Ten finalists have been announced in Illinois’ contest to redesign the state flag after the Illinois Flag Commission received nearly 5,000 submissions for consideration. Two of the designs come from a current or former resident of McLean County.
The commission was established last year with the purpose of making a recommendation to the Illinois General Assembly on whether the current state flag should be replaced with a new design.
Design 2246: Two ISU grads
One of the design teams with McLean County ties is Bloomington-Normal native Colleen Hayes and Scott Clanin, both of Champaign-based design firm Clanin Creative. Clanin and Hayes are both Illinois State University graduates.
They submitted Design 2246, a brightly colored flag with an emphasis on Illinois’ agriculture. As Illinois was the 21st state to join the union, they used 21 stripes of green and white to make a visual of crops and an open prairie. They also talked about why the stars have the number of points they do and the inclusion of a sun.
“Three six-pointed stars represent the state’s three regions (northern, central, and southern) and their 18 points reference Illinois’ founding in 1818. A sun on the horizon, also featured on our current state flag, represents renewal,” said Clanin and Hayes.
The colors included were blue to symbolize unity, green for agriculture, and yellow for a brighter future and an honor of the state’s history and natural beauty.
The two also share family roots in Illinois, with a focus on their ancestors and their pilgrimage to Central Illinois.
“My connection to Illinois runs deep. My ancestors came from Ireland in the early 1900s and settled in Gridley, IL, where they farmed corn, soybeans, and raised livestock,” said Hayes. “My father grew up on that same farm, while my mother was raised in Champaign.”
Hayes' parents met at Illinois State University. She earned a bachelor's degree in graphic design. Scott Clanin also graduated from ISU.
Clanin said there is quite a bit of online chatter about spending tax dollars to find a new state flag. He wanted to make clear they will not benefit directly in a financial way.
"There are certainly bragging rights," Clanin said.
Clanin said designers at his firm submitted nine different ideas to the contest that drew more than 5,000 submissions.
"We have volunteered a tremendous amount of our time for this project, for these bragging rights and it's a fun challenge. We're just proud to be in the running, said Clanin.
It took them four months to finalize the entries.
"There were a lot of different ideas and options I had gone through. At first, I had a badge, similar to one the eagle is holding on the current state flag. I had it with five pointed stars, more rows in the field, and also less. It went through a lot of editing and narrowing down," said Hayes.
Clanin and Hayes said they looked at the flags of other states for best practices.
"I was inspired by Utah and Minnesota's new flag designs. I thought those really represented what modern flag practices and designs should follow, states that have those simpler bold flags that don't have a ton of detail," said Hayes.
"There have been other state flags that have stood the test of time because they are so simple and timeless. I think that's another key trait we want to look at when designing anything," said Clanin.
Clanin thinks that's the issue with the current state flag.
"It just has an older outdated feel to it. And it doesn't fully represent the entire state," said Clanin. "It reads a little institutional. It certainly is a seal. How many of us have the flag printed on a T-shirt we wear? On other types of materials, or hanging in front of our house? Not a ton."
Clanin pointed to the Texas state flag as a simple iconic design.
Design 4220
The other submission with ties to McLean County is Design 4220, which is described as a “nod to the French flag” and the flag of the United States. It has blue, white and red slices respectively to create a silhouette of President Abraham Lincoln and the western border of the state. It also has a lone star in the top left corner described by the designer as “a single star shines our contribution to the union.”
The name of Design 4220's creator (or creators) has not been released. Here's what they shared about themselves:
“Born and raised. From 1984-2002, I spent my childhood in Central Illinois, I’ve lived and worked in Bloomington-Normal for 26 of my 40 years of life,” they said. “My dad, sister, niece, and the majority of my aunts and uncles are still here. All of my grandparents are buried here.”
They also said they felt the bald eagle was missing from the flag and it could be placed above the star in a white silhouette.
State flag history
The state's original flag was approved in 1915 after the then State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Ella Park Lawrence, sent hundreds of letters to the General Assembly urging them to support a bill to create a flag.
Lawrence visited Washington, D.C., in 1911 and realized that since its 1818 admittance to the union, the state still did not have any emblem or flag to represent itself.
Another member of the DAR won the design contest — Lucy Derwent of the Rockford chapter. She placed the Great Seal on top a white background, the design Illinoisians are familiar with today. State Sen. Raymond Meeker introduced the legislation that later was approved by the state senate without the governor’s approval on July 6, 1915.
The current design has remained in place ever since, with one notable change.
In 1969, legislation was approved as written by state Rep. Jack Walker. Walker’s legislation required that “ILLINOIS” must be included beneath the Great Seal on the flag. He was compelled to do so after Chief Petty Officer Bruce McDaniel of Waverly wrote to him to say that the flag was hard to identify in the mess hall while he was serving in Vietnam.
Walker’s legislation also included a few other recommendations involving color, length, width and height specifications after some companies were known to alter or misprint the design in production.
Public voting on the 10 final designs begins in January. The Illinois Flag Commission will make a final recommendation to lawmakers after that. Lawmakers could also decide to retain the current flag or choose to revert to an earlier state flag.
