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apparently massachusetts has been taking submissions for new flag designs and i somehow didnt hear about it??? it closed like a week ago and i didnt get to submit anything :(
but uh yeah. very belated breaking news: keep an eye on massachusetts this could be cool
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So if you haven’t heard, the state of Maine is planning on changing their flag. Currently, it’s a blue flag with the state seal in the center. About half of the state flags in the US follow this template, and they’re hard to tell apart.
However, from 1901 to 1909, this was the flag of Maine:
And people really like this design. It’s unique, it has charm, and it’s quintessentially Maine. In recent years, more modern and simplified versions of the flag have emerged, and been wholeheartedly embraced by the community.
After a decades-long movement to restore the 1901 flag, in May 2024 a bill was passed which would change the flag following a successful referendum. A website was created where people could submit designs for the pine tree, which received more than 300 entries. The final design was created by Maine resident Adam Lemire:
I personally really like it. I think it’s a nice middle ground between the detailed hand-painted flags of the 1900s and the more recent simplified versions.
I do think it would look better with brighter colors, as to me it feels somewhat dull. I’ve heard people say it would look better with a darker brown trunk, and I think I agree. I’m also a fan of the variations with a brighter buff color for the background.
That being said, I really like this design overall and I won’t let perfect be the enemy of good. One thing I really like about this is that while this design is the one that will be used by the government should the referendum pass, technically any buff flag with a pine tree and a blue star in the canton is an official state flag, meaning the older variations will remain valid, and people can draw up their own designs as they wish.
The citizens of Maine will vote on this flag in November, and seeing how popular the pine tree flag is, I doubt there’ll be much opposition.
hey guys washington state is thinking abt redesigning their flag
if you want to see this improved, tell your legislator to support HB 1938
HB 1938 Washington State Legislature
Happy International Women's Day!
Today I thought I'd talk about the flag of the National Woman's Party. The NWP was an influential political organization that fought for women's rights in the United States in the 20th Century. It was formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage, and, following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment and other issues.
The flag of the NWP was a simple tricolour of yellow, white, and purple.
The organization explained the colour choices:
"Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause. White, the emblem of purity, symbolizes the quality of our purpose; and gold, the color of light and life, is as the torch that guides our purpose, pure and unswerving."
Above is pictured an early flag of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, which would become the National Woman's Party in 1916. The direction and order of the stripes was at this time not standardized, although they were often vertical, as a representation of the striped sashes suffragettes would wear.
The Victory Flag
When the 19th Amendment was introduced, which would grant all women the right to vote in the United States, the NWP added an additional star on their flag for every state that ratified it. 36 states was the needed majority, and this was fulfilled on August 18th, 1920, when Tennessee ratified the amendment. Thus, a “ratification flag” with 36 stars was flown in celebration.
NWP co-founder Alice Paul sews a new star onto the victory flag after the 19th Amendment was ratified by Arizona.
Sources:
Tennessee State Museum
National Park Service
Flags of the World
BIG FLAG NEWS ! ! !
The Great American Flag Revolution is in full swing! Not a month after Maine chose a winner, the state of Illinois has announced a flag redesign contest, which will be open from the 3rd of September to the 18th of October.
Currently, the flag of Illinois is a simple white banner with the state's seal in the center, and the word "ILLINOIS" underneath.
It's not the worst state flag, not by far. It's actually a pretty neat design, and kind of similar to the emblem on the flag of Mexico. But Illinois' seal was deliberately designed to look similar to the seal of the USA, making it look kind of generic, like this could be the flag of really any state. I was going to say that this flag doesn't really scream "ILLINOIS," but alas, it technically does. Nonetheless, it's not a great design and I'm glad they've realized it needs an update.
Interestingly, in 1918, to celebrate the Illinois' first hundred years of statehood, a centennial flag was designed, and it actually slaps:
The centennial flag was designed by Wallace Rice, the same fellow who was responsible for the flag of Chicago, which also goes hard and is probably one of the most iconic municipal flags in the country, if not the world. The 21 stars on the centennial flag represent the 10 northern states and 10 southern states at the time of Illinois' admission to the Union, as well as a big one for Illinois itself. The centennial flag is popular among Illinoisans and some propose making it the flag of the state. Most redesigns for Illinois I've seen incorporate some elements from this flag.
If Illinois does go through with changing its flag, (which will be up to a decision of the General Assembly sometime this year or next), it will be the most recent in a wave of flag redesigns around the nation. Most state flags are unoriginal and/or poorly designed, with more than half of them being just the state seal on a monochrome field, a design loathed by flag enthusiasts everywhere and known very unaffectionately as the "seal on a bedsheet."
There are 25 of these. These flags are not only soulless, but also completely useless. Seals are not legible from a distance, especially waving on a flagpole. Furthermore, seals are symbols of the authority of a government, not of the people, making them kind of inappropriate for a civil flag.
Luckily, the states seem to be slowly realizing the importance of well-designed flags, and now they're redesigning in droves. Mississippi, Utah, Minnesota, Maine, and now Illinois have all redesigned their flags in the past five years, and many more are considering it. I both hope and believe that I will live to see an America with unique, colorful flags for every state.
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.
New York flag redesign
The current flag of New York State is uhh. Shall we say, mid.
The state has a very nice coat of arms, but, as always, coats of arms don't belong on flags, especially not one this complicated with this many decorations. It's impractical, it's indistinct, and it just doesn't make sense as a civil flag.
New York deserves something much better. I took it upon myself to redesign the flag, and I think I've finally settled on something that works.
The colours and designs of the flag are inspired by the flags of a number of groups that have shaped New York's history. The purple and white is taken from the flag of the native Haudenosaunee. The orange is taken from the old flag of the Netherlands, as the Dutch were the predominant settlers in New York (then New Netherland) for some time. The white cross is based on the flag of the English. The orange is also seen in the flag of refugees. Refugees and immigrants from around the world and throughout the centuries have shaped New York's history and made its population one of the most diverse in the country.
The seven-pointed star in the flag's canton resembles the seven-spiked tiara worn by the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
