on the surface of the sun.
Awesome bear and some hubris to call themselves a Republic on the flag.
Biased, but I genuinely think this is the best design of the dozen or so general American patriotism themes.
Seems like a European soccer club, points for original.
I'd like New Mexico's even if it didn't speak to native heritage, just cool and understated.
Ohio points for the original shape as OP mentioned, also like the "O".
Always liked this tree and how weird it seems like it should be some middle eastern country...but it's South Carolina which is very different than the middle east.
I am basically happy when a state doesn't have the dreaded blue background with the state seal for a flag.
All those are good choices -- solid mixture of good design choices, colors, unique and recognizable iconography, and references to the state's character or history (such as Iowa and France and the Bear Flag Republic).
Some other good ones, to me...
"The Diamond State"
Maybe does not do enough with a potential mountain motif, but it is an attractive design...
The circle with three stars is pretty iconic.
I also like Alaska. It is understated by effective...
That does improve it some for me, actually. Something about seeing that bottom portion of the Louisiana "L" shape makes it feel different. Though this does kind of take away from the signature shape of Mississippi where it's "standing on one leg".
This is the kind of discussion graphic designers have on a daily basis. Even more often in school than in the 'real world' because in the 'real world' clients eliminate a huge part of the range of ideas.
It seems these submissions must have had some parameters since they all have the same text and they all have stars.
The design parameters included needing 20 stars (20th state of the union) and "IN GOD WE TRUST" because... well, it's Mississippi... saw your post about that, but that client demanded it, right or wrong.
You took the words out of my mouth with your last sentence. That could look extremely dated in as little as 10 years. I don’t like any of them. I’m not a huge fan of the Iowa flag but it beats the hell out of all three of these.
Here's my group of "winners" on the current flags.
I like that Arizona isn't trying to hide that they live on the surface of the sun.
Awesome bear and some hubris to call themselves a Republic on the flag.
Biased, but I genuinely think this is the best design of the dozen or so general American patriotism themes.
Seems like a European soccer club, points for original.
I'd like New Mexico's even if it didn't speak to native heritage, just cool and understated.
Ohio points for the original shape as OP mentioned, also like the "O".
Always liked this tree and how weird it seems like it should be some middle eastern country...but it's South Carolina which is very different than the middle east.
All those are solid. Agree that I think Iowa's is the best design but a little biased. They all avoid the critical mistake of adding too much tiny detail to the design. While we're talking best state flag designs, let's take a moment to salute what might be the worst... courtesy of Minnesota.
