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Could These Redesigned State Flags Bring America Together?

Pop quiz! What’s on your state flag? If you’ve lived somewhere for a while, you probably have a decent idea. Michigan, my home state, flies a plain blue rectangle with a busy emblem in the center involving some deer, I think. But if you’re a newcomer to your current state of residence, there’s a good chance you’re totally clueless about what’s flying above city hall. The truth is you don’t really encounter state flags all that often.

“I was immediately bothered by how discordant they are as a group.”

A few months back, Ed Mitchell, a designer at the Philadelphia-based product design firm Bresslergroup, was listening to an episode of the podcast 99% Invisible dedicated to local flags, and it got him thinking about the banners we fly for our 50 states. “I was immediately bothered by how discordant they are as a group.” he remembers, “And I wasn’t surprised to learn they break just about every rule of flag design.” So, amidst the backdrop of a fractious, fighting Congress, Mitchell decided to come up with a single visual language that could be used to redesign the whole lot, all in the name of making our Union a little more, um, united.

Mitchell started by researching the current flags. Many were born in the last decade of the 19th century, when states wanted their own unique banners to fly at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Many southern states, like Mississippi and Georgia, drew from old Confederate iconography; others like New Mexico and Maryland incorporated symbolism unique to their state; others still, like Michigan, Kentucky, Kansas and more reverted to a template of sorts: a state seal centered against a plain, navy blue backdrop.

Delaware’s current state flag compared to its simpler, more cohesive redesign. Image: Ed Mitchell

To figure how what direction to take with his redesigns, Mitchell consulted the principles outlined in 1969 by the International Federation of Vexillological Associations–the worldwide flag people. Their five rules of good flag design, put generally: 1. flags should be simple enough to be drawn by a child; 2. they should use meaningful symbolism; 3. they should use only two or three basic colors; 4. no text or seals allowed; 5. be distinctive, or be related–not duplicative. Going by these guidelines, Mitchell points out, our current state flags fall short on a few fronts. Thirty six states currently use more than three colors, and 27 proudly feature their state seal.


Some thumbnail images of Mitchell’s redesigned flags show the cohesion across the collection. Image: Ed Mitchell

The resulting 50 flags certainly do operate as a cohesive whole. Some flags, like Colorado and New Mexico, retained their general appearance, just getting a makeover with more patriotic colors. Others saw total symbolic overhauls: Mitchell’s flag for Kansas, for example, shows two interlaced arrows–one red, one blue–centered around a white star. “The intertwined arrows represent the joining of the frontiersman and the statesman who are shaking hands on the existing state seal,” he writes. Plus, the arrows echo the general shape of a “K.” Maryland’s current flag is a visually chaotic juxtaposition of the coats of arms of two of the state’s founding families. Mitchell kept those well-liked elements but combined them into a more visually unified design–a “simple refinement” he says.


Is a more cohesive collection of flags really worth sacrificing the history that comes with the ones we know today?

Of course, the real question with such a project is this: Why do we need unified flags in the first place? How often do we compare our state flags, anyway? Do their differences really drive us apart? And the big one: is a more cohesive collection of flags really worth sacrificing the history that comes with the ones we’re familiar with today? Almost certainly not. Many would probably argue that our idiosyncratic flags are actually the perfect reflection of a largely idiosyncratic collection of states. We didn’t start this thing all at once: States joined in, territories were annexed, borders were drawn–and all along the way, flags were made.

Mitchell acknowledges as much, but he does think there’s value in reminding ourselves–if only symbolically–that at the end of the day, these states of ours are supposed to be united. And if nothing else, his project does reflect that–the 50 redesigns are strongest, he says, when viewed as a set. “One of my favorite things is the way they sit together as a group,” he says. “They are not perfect by any means, but I do like the way they read–and the overall message they send–when they are together.”