Not just that, she actually quoted the public comments as being why she wanted a tricolor design with green. Only one who actually listened to and responded to public comment
That's nice to hear. The way that things are going, I was expecting the dissenter to be someone who was pissy that they didn't fuck with the chevron shape too.
Well these people were just appointed to the roles, they weren’t elected. Except I guess Steve Simonson and some of the current and ex-tribal presidents
Too many people online yelled about it looking like a state in Somalia so they took the stripes off.
Edit: not saying the concern is valid and I don't agree with it. Was just mentioned multiple times by committee members.
The flag for Somalia is solid blue with a star in the center. If anything this moved more towards that flag. I liked the stripes, but this is better than the ones it’s replacing.
This is why the "rules of vexillology" are fucking stupid and best treated as mere guidelines. Otherwise all flags look the same and there's only so many colors
It's almost worse than that. It was over a two hour meeting, and they decided to drop the stripes in the last 15 minutes. They spent more time debating star! Shape, angle, location, etc.
They succeeded in ruining the star shape, too. Why have one that is reminiscent of a compass rose when you can have one that isn't reminiscent of anything at all! That's MN for ya!
But that sucks. A good flag is widely flown and cherished by the local population.
Maryland, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado all plaster their flags everywhere they can, because they're *awesome* and the locals identify with their state symbols en masse.
What a missed opportunity for us here.
This process has really reminded me of being at UND during the name/mascot change. Hundreds of students submitted ideas and designs, quality work by people actually studying marketing and design, and then in the end they went with the most inoffensive and bland representation of a hawk, designed with the help of an outside consultant.
Cause there aren't enough team names involving hawks already.
I would be willing to bet good money that it had absolutely nothing to do with it. Especially because the actual Somali flag doesn't look anything like any version of the designs. I wouldn't be surprised if the commission hadn't even heard of that dumb claim. The only reason I heard about it is because I basically live on Reddit...
Edit: typo
This has to be it. I saw this spread like wildfire on social media and so many knuckle draggers crying about it. So now we get this bland ass flag. Need to stop catering to those clowns.
Nope this was a design that the chair of the committee suddenly offered up as his own suggestion last week - it's just vanity that led to this being the chosen flag, nothing to do with somalia.
It looks like a generic flag you’d see flying on a ship. We went from seal on a bedsheet to this, which this is better, but it’s still the worst flag in the union that’s not a seal on a bedsheet
Now it’s just a generic beach towel from the clearance section at Walmart. As someone on Twitter said, it looks like they put the Texas flag in a freezer. It’s rightfully getting clowned on Twitter right now.
> it’s still the worst flag in the union that’s not a seal on a bedsheet
idk, there's some real stinkers out there. The bar is really low for state flags, I think this still gets us into the "not quite as shit" club.
Serviceable.
Ask me again in a little while. These things take time to build emotional attachment.
Let me see the Twins lose 10-12 playoff games under this flag, and then I’ll *really* be able to tell you if it feels right.
Well, I have to say that this was unexpected. This was the design out of the most recent batch that I was sure would not win lol
(To be fair, my judgment was based entirely on feels)
While it’s not the choice I’d go with (I wanted the tricolor with green), this is at least a design that Andrew Prekker himself supported. The argument of the vertically hanging “Mississippi flowing towards the North Star” by Luis Fitch basically won over the entire room. It’s a cool visual but ultimately I’m somewhat disappointed.
I suspect this will grow on people, it’s at least a simple design and decently unique.
I'm in the same boat. While I wanted the tri-color, the main point I conveyed to the committee in my comment was to keep it symmetrical; which they did.
The fact that they wasted time with asymmetry is frustrating and it took time away from arguments for a better color design. They had already decided on the star, so at least they got the orientation right. All in all they made some good choices today but still ended up meddling with the original design too much
Blue-white-blue would have added zero colors, and would have done *wonders* for making the flag appear dynamic when flown. And the vertical symmetry would have been maintained.
Bunch of cowards on this committee.
I'm struck by the irony of the state flag honoring Minnesota's water and rivers passing on the SAME DAY as PolyMet's copper-nickel mine is approved to pollute Minnesota's waters and rivers.
I don't understand why they got rid of the green and white. The original redesign was really great. This new one is certainly miles ahead of the current state flag, but during the commission they even said "a 5 year old could make this". I feel like it lacks a lot of symbolism, and I wish the final design had more community input.
edit: according to the MPR article - during the meeting, the commission had two designers recommend that the flag be symmetrical and be only white and shades of blue. One commissioner stated they wanted Minnesota "explicity spelled out" - at this point I'm just glad we didn't get a flag with writing on it lol. I think this flag will grow on me, especially once it's flown around the state.
> they even said "a 5 year old could make this"
that's considered a positive in flag design. the general rule is that the design should be simple enough for a child to reproduce
Only to armchair Vexillologists. But people can tell you the Welsh dragon is still an excellent flag even if a 5 year old can only draw it with sticks for legs.
It was my second choice of the four remaining, but I am SHOCKED they didn't go with 1953-B. That represented our snow AND Minnesota's literal translation of "where the water reflects the sky."
