The State of Illinois has announced a contest to gather designs for a new state flag. Design submissions are due by October 18.
This is a horrendously bad idea. Unless one of those submissions happens to be by an actual graphic designer—and that entry wins—the result likely will be “nephew art.” You know what that looks like, right? Someone says we need some art for the cover of something. Someone else says “My nephew (substitute daughter, wife or grandson) is an artist. I can ask him to do it.” And then you are stuck with whatever the nephew submits because if it’s awful (and it will be), the auntie or grandma will be insulted if the work is rejected.
Even worse? After the new state flag commission picks 10 finalists, we all get to vote for our favorite, thus ensuring the worst possible design for a new flag.
The state flag commission has competition on its hands. The City of Chicago flag is always on the lists of best city or state flags.
There are already debates on social media about how to represent both the urban and rural aspects of Illinois. We must show images of soybeans as well as cornstalks. State parks as well as skyscrapers. Hogs as well as cattle. I’ve even seen an argument about how to properly draw a cornstalk.
The current State of Illinois flag, adopted in 1970, is an example of trying to represent elements of our state in visually literal ways.
There is a better way. The state flag commission should contract with a graphic design consultant to advise them on finding a good graphic design firm (an Illinois firm, of course) to create the flag.
But it’s not too late. The Design Museum of Chicago would be an excellent resource in this project. The state flag commission should reach out to the Design Museum of Chicago and ask executive director Tanner Woodford to advise or recommend a graphic design adviser.
With an accomplished graphic design adviser involved, the state can be sure that none of the 10 final designs are nephew art. Instead, they should be works that stand up to the quality of the City of Chicago flag.
The City of Chicago flag is often recognized as one of the best city flags, known for its simplicity and its symbolism. The city flag, adopted in 1917, was the result of a contest to gather entries. About 1000 entries were submitted but the city flag commission made the final choice.
The design was by Wallace Rice, an Art Institute lecturer on flag design. Rice was also a lawyer, writer and vexillographer, a specialist in the art and practice of designing flags.
The Chicago flag features three white bands, representing the north, south and west sides of the city. Two blue bands represent the lake and the river. And the four distinctive six-pointed stars represent four important events in our history.
Chicago writer Robert Loerzel wrote this article a few years ago about how the Chicago flag came to be and why it is so beloved by Chicagoans. We wear the Chicago flag on t-shirts, paint it on murals and use it in many other ways as a symbol of our city. In fact, the star rating system we use for arts events on Third Coast Review mimics the city flag.
The North American Vexillological Association has published a booklet titled Good Flag, Bad Flag, which provides five principles of good flag design.
- Keep it simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
- Use meaningful symbolism.
- Use two or three basic colors.
- No lettering or seals.
- Be distinctive or be related. Avoid duplicating other flags, but show connections.
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