Reviewing Illinois State Flag Finalists
In September, Illinois started taking submissions for redesigns of the state flag, and recently they published their 10 finalists. Let's take a look.
Entry 4220
This design took me a solid fifteen seconds to decipher, and it was stationary, on my computer screen. I can scarcely imagine the nightmare of trying to make out Abraham Lincoln's silhouette from several hundred yards away, while the flag is waving in the wind. This flag would also surely be a pain to manufacture by traditional methods--especially at smaller sizes, stitching along the precise and irregular lines would be difficult. I see the creative vision behind this design, but it just doesn't work. It's clumsy enough as a digital image, and would be downright illegible as a flag.
Entry 4129
This one's not bad. I really like the gear inside the flower, and the stripes representing Illinois' rivers. Overall it's a nice design, but I do have to voice my discontent with the use of a pastel blue. I'm generally against the use of pastel colours in flags, because they are given to fade, and are harder to make out in the sun. I especially dislike the combination of pastel blue with white, because they create a very low contrast that confuses the otherwise legible design and makes the details vulnerable to confusion. I think this design would fare better if the pastel blue were replaced entirely with white (or vice versa, but I would opt to eliminate the blue.)
Entry 200
This is one of my favorites of the bunch. It seems to be inspired by the centennial flag, which we'll discuss later. The thin blue stripes represent the rivers Mississippi and Illinois, which is a nice touch. The 21 stars denote Illinois being the 21st state. This design isn't anything thrilling, but I truly don't have any complaints about it, except maybe that it looks like a recoloured North Korea.
Entry 4321
This one is fine. Nothing remarkably Illinois about it, but I don't dislike it. My only real complaint with this one is that there's an awful lot of negative space above the butterfly's head. I would move the largest star in the circle down into that negative space, balancing out the flag and putting even more attention on that particular star.
Entry 4669
4669 is disappointing. If you MUST put your initial on your flag, which you shouldn't be doing in the first place, you have to at least be creative about it, like Colorado or Ocean City. This flag feels like it's admitting that there's nothing unique about the state, clinging desperately to the American flag for a shred of symbolism. Not even the six-pointed star can save this design, because all it does is remind you that there are decent flags in Illinois, and that this is not one of them.
Entry 896
This one pisses me off perhaps more than any other. Allow me to refresh your memory of the current flag of Illinois:
It's the SAME
FUCKING
DESIGN
I want you to reflect on this for a moment. Why would a populace vote to replace their flag, at the expense of valuable time, resources and taxpayer money, specifically because they did not like the current design, if they did not intend to noticeably change any of the key parts of said design? What, I ask you, is the point of replacing the word ILLINOIS with stripes on the sides? It's a random change purely for the sake of change without any recognition of the reasons a change was called for.
But what truly baffles me is the logic presented by the originator of the self-proclaimed redesign. The designer stated that this was "simply an embellishment to the existing flag ... to save money on an entire new design." I don't think this person understands how this works. They're not going to take every existing Illinois flag, cover up the text and sew stripes onto the edges. If this redesign is chosen, entirely new flags will have to be manufactured, and since the state seal uses a shit ton of colors and shapes, the materials and labour required to manufacture any flag featuring the seal would be expensive, meaning not only will the Illinois flag continue to be expensive to produce, it will cost the state several hundreds or even thousands of dollars to replace all the existing flags for no fucking reason, meaning that in the long run, the redesign will have been nothing but a waste of time and taxpayer money with no noticeable effect. Out of the almost 5,000 entries, I am genuinely confounded that this one received more than a few minute's consideration, and downright shocked that it made it to the top 10. What are we doing.
Entry 2246
This one isn't bad. It feels kind of generic--they have fields and sunsets everywhere. But visually, it's cleaner and prettier than probably any other design in this batch, and honestly I don't mind it.
Entry 3754
I like this one. It's nothing special, but it's pleasant to look at, and it makes use of relevant symbols more effectively than any other proposal. All things considered, this is probably the one I would vote for.
Entries 3679 & 2752
I'm lumping these together because they're essentially the same. I virtually never approve of maps on flags. They're hard to make, but more than that, it just feels lazy. If a map of your state is all you have to work with, I think you need to need to work on building an identity before you start designing flags. My complaints about using Abraham Lincoln's silhouette also still stand.
1918 Centennial Flag
This flag was designed in celebration of Illinois' 100th anniversary of statehood, and was a co-official flag of the state for the year of 1918. It is also included in the redesign choices and is considered a finalist in its own right by default. This flag established blue and white as the unofficial colours of Illinois, and inspired many of the redesigns. I still think it's the best option for a state flag by far.
In summary,
the redesigns are all over the place. Given the choice between the finalists, I would go for the centennial flag, but 3754, 2246, and 200 are all good choices as well. The Illinois Flag Commission will spend the next few months narrowing down their decision even further, and then the people of Illinois will vote on their final design. Almost all of the proposals are better or at least not worse than the incumbent flag, so any change is better than none in my opinion.