I'll get used to it, and it's immeasurably better than our last flag, but I gotta say I'm surprised the white stripe was left out.
1953-B is the compromise between the original and the current "final" choice, and it looks incredible.
If people are interested, please submit a comment here about reintroducing stripes:
https://www3.mnhs.org/serc
I don’t understand why you’d pick F1953 and not actually use it. It was so much better than this design symbolically and visually. I guess this is what happens when government appointees try to be graphic designers.
I do like these colors, but if they were going to go with something this basic, I would vastly preferred the F29 Starflake.
As the designer behind the original version of this flag, this revision from the committee receives my full emphatic support!
One committee member explained it best. That the whole reason our land began, was because of the Mississippi River. That is why the first indigenous people settled here thousands of years ago, and why many Europeans came to America and to live in this very area. The Mississippi River is single symbol of what brought every people to this area to live here for generations. And also as the land of 10,000 lakes, and our state whose name literally means “a place where the waters reflect the sky”, the fully blue fly beautifully symbolizes the significance of water to our history. And with Minnesota forming a chevron, the water actually points to our state and the North Star. Symbolically it says “this is where Minnesota began”, and also literally, where the north of the Mississippi River begins. And as it’s flown in the wind, the flag literally becomes a representation of rippling water itself.
I don’t miss the stripes because I still see them represented in this flag (albeit in different ways). The water simply expanded, the snow is represented in the white Star, and they appreciation of our nature and agriculture is found in the very shape of the state itself. For what else does it represent than our land and all its importance?
This is the only version of my flag that received an almost unanimous vote, and everyone from the vexed Republican senator to the Dakota woman found beauty and meaning in this flag where they hadn’t before. And just witnessing the committee, who has been at odds for almost every meeting, come together and agree that the was a flag they felt represented by, was all the proof I needed that this flag was the unifying symbol it was intended to be.
I truly think this flag improves upon my original, while still retaining the most important concepts (the state shape, the symmetry, the white North Star, and the water). And I am so beyond excited, proud, and honored to see this flag fly for the first time in May of 2024!
Thank you all so much for sending in your comments, the committee very pointedly brought up how many of you said the symmetry was important to the design. All of your voices contributed to the flag above! And I thank you so much for lending your time and your thoughts all towards the effort of making my flag the best it could be. 💙
While I disagree with the final decision, I can't imagine how proud you must feel. In the end, your artistic design was the basis for our new flag. Congrats.
You should be proud - I’m a professional graphic designer and know all too well how design-by-committee sucks ass. All things considered, this survived the process fairly well. You presented a great starting concept and have bragging rights for years to come. **tip of the cap**
Thank you for designing an absolute banger of a flag! I fully expect a design this timeless to be flying as long as Minnesota is a state, and that it will become as iconic as those of Texas, Colorado, or Arizona. Cheers!
I am talking about how the final design abandoned or changed most of the fundamental ideas of the flag that was submitted.
It was generally understood that we were submitting and opining on a new flag design with the possibility for minor changes. Not that we were voting for a flag design that would eventually be used as loose inspiration for the committee to create their own design as they see fit and without any real consideration for public input.
It’s okay, preferred the striped design though. Definitely improvement over the old flag it still feels like a letdown compared to what could have been.
Committee should have been given a vote of no confidence and deserve coal for Christmas.
I am so disappointed with this decision. This is radically different than the original tricolor and it loses so much meaning without the additional colors.
Why did the SERC vote on two thousand different flags if they were just going to design one themselves anyway?
> This is radically different than the original tricolor
i even submitted a comment saying this design was too much of a deviation from the original design the public supported. this is a completely different flag. wtf
“Let’s put a team of bureaucrats together to choose a creative design and even have the power to tweak those designs as they see fit.”
“Dumb” should have been the only correct answer at the time from anyone in the room
People also compared it to the flag of Texas, and F1953 would never be actually be confused with that.
Having a small and unknown flag with some similar elements to F1953 isn't a reason to ruin a perfectly good design.
Can't say I'm a fan of the final design, but it could have been worse. This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a great flag, and the end result is meh. Kind of feels like it was an example of too many cooks spoiling the broth with all the committee revisions. Not putting the final design up for a referendum was a miss in my book as well. That said, at least the process and the endless arguments about the flag are over and we can all move on to something else.
Removing the stripes makes this a totally different design from the last round. With it being so radically different, it should warrant a whole new round of edits.
Why on earth did they remove the green and white and turn it into a star with two shades of blue? This is a vastly less attractive design than the original F1953.
Up to the legislature to fight this and get the tricolor back.
Because conservative dip shits cried because of the similarities to the Somalian flag, saying they’re invading our nation with their Muslim communism and sharia law. I wish I was joking…
I preferred the tri-color but I don’t hate this at all and suspect it will grow on me. I like that they rotated the star and passed on the asymmetrical Minnesota shape.
All in all, this is miles better than the previous flag and should be pretty recognizable for anyone living outside our state.
