An xkcd cartoon shows a hilariously overloaded flag design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Randall Munroe’s xkcd comic for May 25, 2026 (which I colorized to yellow) has an awful flag design. Apparently all dozen ideas from the flag design committee were included. The worst is the bottom fringes that remind me of a for sale notice thumbtacked to an office bulletin board. The flag is analyzed at Explain xkcd. 

 

On May 14, 2016 I blogged about how Looking at flag design will change how you make PowerPoint slides. And on September 23, 2017 I posted about an example - A new, simpler, better flag for the city of Pocatello, Idaho. On June 30, 2020 I blogged about how Mississippi is going to change its state flag.

 

 

A controversy about Boise displaying a pride flag at City Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flying a flag is a graphical form of speech. You would expect conservatives to want that speech to be free. But that’s not what the Idaho legislature did during this session. There is an article by Kyle Pfannenstiel at the Idaho Capital Sun on February 18, 2025 titled Idaho bill limiting types of flags state, local governments can display passes House.

 

Our legislature passed House Bill 96, which limited what flags government entities (the state, a county, municipality, special district or other political subdivision) can fly. The only flags allowed are: the United States flag, the official flag of a government entity, official flags of any U.S. state, the POW/MIA flag, and official flags of Indian tribes. Curiously these restrictions do not apply to schools, colleges, or universities.

 

There is another article by Greg Pruett at the Idaho Dispatch on April 13, 2025 titled Day 10: McLean Stands Firm Against Removal of LGBT flag. Besides the Dispatch he runs the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance (also see this Idaho Voters article).

 

Yet another article by Richard Rodriguez at KTVB7 on April 15, 2025 is titled Idaho Attorney General urges Boise Mayor to remove pride flag. He noted that:

 

“…during legislative debate that the bill appeared targeted specifically at Boise, as examples presented during hearings focused exclusively on pride flags displayed in the capital city….

 

Meanwhile, Bonners Ferry in northern Idaho continues to fly a Canadian flag outside its City Hall.”  

 

There is a press release by Raul Labrador on April 15, 2025 titled Attorney General Labrador Asks Boise Mayor to Comply with State Law. In it he noted:

 

“...Although there is no express criminal or civil penalty provided for in this statute, you should comply with the law out of a sense of duty to your oath of office. As Idaho’s Attorney General, I ask that you reconsider your defiance of this duly enacted law and remove all prohibited flags.”

 

A statute without a penalty really is quite silly.

 

An image of Boise flags came from here at Instagram.

 

What does a ‘thin lines’ flag mean?

A couple blocks from my home I saw the two flags shown above flying, but was not familiar with the dark gray version of the American flag with its green, orange, and blue lines.

It turned out to be an expanded version of the ‘thin blue line’ flag shown above, where blue represents Police and other law enforcement – providing a line between order and chaos.

When I looked it up, I found the meaning shown above, adding colors both for the Military and Search & Rescue.    

But why stop there? Others will indignantly retort that Firefighters (Red) also belong on any flag. Why isn’t there a brown line to represent the Water and Sewer Workers, who bring the water we need to drink (and make the earth bloom) and take away the sewage?  

The Thin Blue Line flag came from Wikimedia Commons.  

Mississippi is going to change its state flag

At CNN Politics on June 29, 2020 there is an article by Paul LeBlanc titled Mississippi state legislature passes bill to remove Confederate symbol from state flag in historic vote. They voted on June 28 to get rid of the flag shown above and replace it with one having the words IN GOD WE TRUST, with the rest of its design to be established by a commission. The Wikipedia article says Mississippi has a curious history regarding state flags. Before the Civil war there was none. At the end of March 1861 (as a Confederate state) they adopted one with a magnolia. In 1894 they came up with a second flag similar to the one shown above. But in a 1906 revision of their legal code they accidentally got rid of it, and did not  bring it back until 2001 – when a proposal for another design was defeated via a referendum. 

On May 14, 2016 I blogged about how Looking at flag design will change how you make PowerPoint slides. In that post I linked to an 8-page Guide from 2013 by Ted Kaye titled GOOD FLAG, BAD FLAG How to Design a Great Flag. His five basic principles are shown above. Note that #4 is having no lettering. 

One simple design using the Hospitality stars pattern and including the legislatively mandated motto is shown above. On September 23, 2017 I also blogged about A new, simpler, better flag for the city of Pocatello, Idaho.

Communicating just with flags or other signals

 

If you think that words are clumsy for communicating, try using only signal flags. Zach Weinersmith recently had a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon on communication using signal flags where a single flag (or a pair) can carry a message. There are not really single rectangular red (anger), blue (sorrow) or green (happy?) flags in the maritime International Code of Signals. And a yellow flag isn’t stress - it means “My vessel is ‘healthy’ and I request free pratique (license to enter port)“ or it can be the letter Q (Quebec). But the white rectangle on a blue background can mean “my fishing nets are caught on an obstruction.”

 

A chart shows the letters and numerals in the International Code of Signals. These aren’t the only ways to signal. There was a sketch in the old Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV comedy show about The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights (which also included Julius Caesar on an Aldis Lamp, Gunfight at O.K. Corral in Morse Code, and the Smoke-Signal version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes).

Looking at flag design will change how you make PowerPoint slides

There is an interesting pamphlet titled GOOD Flag, BAD FLAG How to Design a Great Flag that was compiled by Ted Kaye for the North American Vexillological Association. It discusses the five principles shown above.

The flag of Milwaukee is so complicated that it is bad - it even contains a tiny civil war regimental flag inside the lower left quadrant of the gear.  Contrast that with the very simple  flag of Chicago.

A good flag (like the one for Amsterdam shown above) can convey its information in a space the size of a commemorative postage stamp. That is because a one-inch high rectangle seen from fifteen inches away looks about the same as a three-foot high flag seen from a hundred feet away.




There is an excellent TED Talk by Roman Mars on Why city flags may be the worst designed thing you’ve never noticed.

The civil war Confederate flags are an example of how it can take three tries to come up with aa acceptable flag. The first version (Stars and Bars) was not as well received as the Battle Flag (for Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia). The second version (Stainless Banner) didn’t work when there was no or light wind - it almost looked like a white truce flag. Their third version (the Blood-Stained Banner) fixed that by adding a vertical red stripe. 

I found my way to this topic from a blog post on How a TED Talk and a public radio host shamed Pocatello into changing its city flag.