The Osage shield on the Oklahoma flag

I love my home state. However, I’ve never been fully satisfied with the illustration of the Osage shield in the center of my state flag. The flag is a beautiful blue field with a plate full of color barf in the center.

Photographs and pen and ink illustrations have their place. My point is that most, if not all flags use bold, simplified symbol representations of things that the folks in that particular state hold up as important. That’s one of the reasons flags aren’t giant photographs of stuff.

I am in no way demeaning the art or talent of the artist who created the Osage shield illustration on my state flag. I’m stating that a simplified representation of that shield has production advantages that the current and highly detailed illustration does not have.

One major advantage is the ability for the symbol to retain clarity at small sizes (or in this case, the viewers physical distance from the flag). Another advantage is the ability to be reproduced in one color. I like the idea of a one color state flag but I’m probably alone on that one.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please post your helpful comments and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your time :)

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