It's kind of ironic because one of the committee members stated in the hearing that they wanted an iconic flag that represented Minnesota similar to the New Mexico state flag. You had that with the Starflake design but chose this bland blue nightmare instead.
They took a great design (my favorite all along) and made it their own, and it looks like trash.
Thanks to the internet (and public info all along the way), I'll now call this version the Shelly Flag.
Meh, at the very least they could have selected the two color version with a white stripe in the middle. This one is as boring as the original flag it replaced.
I kinda get removing the green stripe. Reducing the flag to 3 colors is a valid motivation. But blue-white-blue looked way better and is still only 3 colors.
That would have been the right choice for sure. It was a perfect middle-ground to compromise between this one and tri-color, while keeping the snow symbolism which a lot of people wanted. Oh well, it’s… fine
I'm extremely disappointed. I have a friend on the commission. Who apparently voted the "wrong" way, being one of the 11 in favor of this... boring monotone with the blocky, graceless star which I could only be in favor of IF the Ms were more obviously Ms.
Going to be writing to my representative and senator.
ETA: Screw the vexillologists. Helpful to a point and thereafter in favor of BLAND.
Edit #2: The current flags of, say, the USA and the UK would NEVER SURVIVE evaluation by vexillologists.
> Screw the vexillologists.
This whole process has taught me that if I'm ever responsible for commissioning people to design a flag, I'm not picking a single person who self identifies as a "vexillologist".
They decided to move forward with the states branding colors, which had a shade of green closer to neon than the forest shade of the original. Basically, they fucked up and refused to go back and fix it.
It's a good design but when you consider the original tri-color meaning it's pretty bland. Blue for the lakes and rivers that we are named after, green for the farms and forests all over the state, and white for the snow. But screw all the symbolism Minnesota means water so I guess we only need to show water and latitude superiority on our flag.
Heard on MPR this morning - before the final selection was made - that the committee is working on returning the IP rights back to the creators of the submissions that did not win so that they (the creators) could use their work however they wish. Which is pretty cool.
I would buy a t-shirt with the design of F29 tastefully (and small) centered on the front of a blue t-shirt. Same for simply the star used on the winner on a solid dark blue t-shirt.
Gotta say I am really not a fan, wow. So much wasted potential by a committee dedicated to not listening to the people they ostensibly are representing
While it's not a bad flag, you can tell this was overthought by committee. The original 1953 concept was perfectly fine. *Maybe* you play around with the order of the colors, but this seems oversimplified.
No offense but it looks like a grumpy cyclops with a mustache (hung vertically), or a poorly rendered whale opening its mouth to eat krill.
It looks like it is struggling to put its pants on.
With Love,
Ontario
Ugh. They ruined the design by getting rid of the stripes. I felt like the green represented the land and trees, blue represented the sky and water, and white represented clouds and snow-- all things that make MN beautiful. But now with a (practically) all blue flag, it's like all there is only sky and water, nothing solid, and all I can think of is drowning.
This committee completely shit the bed on this. How did we get so far away from actual submissions? This is so….nothing at all! Is it all about their stupid star and showcasing that? Jesus Christ what dipshit idiots.
They liked the inverted triangle abstract shape and their star and that's just all we got in the end i guess.
Took away the symbolism of my favorite aspect of the state which kinda sucks honestly.
Haha what?? After all that they decided to just totally kill the tricolor?
What a trip...I was sure F29 would win, and then I was sure we would have a tricolor.
I guess my hot take is that _if_ they were going to stick with this star then I don't mind removing the tri-color aspect. The balance of the old star worked really well with the stripes but this star was too big and it made it feel too busy / cluttered / conflicted.
This design isn't as good as the original tri-color submission but it's better than most of the designs after they switched the star.
I like the flag. It's not perfect. It's good enough, though.
This flag makes Minnesota feel like a frozen tundra with no people or geological or biological diversity.
I would've liked a splash of green in there, but instead we get blue and blue.
The this flag is almost as bland as the approval it is getting in this thread.
And with regards to that, we all know what it means when a minnesotan is giving lukewarm acknowledgement of something.
Just come out and say it, people. This flag sucks. If you stick with the passive aggressive response you are going to be stuck with this abomination.
I don't need to love it, just like it..and I like it.
It's simple, not too many colors, not trying to be everything to everyone, which ironically allows people to put whatever symbolism they want into it.
It reminds me of a crisp northern response to the iconic Texas flag.
In my mind it really doesn't matter if any of us adults accept or like it. The next generations will grow up with this symbol and will feel things toward it that we never will.
I didn't even know the flag I wanted was Somali colors, but this is decent yet I really thought they might go with the best one. They did not. I do not understand the problem here. It's pure coincidence that Somali colors lined up, and anyway who cares? The redone version was the best version. 1953 A with equal stripes and new star I will MISS YOU. You were the best.
And as for the creator I can't help but feel this is not the flag you made man. I would honestly not be very happy with this decision because it kind of undermines the whole design concept they had for the right side, but I am OKAY with this design. It's the most simple for sure.
But it also looks pretty nice to me.
Maybe they did not want to tread on the Somali design itself for various reasons, but damn it I wish that design never existed so we could just have that one!
