By Ted Kaye; revised by Scott Mainwaring
Originally published in The Vexilloid Tabloid #30, October 2011
The PFA has honored Randall Gray of West Linn for his re-design of the Oregon State Flag, which received the most votes in The Oregonian‘s contest in 2008-09.
In a celebration hosted in February by Mike Hale at Elmer’s Flag & Banner, the mapmaker for Clackamas County was given a 3’ x 5’ version of his winning design.
Most members of the Portland Flag Association came for the ceremony. At the end of the event, Mike Hale took us all on a behind-the-scenes tour of the flag store.
The story of the flag contest is reported in NAVA News No. 205 January-March 2010, including designs of ten finalists. A more detailed case study calls out 12 lessons learned for would-be vexillonaires.
Interestingly, two PFA members (out of over 2,000 entrants) had designs in that top ten. (Doug Lynch was one, and we invited Randall Gray to join the PFA after the contest.)
The Oregonian had sponsored an effort to redesign the state’s flag in anticipation of Oregon’s 150th birthday in February 2009.
The quality of the entries was stunning—hundreds of them would have made a successful state flag. While professional graphic artists participated and submitted spectacular designs, so did amateurs and schoolchildren.
Mike Hale and Ted Kaye helped with an initial culling process. In two weekend sessions of 2-3 hours each, they selected about 240 entries for further consideration by the flag jury.
After that jury selected the 10 finalists, newspaper readers gave Randall’s beaver design top votes. However, without a legislative plan and no support from the governor, the effort to update the official flag went nowhere.
The Oregonian described Randall’s design process: “Always interested in flags and design, Gray was unimpressed with the front of the Oregon flag. But the back, with the beaver, was another matter. ‘The backside is the start of something good.’” The meaning: “Blue and gold for the state colors with green to represent trees and wilderness Oregon was blessed with. White contrasts between the dark blue and green. The beaver from the current flag links us with the past. The star represents Oregon’s place in the Union.”
Elmer’s Flag and Banner generously made up the flag, using the beaver image from another entrant, Tom Lincoln. It is likely the only such flag extant in that design!
Related links
- Oregon Flag Contest page at Oregon Live. Shows the 10 finalist designs and how they polled in online voting.
- The Oregon State Flag Redesign Effort of 2008-09, by Ted Kaye. In NAVA News No. 205 January-March 2010.
- Redesigning the Oregon State Flag: A Case Study, by Ted Kaye, November 2009.
- Contest update from November 2008 by Joan Carlin on the Oregonian blog. Reminds readers that the intent is not to replace the state flag, but to provide an alternative:
Sure, we’ve heard from about 100 people who don’t want to give up on the current flag. They told us to go back to California! But actually, we don’t want to give up on the current flag, even though its history is not all that storied. Reporter Michael Milstein wrote about how the design was whipped up in a hurry by the Legislature in 1925 without any community input. And not to put Michael back into the crosshairs of people who like the flag just as it is, but the contest was his notion. He wanted an event, to help launch the 150th anniversary of statehood in February, that would knit together the community. That’s exactly what happened. And, we’ve gotten some very cool, innovative flag designs from readers that reflect our iconic landscape.
- Oregonian Hates Oregon State (Flag) by “mko” on the Oregon State University Admissions Blog, October 22, 2008. The posting and its 26 responses give a good sense of the controversy the Oregonian had unwittingly set off.
- Ten flags fly, in “The Oregonian” flag contest on The Daily Flag blog, December 15, 2008. A positive review of Jaymes Walker’s entry.
- Randall Gray’s finalist entry, in SVG format, by Devon Moore on the althistory wiki.
Portland Flag Association 
One of many very good submissions, this proposed green-white-blue flag with beaver and star by Randall Gray just show how difficult it is to change the ill-suited blue and yellow state flag of Oregon.
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