Minnesota commission works to hoist new banner up proverbial flagpole
Updated 3:15 p.m.
They’re down to colors, star shapes and other finer points to punctuate a new Minnesota flag.
Members of the State Emblems Redesign Commission reconvened Friday with just a few finalists left to drive the discussion. They must make their selection before the end of the month and seem inclined to create a hybrid of three submissions that made it this far before sending one up the proverbial flagpole.
And that drove some disagreement among members about the approach they should take — keep it simple or go for a design that would stand out.
Even on the commission, the editing process drove mixed reactions from members of the panel of elected leaders, artists, historians and members of the public. The panel has a deadline at the end of the year to select a new state flag and seal.
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“More is less,” said Commission Chair Luis Fitch, a brand designer by occupation. “We need to get used to the simplicity in the meaning and not put so many things” on a flag.
But not everyone saw it that way.
“They just seem stuffy and basic. And if you look at a photo of all the different states’ maps, or flags, it resembles a lot of them,” commission member Shelley Buck said of the streamlined designs. “I want Minnesota to stick out and be a little different.”
Buck said she’d heard more support for F-944, a flag that includes a North Star, along with abstract images of a sky mirrored in water that also resembles a pair of loons.
Graphic designers walked the panel through edits of the flag finalists and made recommendations that altered proposed stars and colors.
One of the designers that helped finesse the flag edits for commissioners likened the process to getting ready to go out on the town. And he cited advice from designer Coco Chanel.
“When you get dressed for an event and get dressed up looking nice, look at yourself in the mirror after you’re done and ready to walk out the door and then remove one accessory,” Tyler Michaletz said. “Good flag design is get your design basically there and then dial it back one step.”
The final designs all depict a North Star and feature blue as their primary color.
A consensus began to emerge around the shape of the star.
An eight-pointed star with peaks that resemble the letter M was becoming a favorite.
“I think Minnesota owns this star and we can own it instead of just a star that is pointing to the north and so on and so on,” Fitch said. “There’s more history and in ways that other cultures have used the ‘M’ star — and it’s in our capitol building already — than any of the other stars.”
The commission could forge a final option potentially pulling pieces from each.
It hasn’t been an easy path nor has public sentiment been all that kind since a field of more than 2,000 got chopped to the final three. At a Tuesday meeting, some commission members shared negative feedback that they’d fielded from the public.
“Minnesotans aren’t relating to where we’re at right now,” state Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, told the commission during its meeting on Tuesday. “It’s not whether or not we’re going to have a state flag, that’s been decided. The question is, are Minnesotans — can they identify with this or not? And when I am reading is no, they don’t.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, said she’d heard from hundreds of people who were eager for the switch.
“The folks that I have heard about and heard from and as I look at the different social media polls and challenges, I find that folks are very interested in and very positive about this change,” Kunesh said.
The lawmakers are in an advisory capacity on the commission and don’t have a vote. The panelists who do, come from marketing, design, history, teaching or other backgrounds and were appointed by the governor or various entities to create a diverse sounding board.
It won’t be the last time the panel comes together. Members are scheduled to meet Tuesday to run through their process and to draft a report about why they made the decisions they did over the last four months. It could also serve as a backup option if they can’t reach an agreement Friday.
The new flag will roll out on Statehood Day — May 11 — unless the DFL-led Legislature votes to veto the design. The commission will also unveil the final image for a state seal design, which was tweaked this week to include the loon’s red eye and the words “Mni Sota Makoce,” the Dakota phrase about where water touches the sky and from which Minnesota was derived.