Friday 24 July 2015

City of Pocatello

Given that yesterday the (community) flag of Birmingham, was officially added the Flag Institutes register of British flags and "ceremonially" raised, I think I'll start a new flag for the city which by far has the worst flag in history, ranking at the bottom of the North American Vexillological Association's list of city flags. I am of course talking about Pocatello, in Idaho, USA.
Yes that is their flag, and yes that is a Trade Mark symbol, and yes that is a copyright statement! Not only have they broken the rules and guidelines of vexillology, they tore them up and used them as toilet paper. This is without doubt the worst flag I have ever seen. It even beats the Milwalkee flag, which has a flag on the flag. The seal is not much better either:

So I decided to have a go at fixing these, first of all the seal looks like a corporate stamp, rather than something used to officiate local government documents. This is my alternative design:
 It features a coat of arms I based on the purple  mountain symbol of the flag. the sky is gold to reflect that the city was founded as the first stop on the railway during the gold rush. The crest is a Native American war bonnet as worn by a chief, a reference to the city's name. The city is named after chief Pocatello of the Shoshoni Tribe who gave the railway right of passage through his reservation. I did think of adding my ferroequinology crown to reflect the railroad which seems to have played an important part in the foundation, but thought it might take away from the feathers, so I decided against it.
The flag is based on a banner of the coat of arms but turned onto its side:
The mountains make up the field and the sky make up the hoist giving it a rather unique twist.
It is certainly way better than the current flag, if nothing else.

7 comments:

  1. Really nice flag. The design will probably make the citizens "prouder to be Pocatello". ;)

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    1. lol quite frankly anything would be better than the current flag. :)

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  2. Replies
    1. thanks for sharing, I was aware of the contest, and have entered my proposal, although I think my design is probably a bit to minimalist to be a finalist. Great to see Pocatello are going to get a new and better flag.

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    3. Looking back, this is far superior to what was actually chosen. And a flag can almost never be too "minimalist!" This design is beautifully simple, an aspect of flag design too often overlooked. Keep 'em coming.

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  3. Você teve um ótimo gosto.Bandeira bonita e com cores vibrantes e significativas.Parabéns

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