Image is raw and I've never taken time to improve it. Two paddles and a statehood star. stripes with waves and pinline echos about the shield. This is also on a short ratio and would look better on ratio 3:5. Still, best I have.
So we keep doing these US state flag studies on Facebook. The viewership on the page has revolved a few times but we always can get enough votes together to complete each study. Think we have done about 125 major studies now. This month we are back in Wisconsin. Not done a Wisconsin study since about 2019. We stated with 870 designs in round one and we are now looking to find four to go into R9 the semi finals in the next hour. Itseems like fun but it's some effort to make daily content and then get 20 folks or so to keep voting them down to a single winner. If people wish to re-discover us, then more eyes on will always build a winner with more validity.
Just triangles of current colors that try and explain the narrowing habitat on the upper west coast. Mountains, trees, snow and oceans. The bright golden star with a dark blue outline takes something from the fly side of the state flag (pole star) and puts it to use in the canton to well represent the city.
The current flag of Alaska has a very strange official ratio of 125:177. I would change that to a basic 3:5 ratio. In doing so you get more real-estate so the dipper and polestar can be sized more correctly. The stars are doubled in area and this then shows as 98% dark blue and 2% gold. The polestar is 49" from the hoist so as to reference Alaska being the 49th state. Each star in the dipper has been placed with aid of a star chart to help locate the best position. (most of which are cross located on a grid of half inches).
In order (9,9) (12,16.5) (16,20) (21,23.5) (26,22.5) (30,30) (26,34) with the polestar at (6.49)
A moderately interesting design. Really because so few people have ever been bothered to make a redesign for a flag when most people don't think the current one should change. Would be nice to see it taking part in a competitive contest now that it's well over 50 years old.
Three more designs from the committee. Main issue relates to them most likely having been built with AI tools.
Changes, or upgrades, the copper star to white (silver) The sunset gyronny starts gold and the overall tinctures are improved 100%. Still eye catching but now more laid out to perform better as a flag.
Bold statehood union star. Retains a gyronny layout, the Spanish red and gold to identify with the early land claims of New Spain, desert vistas, sunsets and the blue for the state water courses as the Colorado River and the Hoover Dam.
Small detail changes to try and make the overall image "POP" a little more.
Make the image larger, more regular, give it a white hot core and put it on ratio 3:5.
Let's add another random design into the mix. Simple white statehood 5-pointed star on a rawhide Osage shield with 5 elongated pentagon shaped feathers.
The very stark contrast colorset of a honey bee, black and gold adds to "the white heat of technology" and industry of the hoist area and technical strip. (motto of Utah is "Industry") The black hexagon aligns to the point up and point down layout since this is how a bee builds the honeycomb structure of the hive.
(Image is the 1st one uploaded to Wikipedia)
So we had a nice discussion (just over two hours or so) about the proposed legislation of how improvement for Michigan might be secured. From the NAVA side - Ted Kaye - Secretary, Brian Cham - Chair Flag Design Committee, and myself as roving state flag improvement co-ordination. Senator Dan McCay from Utah, bringing expertise of leading flag improvement and Representative Phil Skaggs of Michigan with his legislation assistant Mr Reed also in attendance. Also on the call was Elijah Wynn as a local proposer bringing news that Rep Coffia and Senator Damoose from the Republican side would be interested to advance some co-working effort from across the aisle. If this becomes bi-partisan then political barriers could be put aside, and with more people focused on "improvement" then there is less chance of all and sundry making a mess of the attempt to get a more fitting design advanced. The current flag would be retained for many future uses as "The flag of the Michigan State coat of arms". (there is already a white field variant Governor's flag, and hearing that the local national guard of Utah are more interested to use the new Utah flag as a sleeve patch, that the current Michigan flag would not be re-worked into a military use focus)
The draft legislation proposal will be further developed and then proposed at the start of the next new session after the November mid-term election. From the point of third reading, a tight 30 day period gateway on formation of a flag improvement committee will be expected. With the process calling for a public reflection study period and then a clear call for design work to echo an exacting theme(s). Assessment locally of proposed designs will form the basis of what design(s) appears in a vote - likely at the same time of the 2028 Presidential Election with two new designs on a ballot paper for Michiganders to vote between.
So really 4 points of public involvement:
Suggestion of themes.
Design of proposals.
Selection of favorites. - (lots of side work in places like Reddit)
And a vote between the two best developed ideas.
And because this legislation is quite modular in approach it should lend it's-self to being used by more states in future. (might also bring forward New York flag improvement in the same time frame) Plus there is no need to stop there - about 30 states could really do with this type of reflection.
(includes white strip technical hoist) They did a flag contest last year and quit on announcement of the entry designs because few people liked them. However we took them and played them out as a contest. This was the winner. 4 Pine tree twigs in green as the charge on gold field, with soft blue "B" wave for Boise in the hoist.
Hoist features a quarter part of a circle to describe a letter "O" for Olympia. Complimentary linkage to the state flag. White Star stands for the capital city status.
https://strawpoll.com/mpnb18j9Yy5
Above link is to direct those who are interested to vote again between three designs tied on 22 votes.
The Bi-Bison.
Additional credit - Michael Page.
Sorry, more of a joke flag design because so few people are entering these contests.
In the style of Saint Pierre et Miquelon, a South Dakota sun for the ship, with black and white peaks for the waves. In the hoist are three flags for the design on the tomb of Pierre Trudeau, a symbol to identify Lucky Pierre (3 in a bed) and two racing cars for Pierre Gasly.
A left over design I have on file from November 2016. Uses items from the seal and strips it all back so it's just blue and white.
