As I have stated earlier, the new flag of Mississippi inspired me to come up with a design of the Ontario flag resembling the Canadian flag, but with different colours and a stylized trillium in the centre.
Agreed - script or text is a huge no-no in terms of good vexillological design rules.
Unfortunately, the Mississippi legislature mandated that that phrase had to be included on all proposals for a new flag. Two steps forward, one back...
As I have stated earlier, the new flag of Mississippi inspired me to come up with a design of the Ontario flag resembling the Canadian flag, but with different colours and a stylized trillium in the centre.
Strictly from a Vexillology perspective, this is a pretty significant downgrade. Obviously it was worth it to remove the racist part of the flag, but man, that new design breaks so many basic flag design rules.
To be honest, I was always intrigued by the medicine wheel of the Toronto sign. I think it would make a great flag: unique, memorable, and easy to replicate. I would just slap it on a solid color background, but other options are also welcome as long as it is simple. (all images are from google image search)
Strictly from a Vexillology perspective, this is a pretty significant downgrade. Obviously it was worth it to remove the racist part of the flag, but man, that new design breaks so many basic flag design rules.
I'd like to offer the following as a variation, worked out by me and couple of friends of mine, on this excellent design.
This version preserves the colours we've had for 50 years and a lot of our history is winked at, but now it looks modern, clean, fairly simple, but expressive with FNTS's design.
The blue at the hoist is meant to be evocative of the Great Lakes. The red evokes Canada. The gold from current flag becomes the stamen and pistols of the trillium, which typically are yellow. We kept the trillium white, of course, and maintained the field of green, which is on the current flag and is evocative of the Franco-Ontarien flag. These colours give quiet nods to the Union Jack and the Franco-Ontarien flag without actually being either, and the only explicit iconography remains FNTS's trillium, which stands for everyone in Ontario.
Our thinking in reversing the trillium is a simple matter of preference: in cultures that read left-to-right, elements that face left are evocative of the past, retreat, or warning. Elements that face right tend to imply the future, progress, and hope. It also means the icon is unlikely to suffer even if the flag becomes battered and frayed.
