Just a Few More Flags . . .

I know, I know . . . you thought that with the earlier post I was finally all done with the flags for the Flag Makeover Challenge . . .

Not so. I kept fiddling while the Sweetie and I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer (we're working our way through all the seasons) and then I wanted to scan them and share them.

It all started because I really did like the "yin yang" balance idea, but I wasn't sure it was really flaggy enough.


This one came out well - again, green for mossy tree-filled land and blue for wondrous fresh and salt water; the salmon as representative of the history, the future, and the natural resources of our state; all held together by the golden swirl of coastline, of balance . . .

So, if one looks good, I thought, how about two? That's even more balanced . . .

Of course, I have the green representing land - maybe I need a mammal on the flag, too . . .


Hmmm . . . should the Beaver be on land? What if the green was on the other side?

Ah, yes. "What if?" and on-line Scrabble. Two things that will keep a girl awake on a work night.

Of course, as the Sweetie would say, why be ruled by the tyranny of the "or" when you can embrace the "and"?

M5K, check your in-box.

Drawing: The 100th Post

Here we are - my 100th post. It arrived a lot faster than I thought it would.

In Honor of the 100th Post

To honor the 100th post and the end of January - A Drawing (almost) Every Day Month - and the culmination of the L&TofM5K Flag Makeover Contest, I'm going to do something really cool. For you, the readers . . . I will randomly select one person who leaves a comment on this post, and I will design them a flag! Imagine - your own personal flag, designed by me!

Defining Drawing

From the Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged, Second Edition:

draw, v.t.

1. pull; haul; drag
2. to pull back the drawstring of (a bow)
3. to attract; charm; entice
4. to bring forth; elicit
5. to take into the lungs; breathe in; inhale
6. to pull out; take out; remove; extract
7. to bring about as a result; cause to happen; bring on
8. to pull out of shape; distort

I love these different definitions, these different ways of looking at a word that we typically think of as meaning mark-making, or making marks as a way of representing something we see. We might also think of the mark-making as something that elicits a response, something you breathe in, an essence you extract from something, something that you distort as you view it, something you use to charm a viewer . . .

And Here's the Flag

Very flaggy. With a leaping Salmon. The green field represents an abstraction of the mossy, tree-filled state of Oregon; the blue band on the top represents the Columbia River; the wider blue band on the left represents the Pacific Ocean. The gold band running North-South represents the Cascade Mountain Range; the gold band running East-West represents both the Oregon Trail and our trade relationships with Asia and exploration of the sea; and the Salmon represents our natural resources and a long tradition of both Native American peoples and more recent immigration. The slight crookedness of the lines, well, that's just an accident.

Oregon Flag Makeover Project: Back to Basics

Note: I would like to begin by apologizing to all truly obsessive people for implying in yesterday's post that doing the same thing two days in a row qualifies as "obsession."

I've definitely been letting flights of fancy take me where they may with this whole Oregon State Flag redesign, but today it's time to get grounded. I decided a quick review of the official M5K Flag Criteria was in order:

1. A flag needs to look, you know, flaggy. Patterns of bold color with, if you must, simple and iconic symbols. No photos. No intricate drawings or text. (Intricate drawings and text are on the current state flag, of course, but that's a big part of why we are designing a new flag.)

2. Flags are one-sided. Duh.

3. Flags are rectangular. Don't get all Nepal-Ohio on me.

4. Ideally, a flag should be distinctive and immediately recognizable, yet sit comfortably among traditional flag designs.

And, in the interest of simplicity and a very bad childhood experience with the Minnesota state flag, I have added a fifth criteria:

5. The flag should be simple enough to be drawn by any third-grader as part of a social studies project without causing anxiety attacks. (sample of anxiety-inducing flag below)


Of course, I also don't want to limit my creativity too much . . . and the ideas just seem to keep popping up. And at the most inopportune moments.


I also decided to refer back to my two favorite all-time state flags to see what made them so memorable: New Mexico (named as the L&TofM5K winner in the Best Flag, American State, category) and Alaska (also a runner-up in this category).



They are both simple, graphic, iconic. While they lack representations of giant fruit (a serious shortcoming), they really do evoke an emotional response - and I think they capture a little bit of the spirit of the states they represent.

