u/xX_UnorignalName_Xx

I haven't used toki pona in a few years, does this make sense as "it was nice working with you all"

Transcript of image: "pali pi ale sina en mi li pona -jan tanjelu"

Okay, this is my third Wisconsin Redesign, and my absolute favorite. I'm going to explain each design in order of the pictures posted, but the last picture was the first I made and vice versa (hope I explained that well). My goal with this post is to show the design process I took and hopefully get some constructive criticism.

The Final Redisign:

This is the final update to this design that I'm going to do, mostly because I think that this is the peak of this design. In it's horizontal orientation it symbolically represents a setting sun over a lake (similar to the peoples flag of Milwaukee):

• The Blue on top represents the blue sky
• The White in the middle represents the snow and/or the fading white seen during a sunset (refer to the reference picture)
• The Blue on the bottom represents the lakes
• The Yellow chevron represents the light of the setting sun, as well as acting as visual shape language for "forward" the Wisconsin state motto.
• The eight pointed star in the middle left represents the sun

This orientation was inspired by a picture I took on a particularly sunny day while walking in Madison Wisconsin (the second to last picture in the gallery). The eight pointed star was added for two reasons. One: I felt the original update didn't have enough going on epically in the chevron, and Two: in order to give more meaning to the vertical orientation. In it's vertical orientation the flag represents the north star shining down acting as a metaphorical "guide" to Wisconsin:

• The eight pointed star on top is now the north star (as it is traditionally depicted on flags, note this is why I decided to go with an 8 pointed star)
• The Yellow chevron pointing down now represents the light of the star, still giving us the shape langugage of forward.
• The Blue on both sides now represent the darkness of night that the Star is guiding us through
• The White line through the center represents the star's light falling down and creating a path to Wisconsin.

I'm very proud of the symbology behind the vertical orientation, It was not in my mind at all when creating the original update, but I found that it functioned well as a sort of "love letter" to my home state. While I do love this place I'm going to be leaving it very soon and I find that having a flag representing coming home and the remembrance of home is very comforting for the times ahead. Anyways let's get to the actual symbology behind the colors and shape of the flag (I'm sure you're wondering about that).

• The Blue is also a common color used to represent industry in Wisconsin, used on both the original Milwaukee flag, and the Peoples Flag. It's also a small callback to the (admittedly not very good yet historically important) seal on a bedsheet design.
• The Yellow represents the Agriculture, Beer, and Cheese. I don't think I need to say much more about this, it's the three things Wisconsin is known for: Corn, Beer, and Cheese.
• The white represents many things, but I think it epically stands for peace. Wisconsin has had it's fair share of bloody conflict through the years (look up the Milwaukee bridge war, and the Toledo war for examples), so I feel that expressing peace on the flag is a strong message, although I admit this is probably the weakest symbol and the real reason it's on the flag is because it looks nice.
• The Double Chevron is the shape of the yellow field, and the shape of the end of the flag, they are both the same size and are meant to act as arrows pointing "forward" (the state motto of Wisconsin as previously mentioned). For the purposes of this flag I consider forward any direction away from the flagpole. Although it's an unconventional shape for a flag I think that it looks nice and does a good job at portraying the idea of forward.

The First Updated Redisign:

This was the first update that I made to my original flag (the final image in the gallery). It's very similar to the final version, but without the star and also a slightly different aspect ratio. In the gallery the aspect ratios are the same, because I forgot what the original was, but it was a slightly shorter flag, and I feel like the longer 2:5 is much more visually pleasing. It also gives more room to add the star that I feel ties the whole design together. In terms of symbology, it's identical to the final version, but without the northern star motif or the vertical orientation. While I feel this is perfectly passable as a flag, I still felt it was missing something, which is why I added the star in the final version.

The "Stolen" Redisign

You might be wondering why I call this the stolen design, it's because I stole the design from u/mina_botieso1. I found their design utterly beautiful but I thought that the two backwards triangles on the top and bottom spoiled the effect slightly. I found that removing them made it look much better, that led me to making the two designs above. That's the main reason I'm including this in the gallery, because it inspired my final design. The other reason is because I think it looks really good. If you want an explanation of the symbology I have linked the original post below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillologyUS/s/HWxncFXJq8

The Original:

This is just bad in every way, but it was my original design idea and you can still see elements of the final design in this one, just not refined. The colors are bad, the aspect ratio is bad, and everything else about this flag is bad too. But I made it, and I found that once I had made it, making it good wasn't too hard. This was the first and most important step in the process. Everything else was just refinements. The main reason I'm including this is to show that good things can come from anywhere, even absolutely horrible designs. So why not go out there and make that flag you think you're too untalented to make, you might find it's easier than you think.

Final Thoughts:

I understand that I'll probably get some pushback for this flag, not many people seem to like the unorthodox shapes. But I hope that it inspires some people to make their own flags, and hopefully improve on what I started here with this Wisconsin flag (let's be honest Wisconsin really needs it). I don't think my flag is perfect or anything, but I do think it's the best I can make and that's really all I wanted to do.

I'd like to thank u/mina_botieso1 for the inspiration, and u/i-feel-very-sick for posting a flag so similar to mine that it made me panic post this. You both made excellent designs and I hope that you like mine as much as I love yours.