Ted Kaye, who literally wrote the book on good flag design titled "Good Flag, Bad Flag," says "flags should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory."
– Time to change Nebraska's flag? That's what some are saying after the banner flew upside down over the state Capitol for 10 long days, the Omaha World-Herald reports. "Nobody noticed it," says state Sen. Burke Harr. "It took someone drawing it to my attention." Now Harr is calling for a task force to redesign the flag, which shows a busy state seal "plonked" against a royal blue background, per the Guardian. It includes a steamboat, a train, and a blacksmith pounding away with a hammer, plus the state motto, "Equality before the law." It's not the first time the state symbol has been ridiculed. The North American Vexillological Association ranks it among the five worst state flags, and Thrillist ruled that only Maryland's was uglier. "You don’t draw a guy in a robe trying to smash through a tree stump, you just don’t," the site chided. When it comes to terrible state flags, there's apparently a race to the bottom. The good ones are "far outnumbered by the terrible ones," the author of Good Flag, Bad Flag once told CNN. A bid in 2002 to change the flag fell flat, but now Nebraskans appear ready for a makeover. An ad exec who designed the state's 150th anniversary logo as a stylized ear of corn emphasizes the need for simplicity. "It's galling" the flag "doesn't embody" the "uniqueness" that is Nebraska, adds the director of the state's art council. (Flying a flag upside down can send an unintentional message, as Facebook found out.)