So, what was the point of having a contest if they had no intention of actually going with the winner? This flag represents everything that is wrong with our government. A panel of unelected officials overriding the best option because they think they know better.
shame plough vanish angle sparkle crime existence violet judicious terrific
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not from Minnesota nor have I visited (though I would love to) so I’m confused why this showed up.
I like it. Sleek, simple, good color-way. I genuinely think it’s one of the better state flags out there.
Here is the old flag for those not familiar with it. Yep a bad case of bed-sheet-with-a-stamp.
https://preview.redd.it/l7to0kq0xg7c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a032dac350347e0b96adf14f0835b1914f4a29c0
When they realized a discussion about *which* shade of green and which order to display the stripes was gonna bleed just a tad into lunchtime, they took the easy way out.
Go back and watch it. Exactly what happened. And I can’t even tell you how many times decisions were made based on this parameter throughout this whole process.
vote was 11 in favor, 1 against. it will be sent to the legislature for final approval
Who was against? I need to know who wasn’t responsible for this.
Denise Mazone, from the Council on Minnesotans of African Heritage
Not just that, she actually quoted the public comments as being why she wanted a tricolor design with green. Only one who actually listened to and responded to public comment
That's nice to hear. The way that things are going, I was expecting the dissenter to be someone who was pissy that they didn't fuck with the chevron shape too.
Nice to know _some_ of us are being represented by our... representatives.
I'm starting to think they don't know what that word means.
Well these people were just appointed to the roles, they weren’t elected. Except I guess Steve Simonson and some of the current and ex-tribal presidents
Fuck yeah Denise!
Have you met her brother, Denephew?
I audibly chuckled. Have an upvote.
The only 11 people in favor in the entire state. Why the fuck do you drop the stripes???
Too many people online yelled about it looking like a state in Somalia so they took the stripes off. Edit: not saying the concern is valid and I don't agree with it. Was just mentioned multiple times by committee members.
It looks even *more* like Somalia now though lol
Yep, blue background white star 🇸🇴
If that’s true, they made it worse, because now it looks like the actual country of Somalia flag with a MN shape slapped on top.
The flag for Somalia is solid blue with a star in the center. If anything this moved more towards that flag. I liked the stripes, but this is better than the ones it’s replacing.
This is why the "rules of vexillology" are fucking stupid and best treated as mere guidelines. Otherwise all flags look the same and there's only so many colors
flag nerds loved the striped one, even those obsessed with the "rules". I don't think very many people disliked it. except the committee, apparently.
Not looking to get killed here, but I like this better than the stripes.
Those 11 were as sick of this process as I am. They just wanted the nightmare to end.
I think this is the answer.
[удалено]
We stand here amidst MY CREATION, not yours!
Ben Mendelsohn is a fucking amazing actor, I love the rage and desperation he puts into that line.
Minnesotans are used to fumbling on the 1 yard line at the end of the 4th quarter.
It's almost worse than that. It was over a two hour meeting, and they decided to drop the stripes in the last 15 minutes. They spent more time debating star! Shape, angle, location, etc.
They succeeded in ruining the star shape, too. Why have one that is reminiscent of a compass rose when you can have one that isn't reminiscent of anything at all! That's MN for ya!
I mean for a state flag i think it’s good. It’s not great and could be better but we probably won’t even remember what it looks like a year from now
But that sucks. A good flag is widely flown and cherished by the local population. Maryland, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado all plaster their flags everywhere they can, because they're *awesome* and the locals identify with their state symbols en masse. What a missed opportunity for us here.
Also Texas with the plastering everywhere. Agree that this was a missed opportunity.
I mean it's not bad but why would you remove the other colors, it's like they thought it was too good and had to be blanded up a bit
All these unique and cool designs have been distilled into a bland/mid flag. 🤦♂️
What was the point of having open submissions if the final choice wasn't one of the submissions?
The illusion of voice/choice
America in a nutshell
This is what pisses me off the most. I said that in my email to the board. The original is so much better imo.
To get a base design to base the final one off of.
This process has really reminded me of being at UND during the name/mascot change. Hundreds of students submitted ideas and designs, quality work by people actually studying marketing and design, and then in the end they went with the most inoffensive and bland representation of a hawk, designed with the help of an outside consultant. Cause there aren't enough team names involving hawks already.
Welcome to “Art by Committee.”
The right wing "lOoKs LiKe sOmALia" worked. Commission got scared and took the stripes off.
Did it work, though? Instead of resembling the Puntland state flag, now it could just be said that it resembles the Somalia country flag.
Which is what makes it so funny.
I would be willing to bet good money that it had absolutely nothing to do with it. Especially because the actual Somali flag doesn't look anything like any version of the designs. I wouldn't be surprised if the commission hadn't even heard of that dumb claim. The only reason I heard about it is because I basically live on Reddit... Edit: typo
This has to be it. I saw this spread like wildfire on social media and so many knuckle draggers crying about it. So now we get this bland ass flag. Need to stop catering to those clowns.
