KCRag Forum

I wish we had a better city flag. Can somebody do something about that?

chingon wrote:I wish we had a better city flag. Can somebody do something about that?

I like it! Viva France!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kansa ... O_flag.jpg

Just removing the words would go a long way towards making it palatable. I, personally think the heart/fountain glyph is lame, because I think the "motto" is impossible cornball. The last incarnation of that glyph (which was two intertwining heart/fountains) was marginally better, by dint of being less intelligible.

As a native Kansan:




and Topekan:



I've under shitty flags my whole life. I wish KC would up its game. Could be worse, I suppose. I could live in the city that flies this unmitigated abomination (though I'd have better transit options and never have to wear sunscreen again):

chingon wrote:Just removing the words would go a long way towards making it palatable. I, personally think the heart/fountain glyph is lame, because I think the "motto" is impossible cornball. The last incarnation of that glyph (which was two intertwining heart/fountains) was marginally better, by dint of being less intelligible.

As a native Kansan:




and Topekan:



I've under shitty flags my whole life. I wish KC would up its game. Could be worse, I suppose. I could live in the city that flies this unmitigated abomination (though I'd have better transit options and never have to wear sunscreen again):

I've seen guys with tattoos of the Chicago flag on their arm. You know you have a great city flag when people are willing to ink it on themselves.

that topeka flag is really bad, but that portland flag is ok.

Funny thing is the Topeka flag gets rank higher by NAVA than KC's flag. We will have to just disagree about the Portland flag, it seems badly dated and really chintzy and horribly Pac-Northwesty...unsurprisingly, I'll cop to really disliking their design sensibilities up that way and having a noticeable anti-Oregon bias.

Salem is worse than all 3:

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No matter how you slice it, we need a new flag.

The current Visit KC logo would be a good start on an abstract, map-based flag, although dropping the "c" might be a good idea. Something playing on the confluence of the Kaw and Missouri Rivers is another option, though it would be awfully close to St. Louis's flag.

There's a lot of timeless iconography on the Power and Light Building that could be used. The suns on the balconies, for example, would be beautiful:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11581147@N06/5159770158/. It would reproduce beautifully in 2 colors.

I wonder if there are some old city seals (before the paperclip logo) that have elements that could be used.

some food for thought:

http://www.nava.org/Flag%20Design/city_survey.htm


Obviously there is no correlation between coolness of city and coolness of flag, and I don't particularly agree with NAVA's list, but that "Heart of America, City of Fountains" tagline has got to go. I seriously think there should be some way to fix that.

chingon wrote:some food for thought:

http://www.nava.org/Flag%20Design/city_survey.htm


Obviously there is no correlation between coolness of city and coolness of flag, and I don't particularly agree with NAVA's list, but that "Heart of America, City of Fountains" tagline has got to go. I seriously think there should be some way to fix that.

What I get from that list is that the "good" flags are abstract representations - at most. At the very least, they're just good graphics. In other words, there's nothing about them (with the possible exception of St. Louis) that really "screams" the city they're representing. Chicago is four stars, with blue lines above and below? If you say so. But graphically it works really well. KC shouldn't be so concerned with representing anything (like, fountains) on the flag, unless the graphics are much, much better than the current flag. The graphics are the thing.

Also: colors. That site says that good flag design should be two, three at most, colors. One thing I hate about the current KC flag is the color gradient on the fountain logo and how it has nothing to do with the red and blue stripes on the side.

I agree that it's time to change our flag. But, there have been varying versions of the "fountain logo" on the flag. At first, the fountain was in color. But that made the flag too expensive. So, they made it black. They have also changed the "bars" on the flag. It hasn't always looked like the French flag.

chingon wrote:some food for thought:

http://www.nava.org/Flag%20Design/city_survey.htm


Obviously there is no correlation between coolness of city and coolness of flag, and I don't particularly agree with NAVA's list, but that "Heart of America, City of Fountains" tagline has got to go. I seriously think there should be some way to fix that.

We have talked about this site almost 8 years ago. If you'd like to see some of the comments from then, you can go here: http://forum.kcrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4254

It's a shame all the image links are broken- tho I did enjoy the "French people helped terrorists" tangent. Very 2004.

I like keeping the main Heart of America Fountain theme from the original flag, while making it a bit more classy. Also possibly incorporating the theme of the Kaw and Missouri River.
An art deco design would definite be nice IMHO. Something like on the P&L building or the bottom image on the following link (of course replace the clubs with a fountain): http://www.lackadaisycats.com/gallery/1316825628.jpg

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The one with the Scout looks far better than the one we're using now, even if the text isn't balanced.

The Scout flag is pretty good. Even if you dropped the text it would look good. It makes me wonder if the two previous versions were even better, and our flags have just been getting worse and worse over the years.

This photo shows the text on the Scout flag centered, and the heart is a little slimmer:
http://localhistory.kclibrary.org/u?/Montgomery,6344

AllThingsKC wrote:I agree that it's time to change our flag. But, there have been varying versions of the "fountain logo" on the flag. At first, the fountain was in color. But that made the flag too expensive. So, they made it black. They have also changed the "bars" on the flag. It hasn't always looked like the French flag.

chingon wrote:some food for thought:

http://www.nava.org/Flag%20Design/city_survey.htm


Obviously there is no correlation between coolness of city and coolness of flag, and I don't particularly agree with NAVA's list, but that "Heart of America, City of Fountains" tagline has got to go. I seriously think there should be some way to fix that.

We have talked about this site almost 8 years ago. If you'd like to see some of the comments from then, you can go here: http://forum.kcrag.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4254

So, '04 Chrizow liked the Topeka flag, and '12 Chrizow thinks it sucks, huh? Awesome to see a man's tastes get more refined with the years.

chingon wrote: So, '04 Chrizow liked the Topeka flag, and '12 Chrizow thinks it sucks, huh? Awesome to see a man's tastes get more refined with the years.

that's hilarious. wtf was i thinking? 8 years is a long time...

I would probably hang a city flag on my porch, even the current shitsmear, if only they would take the words "city of fountains, heart of the nation" off of it, or I could find one with no text. While looking I found this:



Which I find infinitely more palatable. Maybe if they won't change the flag to something un-embarassing, people should just start flying/selling a good one to city nerds...its could replace the "more city, less kansas" bumper sticker.

chingon wrote:I would probably hang a city flag on my porch, even the current shitsmear, if only they would take the words "city of fountains, heart of the nation" off of it, or I could find one with no text. While looking I found this:



Which I find infinitely more palatable. Maybe if they won't change the flag to something un-embarassing, people should just start flying/selling a good one to city nerds...its could replace the "more city, less kansas" bumper sticker.

I like it. sign me up

smh wrote:

chingon wrote:I wish we had a better city flag. Can somebody do something about that?

I like it! Viva France!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kansa ... O_flag.jpg

which is appropriate because Kansas City began as a French village.

and the town was built over the Prudhomme farm