Ranking the New Illinois State Flag Designs
The Illinois State Flag Commission has come out with 10 finalists — chosen from nearly 5,000 submissions — for a new Illinois state flag. Voting begins this month, and folks can choose from one of the new designs, the centennial flag (adopted in 1918), the sesquicentennial flag from 1968, or the current boring design this entire exercise was designed to remove from flagpoles. Once the voting is complete, in April, the 20-member Illinois Flag Commission will recommend a candidate to the legislature, which will make the final decision. We don’t want to tell you how to vote, but we ranked the 13 contenders, based on how well they achieve the state’s goal of a flag that will “better represent the state’s diversity of urban, suburban and rural communities and inspire renewed pride among Illinoisans.”
No. 13
The current flag. The whole point of this exercise is getting rid of this boring “seal on a bedsheet” design.
No. 12
The Centennial Flag, created in 1918 to commemorate a century of Illinois statehood. A white star on a blue stripe, flanked by ten stars on each side, for a total of 21. It’s colorless and dull.
No. 11
The Sesquicentennial Flag, with a red silhouette of the state embedded in a white letter I. Looks too much like the symbol of the Illinois Department of Transportation.
No. 10
The current state flag, with blue and red stripes on either end and the word “ILLINOIS” omitted. Aren’t we trying to get rid of this random collection of clip art?
No. 9
A large white star surrounded by 21 smaller white stars. A thick blue stripe to represent Lake Michigan with smaller blue stripes for the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Thoroughly generic.
No. 8
A six-pointed gold star embedded in a blue circle, which is Abe Lincoln’s stovepipe hat. A thick blue bar represents Lake Michigan. This looks more like the flag of a random developing nation than a flag of Illinois. Illinoisistan?
No. 7
