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Oregon flag proposals(U.S.)

New Oregon Flag Proposal
Oregonian Contest
Doug Lynch’s proposals (2005)

See also:

Oregon

New Oregon Flag Proposal

One proposal for a new Oregon flag can be seen here: neworegonflag.org/NOF%20Home.html.
Valentin Poposki, 29 April 2008

Oregonian Contest

As part of the 150th anniversary of Oregon's admission to the USA, the Portland, Oregon newspaper "Oregonian" is sponsoring a contest to design a new flag for the state that will 1) not be two-sided, so as to be less expensive to produce and 2) be distinctive as seen from a distance (currently dark blue with a seal, as are almost a dozen other US state flags).

Copied from the Oregonian web site www.oregonlive.com/oregon/:

FLAG CONTEST RULES

Entries must be on a 3 x 5 card or paper of that proportion
Designs must be one-sided and rectangular
Flags can be any solid color or combination of colors. But gradated colors, where one shade passes in small degrees to to a lighter shade or another tint entirely, can't be used. Designs must be original.
By entering this contest, you agree to release all rights to the design and agree to let us submit it to the Legislature for consideration as an updated flag design.

TO SUBMIT ENTRIES
Deadline: 5 p.m. Nov. 21

Finalists will be notified by Dec. 10.
Ten final designs get voted on by the public.
The winner will be notified by mid-January and will receive a 3-foot by 5-foot cloth flag of their design.
On the back of your entry, print your name, address and daytime telephone number. And feel free to include an explanation of the design.

TIPS
From Ted Kaye, North American Vexillological Association www.nava.org/Flag%20Design/GFBF/index.html

KEEP IT SIMPLE
The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory. Flags flap, drape and must be seen from a distance. So simple designs make the most effective flags. Furthermore, complicated flags cost more. Focus on a single symbol, a few colors, large shapes and no letters.

USE SYMBOLISM
Usually a single primary symbol is best, and consider Oregon icons such as Douglas firs, mountains, Haystack Rock, Crater Lake, pioneer wagons, etc.... Colors often carry meanings: red for blood or sacrifice, white for purity, blue for water or sky.

LIMIT COLORS
Pick no more than three. The basic flag colors are red, blue, green, black, yellow and white. Choose colors that create effective contrast.

NO LETTERING OR SEALS
Words defeat the purpose. A flag is a graphic symbol. Letters are hard to read from a distance, hard to sew and difficult to reduce to lapel-pin size. Seals such as what is on the current Oregon flag were designed to be read up close such as on paper. Few are effective flags - too much detail. Better to use one element from the seal as a symbol.

BE DISTINCTIVE BUT BE SIMILAR
Sometimes the good designs are already taken. However, a flag's symbols, colors, and shapes can recall other flags - a powerful way to show heritage, solidarity, or connectedness. This requires knowledge of other flags. Often the best way to start by looking to one's roots, and studying other flags.
REMEMBER: All rules have exceptions.

Lee Thompson, 20 October 2008

From www.oregonlive.com/oregon/index.ssf/2008/12/redesign_the_oregon_flag.html:

"Out of a couple thousand entries to our state flag redesign contest, judges narrowed the field to 10 finalists." The 10 selected designs, together with comments by their designer, were submitted to vote from 11 December 2008 to 12 January 2009; thry are still visible on the newspaper's website, together with the result of the vote. The voters mostly did not select any of the flags (21%) but would have adopted (20%) the flag designed by Randall Gray, horizontally divided green-white-blue-white-green (1:1:4:1:1) with a golden star and beaver in the blue stripe. The second choice (17%), submitted by Karen L. Azinger, is vertically divided blue-white-yellow (1:3:4) with a green Douglas fir in the white stripe. Another proposal with a Douglas fir, submitted by Lorraine Bushek, vertically divided blue-green with a yellow Douglas fir forming the field separation, got 11% of the votes. None of the other proposals, which all have their own vexillological merit, reached 10% of the votes. Interestingly, the "busiest" design, contributed by John Mothershead, received the lowest share of votes (1%).

Douglas Lynch, the designer of the municipal flag of Portland in 1969 (modified by himself in 2003), now aged 95 [probably one of the oldest active flag designers], proposed an elegant design, vertically divided green-orange by a raggy line made of six white triangles representing snow-capped mountains; this design received only 9% of the votes.

Ivan Sache, 31 March 2009

Doug Lynch’s proposals (2005)

Doug Lynch designed the city flag of Portland, Oregon. As a professional designer and state resident, he also created proposals for a new Oregon state flag: The Vexilloid Tabloid, 7 (2005.10): p.4, https://portlandflag.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/vexilloid-tabloid-007-oct05.pdf.
This short article presents three designs, apparently in order of creation, each as an improvement of the previous. All three are generic “map flags” symbolizing the outline of the state, with west at the hoist, and regional geography embodied in the colors and shapes.

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 December 2024

Unequal symmetrical vertical tricolor of pale blue, green, and orange. On the green stripe, approx. 5/11ths of the flag’s width, seven white isosceles triangles, with long base and pointing upwards, coarsly juxtaposed in a zigzag pattern. Ratio approx. 7:12. Quoting the source, "This symbolizes the Pacific Ocean, the agriculture and forests of Western Oregon, the snow-capped Cascades and the high desert of Eastern Oregon."

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 December 2024

Roughly 3:5, this flag design has a dark teal area at the hoist and a larger dun area at the fly, separated by a chain of six white isosceles right triangles juxtaposed in a zigzag pattern, the apex of each triangle matching alternatingly one of the acute angles of the triangle above it. According to the source, this design simplifies the previous by omiting the ocean.

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 December 2024

This design shows a white diagonal stripe dividing the background in two chiral biorthogonal qudrangles: Aqua at the hoist and orange at the fly; on the white area 18 highly stylized black firs, each a symmetric asteriskoid filling a roughly triangular space, set in six staggered rows of three. Article [hjh05b] states this design emphasizes the importance of forestry.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 December 2024