Each group of three contains two flags that are the current official flags of US states - the other is an imposter. See if you can identify the imposter for each question.
Good quiz, nominated. It was a little sneaky using the former Utah flag since all they did in 2011 was clean the design up a bit, but as a native Utahn it was easy for me! ;)
Sorry about that, Loganite. QM gave me a few suggestions to clean up the quiz so it could be featured. One of those was specifically to get rid of any Utah flags from the quiz...just kidding, but he did suggest that I focus on the more interesting flags and thus I eliminated a lot of the ones that were variations on "state seal on a blue background." No offense intended as I've been to Utah and thoroughly enjoyed it!
I get that decision, but Utah's new flag is a shining beacon of hope for vexillology in the US, so I like seeing it anyway. And it'd be fun to have a future flag amongst all the formers for the next year or so.
The original version of the quiz was more sus (I guess) since it included versions of the flags that only had slight differences. QM helped me clean it up so that this version is decidedly less sus. (My kids would either be proud or mortified that I used "sus" two times in the same sentence.
The original version of the quiz was decidedly more difficult as it had 25 questions and included the flags of all 50 states and included "imposter" flags that differed only slightly form the current versions. Thankfully, QM had some great pointers on how to clean up the quiz so it could be featured.
I thought a lot of these were easy because the imposters just looked so ugly and amateur. Color me surprised that so many of them were real former flags.
I mean Oklahoma... y'all kept that for 14 years? and the old Massachusetts flag, jeez.
The old Nevada flag is hilarious to me. It looks like a slot machine. I guess this makes sense since Las Vegas was founded in 1905, but I wonder if it was intentional.
I envision the state leadership sitting around a conference table asking: "What can we put on our flag to make people want to come to the middle of the desert?"
Additionally, bring back Colorado and Texas' old flags. And although it shouldn't be brought back, Mississippi's old flag is so much better than the new one, design-wise.
When I was growing up in Nevada, the letters of the state were arranged around the star. The N was above the north point, and then the remaining letters clockwise around the star in the gaps between points. As a kid, I liked it more than the boring redesign to write it underneath. As an adult, I wish they'd remove it entirely. To quote Vexillologist Ted Kaye: "If you have to write the name of your place on your flag, your symbolism has failed."
Oh, how did I miss that one? I have a few others that I cut from the original quiz to shorten it when it got featured. Maybe I can put together a Quiz #2?
Yes, I agree entirely on New Jersey's flag being a poor design. In addition, you should see the 20 state flags that didn't make this version of the quiz. Talk about uninspired - they are almost all variations of the state seal on a blue background design.
If you are interested in this topic, I suggest you check out the North American Vexillological Association website where they link to a report resulting from a 2001 survey they conducted on the best (and worst) state/provincial flag designs in North America. Both the summary and full report are entertaining reads (if this type of thing interests you).
Man every time I see the state flags I am always bothered by how bad MOST of them look. There's maybe a dozen that I wouldn't change given the chance, especially since most are just the state seal on a plain background.
I mean Oklahoma... y'all kept that for 14 years? and the old Massachusetts flag, jeez.
Amazing quiz
If you are interested in this topic, I suggest you check out the North American Vexillological Association website where they link to a report resulting from a 2001 survey they conducted on the best (and worst) state/provincial flag designs in North America. Both the summary and full report are entertaining reads (if this type of thing interests you).