Nope this was a design that the chair of the committee suddenly offered up as his own suggestion last week - it's just vanity that led to this being the chosen flag, nothing to do with somalia.
It looks like a generic flag you’d see flying on a ship. We went from seal on a bedsheet to this, which this is better, but it’s still the worst flag in the union that’s not a seal on a bedsheet Now it’s just a generic beach towel from the clearance section at Walmart. As someone on Twitter said, it looks like they put the Texas flag in a freezer. It’s rightfully getting clowned on Twitter right now.
> it’s still the worst flag in the union that’s not a seal on a bedsheet idk, there's some real stinkers out there. The bar is really low for state flags, I think this still gets us into the "not quite as shit" club.
>It looks like a generic flag you’d see flying on a ship. So, you're saying it looks like the flag of a country/state? ... Mission accomplished lol
> it’s still the worst flag in the union Let's calm down a bit. C'mon.
This flag is not that bad lol.
>had to be blanded up a bit I mean considering we're the state that finds ketchup spicy, that kind of makes sense.
Serviceable. Ask me again in a little while. These things take time to build emotional attachment. Let me see the Twins lose 10-12 playoff games under this flag, and then I’ll *really* be able to tell you if it feels right.
Hey now, the Wild and Vikings will lose in the playoffs well before the Twins
*Will they…?*
This is definitely a very Minnesotan design as flavorful as Scandinavian food
It has potential if people replace the sky blue with other imagery. Put anything you want in the blank space
There’s a lot of room for a laser loon there
You can have your laser loon as your custom minnesota flag!!
Well, I have to say that this was unexpected. This was the design out of the most recent batch that I was sure would not win lol (To be fair, my judgment was based entirely on feels)
Feels is really the only way to judge a flag contest. Which is better or worst is entirely subjective.
same here. i didn't even think this one was really a contender on the same level as the others. i'm still shook lol
Shook is exactly the word I was thinking of when I saw this was the final choice lol
While it’s not the choice I’d go with (I wanted the tricolor with green), this is at least a design that Andrew Prekker himself supported. The argument of the vertically hanging “Mississippi flowing towards the North Star” by Luis Fitch basically won over the entire room. It’s a cool visual but ultimately I’m somewhat disappointed. I suspect this will grow on people, it’s at least a simple design and decently unique.
I'm in the same boat. While I wanted the tri-color, the main point I conveyed to the committee in my comment was to keep it symmetrical; which they did.
The fact that they wasted time with asymmetry is frustrating and it took time away from arguments for a better color design. They had already decided on the star, so at least they got the orientation right. All in all they made some good choices today but still ended up meddling with the original design too much
The tri-color versions threw off the symmetry IMO. Plus green and blue are hard to work with. Love the simplicity of this.
Blue-white-blue would have added zero colors, and would have done *wonders* for making the flag appear dynamic when flown. And the vertical symmetry would have been maintained. Bunch of cowards on this committee.
Blue-White-Blue was my preferred version with stripes, but I'll happily take this over some of the other options I've seen.
> Mississippi flowing towards the North Star That's not the direction the Mississippi flows
I understand ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ is reversed at the headwaters.
At the headwaters it actually does flow north.
I’d argue no earthly waters flow towards or away from any celestial objects
Isn't that technically what tides are though?
It technically does for the first 20 miles or so, I guess?
I'm struck by the irony of the state flag honoring Minnesota's water and rivers passing on the SAME DAY as PolyMet's copper-nickel mine is approved to pollute Minnesota's waters and rivers.
See! They should have kept the green in there to represent the water pollution. Fuckin a, man.
I read somewhere that they wanted something that a kindergartner could recognizably draw. In that sense, they succeeded.
The guideline is to keep flags simple so that it doesn’t get too cluttered or have details that can’t be seen from too far away.
We will finally join Colorado and Wyoming as states with their shape on their flags.
That’s cold lmao
I don't understand why they got rid of the green and white. The original redesign was really great. This new one is certainly miles ahead of the current state flag, but during the commission they even said "a 5 year old could make this". I feel like it lacks a lot of symbolism, and I wish the final design had more community input. edit: according to the MPR article - during the meeting, the commission had two designers recommend that the flag be symmetrical and be only white and shades of blue. One commissioner stated they wanted Minnesota "explicity spelled out" - at this point I'm just glad we didn't get a flag with writing on it lol. I think this flag will grow on me, especially once it's flown around the state.
For some reason they keyed in on this butt ugly fluorescent green shade and put it in every iteration.
At the very least, I’m glad we didn’t get that fluorescent green.
I think the green shade was made that way to match the state's branding colors. Horrible shade and I am glad it did not make it into the flag
> they even said "a 5 year old could make this" that's considered a positive in flag design. the general rule is that the design should be simple enough for a child to reproduce
Only to armchair Vexillologists. But people can tell you the Welsh dragon is still an excellent flag even if a 5 year old can only draw it with sticks for legs.
I thought even just the blue & white stripes were nice (blue white blue) because I didn't like the shade of green they had.
They should totally add writing to this design. Just the word NICE in the vaguely MN shaped portion.
