South Carolina historians chose a new design for the state flag. Everybody hates. | News

The new South Carolina flag design seemed like a good idea – until everyone really saw it.

It turns out that people hate it. They really hate it.

The new design has attracted thousands of complaints since it was featured in a Post and Courier story this week. In response to the reaction, historians who developed the new design plan to review it before lawmakers can vote to approve it next year.

The new banner features a darker shade of indigo than some previous editions and a crescent moon in the upper left corner that is virtually unchanged.

But critics say the flag’s designers slaughtered the iconic palm tree in the center, a crucial component that makes the state flag of Palmetto one of the best in the United States.

The flag looks weak, its stiff fronds reminiscent of Freddy Krueger’s murderous fingers, say some. Others say it looks like the tree has just survived a major hurricane or a long meth addiction. The palm tree could pass for Charlie Brown’s pathetic Christmas tree, more than some commented. Some wondered if it was designed by a particularly uninspired young man.

“Terrible! One shouted over the internet. “Horrible, ”Another wrote.

“How can we protest against this project and arrange for someone else to produce a better one?” a North Charleston reader asked by email.

When taxpayers paid for this abomination, many wondered. (We checked. Nothing.)

Inevitably, the tree has become a meme in Internet circles in South Carolina.

Hate for the tree design brought together Republicans and Democrats, Gamecocks and tigers, cats and dogs – providing almost unprecedented levels of harmony on divisive social media platforms like Twitter.

On a Twitter poll by The Post and Courier Columbia, only 22 percent of respondents said they like the flag.

Twenty-six percent said the flag was bad. Twenty-three percent said it was “very bad” and 30 percent were willing to describe the flag as “total rubbish”. OK, it wasn’t very scientific research.

The designers of the new flag monitored the reaction.

Scott Malyerck, the political adviser at Newberry who first came up with the idea of ​​standardizing the state flag years ago, was surprisingly optimistic when contacted by phone on Wednesday morning.

“Message received,” he said.

Since 1940, South Carolina has not had a standard flag design. The indigo tone that colors the background and the shapes of the heart of palm and the half moon have been left to the whims of individual flag makers for decades.

The purpose of this exercise was to create a unique design that could be used on flags, t-shirts, windshield decals, beer koozies, etc.

In 2018, lawmakers put Malyerck on the team of historians that was created to study early versions of the flag and create a historically accurate flag design.

They based the color – Pantone 282 C – on the color of the uniforms worn by Colonel William Moultrie’s 2nd South Carolina Regiment in the Revolutionary War.

They established the shape and angle of the half moon after studying the symbol that Moultrie’s troops wore on their hats.

They based the heart of palm on a pencil sketch that Charleston amateur artist Ellen Heyward Jervey drew for AS Salley, the first secretary of the South Carolina Historical Commission, while drawing the 1910 state flag. That 110-year sketch was then replicated by the graphics department at Clemson University.

In retrospect, said Malyerck, the flag committee sacrificed aesthetics for historical accuracy. By his own estimate, 95 percent of the response to the flag design was negative.

Malyerck said he has already contacted other members of the flag committee. They plan to return to the drawing board to review the heart of palm and offer lawmakers a different design next year.

“We don’t want to present anything that people don’t like,” said Malyerck.

In their report to lawmakers, historians said that hitting the palm of the hand was the most difficult task. These words turned out to be prophetic.

Talk to Avery Wilks at 803-374-3115. Follow him on Twitter at @AveryGWilks.