Going along with Mars' first guideline, the flag of Geneva, Illinois is, unfortunately, only half simplistic. The background waves of the blue, white, and green lines make it easy to depict, yet the tree emblem in the middle contradicts all of the simplicity. The current flag for Geneva doesn't use any symbolism. I could not find anything that explained why Geneva chose a tree to put in the middle of its flag. A tree is not a bad design choice to put in the flag but the design could be simplified. The Geneva flag uses the correct amount of basic colors: white, blue, and green. The flag has lettering and numbering on the white circle. In my opinion, the flag is distinctive from the rest due to the curvy lines it incorporates; most flags use straight lines.
Current flag of Geneva:
My redesigned flag of Geneva:
For my redesign of the Geneva flag, I chose to change only minor details. I did not include the golden circle around the tree. That way, it is easier to depict and is simpler on the eyes. Instead of getting rid of the tree completely, I simplified it and got rid of the letters and numbers and also kept the tree green. I kept all of the same colors because each of them look alright with each other. No warm colors are used within the flag, only cool colors (and white). If a warm color such as red or orange was originally in the flag design, it would completely throw the whole design off. As I mentioned before, I took out the year Geneva was founded and the words "City of Geneva". Without the characters, the flag looks way more simplistic than before. The last design aspect I kept was the curvy lines. With the use of curvy lines, the flag of Geneva separates itself from all the other flags. One doesn't see a flag with non-straight lines every day. The flag of Geneva I created is not a huge change from the original. The current flag of Geneva doesn't have a horrible design, some revisions should be made but a complete overhaul of the flag is unnecessary. The new Geneva flag is simplistic, unique, and easy enough to memorize to draw by hand.
Hey Patrick, I enjoyed reading your post and think that you raised some good points. As for your flag, it does a good job with maintaining the five principles as it is simple, has two to three colors, has no lettering, is distinct, and is meaningful as you desrcibed. Removing the words was a good change as it focuses on the symbolic pieces that represent Geneva. Keeping the colors and waves was also a good touch as they go a long way. You may have been able to put forth more effort/creativity with the emblem, but the meaning behind it is shown. Overall, well done.
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