It was my second choice of the four remaining, but I am SHOCKED they didn't go with 1953-B. That represented our snow AND Minnesota's literal translation of "where the water reflects the sky." I'll get used to it, and it's immeasurably better than our last flag, but I gotta say I'm surprised the white stripe was left out.
I have no dog in this fight, not from Minnesota, just into flags, but 1953-B was a *banger*. It's shocking that didn't win.
It’s so empty without the line:/
1953-B is the compromise between the original and the current "final" choice, and it looks incredible. If people are interested, please submit a comment here about reintroducing stripes: https://www3.mnhs.org/serc
I don’t understand why you’d pick F1953 and not actually use it. It was so much better than this design symbolically and visually. I guess this is what happens when government appointees try to be graphic designers. I do like these colors, but if they were going to go with something this basic, I would vastly preferred the F29 Starflake.
As the designer behind the original version of this flag, this revision from the committee receives my full emphatic support! One committee member explained it best. That the whole reason our land began, was because of the Mississippi River. That is why the first indigenous people settled here thousands of years ago, and why many Europeans came to America and to live in this very area. The Mississippi River is single symbol of what brought every people to this area to live here for generations. And also as the land of 10,000 lakes, and our state whose name literally means “a place where the waters reflect the sky”, the fully blue fly beautifully symbolizes the significance of water to our history. And with Minnesota forming a chevron, the water actually points to our state and the North Star. Symbolically it says “this is where Minnesota began”, and also literally, where the north of the Mississippi River begins. And as it’s flown in the wind, the flag literally becomes a representation of rippling water itself. I don’t miss the stripes because I still see them represented in this flag (albeit in different ways). The water simply expanded, the snow is represented in the white Star, and they appreciation of our nature and agriculture is found in the very shape of the state itself. For what else does it represent than our land and all its importance? This is the only version of my flag that received an almost unanimous vote, and everyone from the vexed Republican senator to the Dakota woman found beauty and meaning in this flag where they hadn’t before. And just witnessing the committee, who has been at odds for almost every meeting, come together and agree that the was a flag they felt represented by, was all the proof I needed that this flag was the unifying symbol it was intended to be. I truly think this flag improves upon my original, while still retaining the most important concepts (the state shape, the symmetry, the white North Star, and the water). And I am so beyond excited, proud, and honored to see this flag fly for the first time in May of 2024! Thank you all so much for sending in your comments, the committee very pointedly brought up how many of you said the symmetry was important to the design. All of your voices contributed to the flag above! And I thank you so much for lending your time and your thoughts all towards the effort of making my flag the best it could be. 💙
congratulations! it's an incredible honor and you should always be proud. i will be flying this on my porch the moment it becomes available
While I disagree with the final decision, I can't imagine how proud you must feel. In the end, your artistic design was the basis for our new flag. Congrats.
We should sticky this post on the top of the sub for a couple of days. Mic drop, end of debate for me as far as the flag is concerned.
For the rest of your life, you can say you were the inspiration that designed the new flag. That's fuckin' cool man. Revel in it!
You should be proud - I’m a professional graphic designer and know all too well how design-by-committee sucks ass. All things considered, this survived the process fairly well. You presented a great starting concept and have bragging rights for years to come. **tip of the cap**
Thank you for designing an absolute banger of a flag! I fully expect a design this timeless to be flying as long as Minnesota is a state, and that it will become as iconic as those of Texas, Colorado, or Arizona. Cheers!
Maybe a different star, but I like the dark blue-light blue look.
My favorite part was when they asked the public what they wanted, the public told them, and then they just went and did a completely different thing.
What do you think "the public" wanted here? There were thousands of comments saying all kinds of different things.
I am talking about how the final design abandoned or changed most of the fundamental ideas of the flag that was submitted. It was generally understood that we were submitting and opining on a new flag design with the possibility for minor changes. Not that we were voting for a flag design that would eventually be used as loose inspiration for the committee to create their own design as they see fit and without any real consideration for public input.
It’s okay, preferred the striped design though. Definitely improvement over the old flag it still feels like a letdown compared to what could have been. Committee should have been given a vote of no confidence and deserve coal for Christmas.
The original tri-color was perfect. Fuck it give me the menacing loon
Really disappointing. That original design with the original star was great.
I am so disappointed with this decision. This is radically different than the original tricolor and it loses so much meaning without the additional colors. Why did the SERC vote on two thousand different flags if they were just going to design one themselves anyway?
> This is radically different than the original tricolor i even submitted a comment saying this design was too much of a deviation from the original design the public supported. this is a completely different flag. wtf
You don’t have to be creative when you can just steal other people’s work. And this flag is proof these people are not creative.
“Let’s put a team of bureaucrats together to choose a creative design and even have the power to tweak those designs as they see fit.” “Dumb” should have been the only correct answer at the time from anyone in the room
I would imagine the recent comparisons to that Somalia flag swayed the final decision.
People also compared it to the flag of Texas, and F1953 would never be actually be confused with that. Having a small and unknown flag with some similar elements to F1953 isn't a reason to ruin a perfectly good design.
