Here’s the final overall design for the new Minnesota state flag — but tweaks are expected
Updated: 6:10 p.m.
What’s striped and shows a blocky figure of Minnesota and an eight-point North Star? Minnesota’s new state flag.
The State Emblems Redesign Commission advanced the design, subject to fine tuning, after extensive deliberations on Friday. It’s not final. And the panel was expected to keep workshopping color and other details.
Like it or love it — and there are plenty of strong opinions out there — it’s set to replace the current flag in May barring legislative action to prevent it, which in itself would be a tall order
Commission Chair Luis Fitch, a brand designer by occupation, said next week will bring the flag-selection conclusion.
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“This Tuesday we get a flag, guys. I can tell you that right now,” he told reporters. “This Tuesday we have a flag.”
He added, “Then people start celebrating. We open some beers, champagne and have a good party. We've got a new flag"
Even on the commission, the selection drove mixed reactions from members of the panel of elected leaders, artists, historians and members of the public.
The design that the commission picked on Friday started as submission F-1953, created by Luverne resident Andrew Prekker. He previously told MPR News he was inspired by “other state flags known for their simplicity, memorability and popularity, such as Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.” Another designer submitted a freshened up version with an asymmetrical shape on the left edge to make it more distinctly resemble Minnesota.
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 and prior to a vote to anoint it as the preferred concept. “I want Minnesota to stick out and be a little different.”
Buck said she’d heard more support for F-944, a flag that included a North Star along with abstract design of a sky mirrored in water that also resembles a pair of loons.
Phillip McKenzie, a designee of the Minnesota Arts Board, said the one the commission gravitated toward is artistic in a different sense. He said “it might say more by saying less. It’s like haiku versus a sonnet. And I appreciate that part of the flag.”
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.”
It hasn’t been an easy path since a field of more than 2,000 got chopped to the final three. Some commission members shared negative feedback that they’d fielded from the public and said they might have to break traditional flag design rules to get a winner.
“If we continue to be so, so strict on what the vexillology people say, we’re going to find that the people in Minnesota are going to reject this over time,” said state Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, referring to the study of flags.
State Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, said she’d heard from hundreds of people who were eager for the switch.
“I find that folks are very interested in and very positive about this change,” Kunesh said.
And Fitch, the chair, predicted the new flag would be well received or at least grow on people and might come to appreciate the symbolism of all of the elements.
“A lot of people are gonna say, ‘I don't see it,’ and they're gonna be negative,” Fitch said. “But give them six months, give them a year. And then the younger generations are more open minded.”
Members are scheduled to meet next Tuesday to make final revisions, run through their process and to draft a report about why they made the decisions they did over the last four months.
The commission also unveiled 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 the name Minnesota was derived.