Imagine your state (let’s call it “Illinois”) came to the realization that it needed to rebuild its entire electrical grid, or rewrite its tax code, or the state website needed a new content management system. Now imagine that rather than consulting experts, the state established a statewide contest where any amateur could submit proposals. Then they chose the ten worst submissions, and put it to a (non-binding) popular vote.
Imagine you work in a field that garners so little respect (and value) that your job was regularly relegated to contests. Contests that didn’t even offer a monetary prize. Welcome to graphic design.
The Illinois Flag Commission did just this, and received 4800 entries. They chose ten finalists, then added a couple commemorative flags and the current flag into an anonymous and easily compromised online poll. Which, again, is absolutely non-binding.
I’m a graphic designer, and since this came to light a month or so ago, pretty much every Illinoisan I know has asked my opinion. With voting opening today, it’s hard not to go full-Drew-Magary on the subject, but I’ll try to be reasonably objective and civil. I’m not a professional vexillologist by any means, but I’d be hard-pressed to name anything more dependent on the basic tenets of my trade than flag design.
Several other U.S. states have gone through this same process lately, with various levels of success. It’s a bit of a trend. Each new flag proposal features an absolutely valid debate over the necessity, expense, logistics and value of a new flag. I’ll ignore this debate, other than to say that Illinois’ current flag is often described as “a bedsheet with the state seal.” It doesn’t help that our state seal is so generic that we need to put the name of the state below it, in a typeface described as “similar to Craw Clarendon.” We also have arguably the worst license plates in the Union. We can do better. Or can we?
Thus, I present this Girl-I-Guess-style assessment of these new options, backed by my reputation as a “notable” designer (with Field Notes, whose corporate opinions are not represented here, but whom would presumably take my side if this turns into a fistfight) and occasional design critic (see also my oft-quoted defense of the 2012 London Olympics logo).
Let’s start with the two commemorative flags:
This is the Illinois Centennial flag, dating way back to 1918. Aside from a nicely simple but somehow still-cluttered design (we’ll see far too many arrays of 21 stars today), it already serves a historical purpose and it seems weird to put it back into service
This is the Sesquicentennial flag. The design is among the best of these choices, and the goofy way the state is rendered is growing on me. The bold italic “I” evokes the Illinois Tollway logo, but that’s not a dealbreaker. The dealbreaker is this was a flag created in 1968 to celebrate our 150th anniversary, why are we considering it for a state flag?
Now, onto the newly-created options (in random order). This one isn’t bad, the proportions and colors are among the best of the choices. But it feels a bit like the Portland, Oregon flag, which is interesting, because it also evokes the design of my employer, Aaron “Thicklines” Draplin, who works out of Portland. My only complaint is (and this will come up again) that the Chicago star doesn’t belong on the state flag. And it certainly doesn’t belong on it three times. The designer has justifications for this, but designers can justify anything.
I dislike this one more than you’d think. Again with the stars, though… is it really that significant that we’re the 21st state? I do like the colors, already associated with the state via University of Illinois, though students of other schools might have a different opinion. The monarch butterfly is a brave choice that stands no chance of winning, but it would certainly stand out among other state flags. The butterfly seems low, optically. Not bad, though, especially for high school students!
This is nicely simple, but simplicity requires refinement and proportion, and this feels whipped together in Canva. The spacing and positioning of the elements feels random, largely because the white circle is not balanced with the white inlines. (Remember what I said about designers being able to justify anything? ”The central circle abstractly represents the view from above Abraham Lincoln’s hat.” Eyeroll!) The colors are solid. I’m willing to back off my Chicago-star argument, but I will insist it shouldn’t be the dominant element.
Of all these attempts, this one most feels like a traditional old-school U.S. state flag. Which is to say it’s cluttered and boring, but fine. More than half of U.S. state flags are predominately dark blue, let’s try something different. The twenty tiny stars would get lost on a patch. I wonder if it’d help if the spacing was adjusted so there was equal space around the white star, and maybe that star was a bit larger. At least it has five points.
I was kinda behind this simple refinement, until I read the designer’s statement: “[it] helps to save money on an entire[ly] new design.” As if the state was paying for the design in the first place! The design is not the expense here. Is this guy going to drive around Illinois sewing red and blue ribbons onto every flag, and embroidering stripes onto every state trooper’s shoulder patch? And we’re just going to cut out a hole where “ILLINOIS” was?
Another 21 stars, bringing us to 291! The proportions are all wrong, the stars are far too close to the border and the light blue margins look like a CSS rendering error. Also, our state outline is reasonably distinctive, but is it flagworthy? And how do you standardize the level of detail in a border?
Everyone I’ve talked to kinda hates this one, and I think that’s because it has so much potential, but so many flaws. The star couldn’t be more carelessly placed. Both the silhouette and state outline are cropped awkwardly, such that you see a white map of Laos or Vietnam long before you see Abe or the Mississippi. A bummer, because at a glance, this flag really pops out of the bunch.
This one is also on the right track but needs refinement. The violet is a good place to start, but even highly stylized, it should have five petals, and a violet is not rotationally symmetrical. And why not bring in a violet color instead of this blah light blue? Like many of the others, the precise balance of line weight, detail, and proportion needs some work.
Hi everyone! It’s a few days later, and I realize I totally skipped this one. The beauty of online “journalism” (chortle) is that you can just change a story and no one will ever know!
This one is pretty boring, to the degree I forgot about it. In the meantime, there have been a few hundred TikToks sharing the theory that a high school student basically submitted the flag of North Korea as a joke, and it was selected as a finalist. Seems entirely plausible to me. Trying to figure out who first posited this idea (to give them credit, and a link) is impossible, as I now see there are already infinite posts on every platform about this theory, which makes me even more sick that I wasted all this time writing about these stupid flags. Every dumbass on the internet is ranting about this and no one gives a shit what I, or anyone else think about it. I’m sorry, it was a compulsion. I did this for me, not for you. Let’s all touch grass.
I’ll be honest: I saved this one for last because of the ten new proposed flags, it’s my favorite. Switch that Chicago star to a five-pointer (or better yet, eliminate it), and adjust a few details, and this is a winner. It passes the most important test of a good flag: a third-grader could draw it on their social studies report cover without a protractor or a degree in illustration. The one detail that really grates on me is the slight angle of the serifs on the left side of the “I,” which are not visible in the negative space on the right side. There are a couple possible solutions, including adjusting the thickness of the serifs to align the coves with the red stripes, or eliminating the coves on the left side. Re-adjust the proportions a bit and you get this, which is pretty sweet.
So there you have it… wait… there’s one choice left!
This is our existing flag, ”the bedsheet.” It objectively pretty much sucks. Good luck, hypothetical third-grader. But for now, it’s got my vote. I’m all for progress and good design, but if this is actually important enough to be worth the expense and hassle, let’s not leave it in the hands of a handful of bureaucrats, 4800 amateur designers, and a half-ass internet poll.
Besides, I really love Craw Clarendon.