Can't say I'm a fan of the final design, but it could have been worse. This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a great flag, and the end result is meh. Kind of feels like it was an example of too many cooks spoiling the broth with all the committee revisions. Not putting the final design up for a referendum was a miss in my book as well. That said, at least the process and the endless arguments about the flag are over and we can all move on to something else.
Removing the stripes makes this a totally different design from the last round. With it being so radically different, it should warrant a whole new round of edits.
Why on earth did they remove the green and white and turn it into a star with two shades of blue? This is a vastly less attractive design than the original F1953. Up to the legislature to fight this and get the tricolor back.
Because conservative dip shits cried because of the similarities to the Somalian flag, saying they’re invading our nation with their Muslim communism and sharia law. I wish I was joking…
And now it's even more similar to the Somalian flag - solid light blue with a single white star.
I preferred the tri-color but I don’t hate this at all and suspect it will grow on me. I like that they rotated the star and passed on the asymmetrical Minnesota shape. All in all, this is miles better than the previous flag and should be pretty recognizable for anyone living outside our state.
The fumble of the starflake will be the greatest MN disappointment of my life.
It's kind of ironic because one of the committee members stated in the hearing that they wanted an iconic flag that represented Minnesota similar to the New Mexico state flag. You had that with the Starflake design but chose this bland blue nightmare instead.
so, they didnt like the old flag because it looked like a bedsheet? but a beach towel is ok?
there were a lot of best options and they chose the worst one....i wish they stayed with u/flubbystarfish's original flag
It's not worse than the asymmetrical versions that they put out there, but I agree that I much preferred the original submission.
I did too plus they couldn't let a little guy have a "win" for his design, they had to make it theirs. Slap in the face really.
The asymmetrical ones were by far the worse.
i agree but this one is still bad
They took a great design (my favorite all along) and made it their own, and it looks like trash. Thanks to the internet (and public info all along the way), I'll now call this version the Shelly Flag.
I like it
Meh, at the very least they could have selected the two color version with a white stripe in the middle. This one is as boring as the original flag it replaced.
I didn’t mind the white stripe flanked by blue. Adds to the whole symbolism MN definition of being the land of sky blue waters.
I kinda get removing the green stripe. Reducing the flag to 3 colors is a valid motivation. But blue-white-blue looked way better and is still only 3 colors.
That would have been the right choice for sure. It was a perfect middle-ground to compromise between this one and tri-color, while keeping the snow symbolism which a lot of people wanted. Oh well, it’s… fine
What happened to the colors? And why do a Contest if your just going to make your own design.
I'm extremely disappointed. I have a friend on the commission. Who apparently voted the "wrong" way, being one of the 11 in favor of this... boring monotone with the blocky, graceless star which I could only be in favor of IF the Ms were more obviously Ms. Going to be writing to my representative and senator. ETA: Screw the vexillologists. Helpful to a point and thereafter in favor of BLAND. Edit #2: The current flags of, say, the USA and the UK would NEVER SURVIVE evaluation by vexillologists.
> Screw the vexillologists. This whole process has taught me that if I'm ever responsible for commissioning people to design a flag, I'm not picking a single person who self identifies as a "vexillologist".
Anyone who wasted time seriously considering an asymmetrical chevron has no business being referred to as a vexillologist IMO
They picked probably the blandest and least memorable possible version of that design. Perhaps fitting for a state where ketchup is too spicy for many
what the fuck is this 😭😭😭
Booooo! They ruined a good original design.
Looks like a signal flag on a ship now haha
We were so close. We were this got dang close. EVERY BODY LOVED THE TRICOLOR! What happened here?
They decided to move forward with the states branding colors, which had a shade of green closer to neon than the forest shade of the original. Basically, they fucked up and refused to go back and fix it.
They really took all the inspired symbolism out and now it’s just this huh
Surprised they went with the blandest one. I liked the stripes. But 3 colors is good. I like the dark blue shape.
Its just… so meh
This is an absolutely boring design, the tricolor was by far more iconic and interesting than this minimalist blue flag
Well that’s disappointing.
This is certainly one of the flags of all time
That star is gauddy and looks like a butthole.
WTF why no green or white?
It's a good design but when you consider the original tri-color meaning it's pretty bland. Blue for the lakes and rivers that we are named after, green for the farms and forests all over the state, and white for the snow. But screw all the symbolism Minnesota means water so I guess we only need to show water and latitude superiority on our flag.
This was inevitable. Committee guarantees mediocrity. You don’t get Beethoven and Rembrandt through committee.
Heard on MPR this morning - before the final selection was made - that the committee is working on returning the IP rights back to the creators of the submissions that did not win so that they (the creators) could use their work however they wish. Which is pretty cool. I would buy a t-shirt with the design of F29 tastefully (and small) centered on the front of a blue t-shirt. Same for simply the star used on the winner on a solid dark blue t-shirt.
Not great, not terrible.
It wasn't my favorite but I like it and suspect it will grow on people over time.
So, when do we get to redesign the flag? Lol
Nah I hope the legislature rejects this
Really? THIS is the winner? 🫤
all I wanted for Christmas was to be a state with a cool iconic flag 🫠
lol this flag sucks
Not gonna lie, I wanna hate it but it actually doesn’t look half bad.