Picking up where I left off yesterday, I started trying to think simple, graphic, iconic. Here's where that got me.


So I tried to go more graphic, focusing on the "fields of color" imperative. I want Blue to represent our rivers and coastline, and Green to represent the lush, mossy tree-ness of the state (ok, at least the Western part of the state . . .) So why not abstract the state itself?

Of course, resorting to the level of symbolism required by "one rain drop for each county" may be a little excessive . . . and I did like the Oregon Trail element . . . perhaps even using the covered wagon icon from the state seal . . . just simplifying it a bit more . . .

I wonder if I could make it even more abstract? Bolder? Maybe eliminate the covered wagon?

Hmmm . . . . is it a good sign or a bad sign when the state flag starts to look suspiciously like a Pink Floyd album cover?


Clearly, it's time for bed.

More Oregon Flag Makeover Madness

I've gotten a bit obsessed. I come home from work. I play Dance Dance Revolution. I think about the Oregon Flag. I blame Michael5000 and his flag makeover contest. Not for the Dance Dance Revolution part. That's clearly not his fault.

Apparently, I didn't quite get the Beaver/Salmon hybrid out of my system yesterday, so here's "the Beamon skiiing - er, snowboarding - on Mt. Hood" as a flag:

I also finally looked up images of Beavers and Salmon and created this yin-yang, forest-river, earth-water flag featuring those state icons in their slightly more natural forms:

I like that the little gold swirl represents the power of our natural resources. Or at least that it could.

Of course, Oregon is much more than Mt. Hood, lush forests, beautiful waterways, cute beavers and slick salmon. There's fruits and nuts!

The state fruit is the pear, and the state nut is the hazelnut. And I have a strong affection for blueberries. So, I began working with those elements, and threw in Mt. Hood for good measure:

Then, I was reminded of a wonderful set of giant fruit and vegetable postcards that I have. Here's one that features pears:

And here's one that features a cucumber:

Now, while cucumbers are not particularly significant to Oregon as a state, this is the culmination of the Oregon Trail - the end of the road for a lot of folks hauling a lot of things in covered wagons. Heck, it's even on the state seal - featured prominently on the current flag:


So, here's what it might look like to bring it all together on a flag:


Of course, it could use a little tweaking. And some blueberries.

The New Oregon Flag: Initial Attempts

Michael5000 recently posted a flag makeover contest on his blog. As a proud Oregon resident - and as the person who first suggested the ridiculous idea of a flag makeover contest - I feel obliged to enter.

Now, I'm not real keen on competition. Ignoring the fact that I recently sponsored a contest on my own blog, the whole "who's better, who's best" thing makes me a little wacky. But, I do love a challenge. And I love visual brainstorming.

In the spirit of quantity not quality and deferring judgment, I wanted to let you in on how this flag development process is going.

I started by considering some of the elements already on the flag: a beaver, the color blue, the color yellow, the state seal, the easy-to-spot-in-a-line-up words "State of Oregon." I considered elements that are iconic elements of our state: beavers, salmon, Nike, Mt. Hood, wine, trees, eco-stuff, grass farms, tree farms, rain, skiing, rugged coastline, a wide variety of berries.

How to present rain in a flag? Or, how to present the fact that only recent transplants, tourists, and Odd Ducks on Very Rainy Days will actually use umbrellas here in the Beaver State? I began to sketch, using the only paper available to me while eating lunch at Chili's with the Sweetie: the envelope from my PCC W2 form.


Not entirely satisfied, I wanted to see how it looked in color - using blue and green, the colors I primarily associate with my adopted state, so full of moisture and lush, mossy growth:

Sadly, it's not very . . . stately. So, I began to look at iconic animals. The salmon. The beaver. How to get them both on the flag? Representative of our waterways and our forests and their interconnectedness? Hmm . . .

What about a hybrid? The . . . Beamon! A quick sketch of the Beamon skiing (er, sorry, snowboarding) down Mt. Hood was rejected for further development, but the Beamon concept was explored in color. Unfortunately, the artist did not have reference images of either a beaver or a salmon at the time of the drawing:


The Sweetie commented that it looked sort of like a shrimp.

Back to the drawing board.