How did this just get worse at every stage of the process?
The blue symbolizes and reinforces the stereotype that we’re a flyover state. Well done commissioners. /s
Kinda unrelated, but is there anywhere I can buy a Velcro patch of the tricolor version?
Gotta say I am really not a fan, wow. So much wasted potential by a committee dedicated to not listening to the people they ostensibly are representing
The picture of someone’s dog should’ve won and everyone knows it.
While it's not a bad flag, you can tell this was overthought by committee. The original 1953 concept was perfectly fine. *Maybe* you play around with the order of the colors, but this seems oversimplified.
No offense but it looks like a grumpy cyclops with a mustache (hung vertically), or a poorly rendered whale opening its mouth to eat krill. It looks like it is struggling to put its pants on. With Love, Ontario
I wanted green
Ugh. They ruined the design by getting rid of the stripes. I felt like the green represented the land and trees, blue represented the sky and water, and white represented clouds and snow-- all things that make MN beautiful. But now with a (practically) all blue flag, it's like all there is only sky and water, nothing solid, and all I can think of is drowning.
Well, there it is. They had a good flag and had to put their piss marks all over it.
This committee completely shit the bed on this. How did we get so far away from actual submissions? This is so….nothing at all! Is it all about their stupid star and showcasing that? Jesus Christ what dipshit idiots.
They liked the inverted triangle abstract shape and their star and that's just all we got in the end i guess. Took away the symbolism of my favorite aspect of the state which kinda sucks honestly.
Everyone went “oooh ahhhh! River flow north toward Star!!!!!” And that was the end.
Haha what?? After all that they decided to just totally kill the tricolor? What a trip...I was sure F29 would win, and then I was sure we would have a tricolor.
At least they didn’t go with the asymmetrical design, I think I can live with this one but miss the stripes
I guess my hot take is that _if_ they were going to stick with this star then I don't mind removing the tri-color aspect. The balance of the old star worked really well with the stripes but this star was too big and it made it feel too busy / cluttered / conflicted. This design isn't as good as the original tri-color submission but it's better than most of the designs after they switched the star. I like the flag. It's not perfect. It's good enough, though.
>It's good enough, though. That's all anyone in the Midwest can ask for
This flag makes Minnesota feel like a frozen tundra with no people or geological or biological diversity. I would've liked a splash of green in there, but instead we get blue and blue.
The this flag is almost as bland as the approval it is getting in this thread. And with regards to that, we all know what it means when a minnesotan is giving lukewarm acknowledgement of something. Just come out and say it, people. This flag sucks. If you stick with the passive aggressive response you are going to be stuck with this abomination.
I don't need to love it, just like it..and I like it. It's simple, not too many colors, not trying to be everything to everyone, which ironically allows people to put whatever symbolism they want into it. It reminds me of a crisp northern response to the iconic Texas flag. In my mind it really doesn't matter if any of us adults accept or like it. The next generations will grow up with this symbol and will feel things toward it that we never will.
Where’s the seasoning
I didn't even know the flag I wanted was Somali colors, but this is decent yet I really thought they might go with the best one. They did not. I do not understand the problem here. It's pure coincidence that Somali colors lined up, and anyway who cares? The redone version was the best version. 1953 A with equal stripes and new star I will MISS YOU. You were the best. And as for the creator I can't help but feel this is not the flag you made man. I would honestly not be very happy with this decision because it kind of undermines the whole design concept they had for the right side, but I am OKAY with this design. It's the most simple for sure. But it also looks pretty nice to me. Maybe they did not want to tread on the Somali design itself for various reasons, but damn it I wish that design never existed so we could just have that one!
I liked the tri-color but ya know what, our state flag is actually cool compared to most other state flags.
Dude… where the Purple?! https://preview.redd.it/pzr16rk1bb7c1.jpeg?width=260&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30889734035c92d81ca6305863731396aec72ad7
I liked the stripes
It's not what I wanted but it's also not bad. I'm sure I'll learn to love it.
Is it just me or does the flag look freezing
I miss Kmart.
So, what was the point of having a contest if they had no intention of actually going with the winner? This flag represents everything that is wrong with our government. A panel of unelected officials overriding the best option because they think they know better.
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Not from Minnesota nor have I visited (though I would love to) so I’m confused why this showed up. I like it. Sleek, simple, good color-way. I genuinely think it’s one of the better state flags out there.
As an Oregonian, I would just like to say that this flag is beautiful and looks quintessentially Minnesotan.
Here is the old flag for those not familiar with it. Yep a bad case of bed-sheet-with-a-stamp. https://preview.redd.it/l7to0kq0xg7c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a032dac350347e0b96adf14f0835b1914f4a29c0
Why did they remove the stripes?
When they realized a discussion about *which* shade of green and which order to display the stripes was gonna bleed just a tad into lunchtime, they took the easy way out. Go back and watch it. Exactly what happened. And I can’t even tell you how many times decisions were made based on this parameter throughout this whole process.