#utah flag

[barkingbonzo]

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[hipsterflags]

Utah wrapped up a flag redesign effort last month, and this was the result. All the entrants were pretty solid, but I have to say the winner here is quite modern and distinctive. This flag will become the official flag of the state on March 9, 2024.

[scrumpyfan43]

While I’m in a vexillological mood here’s a super quick mockup of a new Utah flag, a stylized seagull on the left and Delicate Arch on the right. Serendipitously, the orange dome also suggests a beehive without violating the vexillological commandment against graven images, and without juxtaposing the insect-eating seagull with literal insects.

The current flag is one of those hideous “state seal on blue field” turds and most of the proposed replacements are unpleasantly literal. I’m not in love with “landscape rendered as tricolor” conceptually but I think between these colors and symbols there’s something to work with.

[the-psudo]

Improving the Utah State Flag

This is the state flag of Utah. It shows a beehive to symbolize industry, and has the word "Industry" printed above as closed captioning for the symbolically challenged. The flowers behind the hive are sego lilies, the state flower, the eating of which saved early settlers from starvation during a famine. Underneath is depicted the word "Utah" and the year 1847, the date of Mormon settlement in the Salt Lake Valley. All of this appears on a white shield (indicating, I donno, peaceful resistance or something) held up by a heavily armed bald eagle and literally wrapped in two American flags. This symbolizes our strong loyalty to the United States that sent troops against us and made us wait 49 years for statehood because they opposed our majority religion. Don't worry, guys! We're not bitter.

All of this is our state seal, which is then circled in gold and placed on a rectangular blue field to complete our flag. More than half of US state flags are just the state seal on a blue field. We just really want to fit in, it seems.

Personally, I'm sick of just fitting in. I want Utah to be unique and impressive, to stand out among the states of our Union. We have led the way in several fields. We had health care for all via Intermountain Health Care for decades before ObamaCare. We host the largest non-governmental welfare program in the world, a rebuttal to the big government welfare reforms of the 1930s and 40s. We are second in the nation only to Silicon Valley as a base for computer technology companies and innovation. We invented a multi-spectrum document scanner that was used to read heavily damaged portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls. We hosted the Winter Olympics, made the desert bloom, have the greatest snow on earth for winter sports, and host the headquarters of a major world religion. Utah is awesome!

But our flag sucks. It is an artifact of an insecure time when we were desperate to fit in and be accepted. We need a flag that looks forward, that symbolizes a lead role for the vibrant Utah I know and love. So I've been considering alternative designs.

This flag's depiction of our famed Delicate Arch, icon of Utah's Arches National Park, is a bright symbol of how Utah has withstood time and wear, has endured it well, and will continue indefinitely into the future. It's bright colors demand to be seen, and it's unique subject is immediately recognizable.

But perhaps it's too showy for some.

This flag calls back to our territorial name, Deseret, and the symbolism of the beehive. Like no other state and perhaps no other people, Utahns are willing to put our private sector to work to the charitable benefit of all. This symbolizes the unique spirit that inspired us to make the desert bloom like a rose, to establish our private food and welfare program, and to build a non-governmental healthcare system that provides for all regardless of ability to pay, That is a virtue worth advertising.

But perhaps I am somewhat extreme in my views, and ought to reform the flag only incrementally.

This flag maintains the white shield, beehive, and sego lilies from the official, but separates them from the rest of the state seal. Hopefully the change will be moderate enough for flag conservatives, but still set our flag sufficiently apart from the hoard of seal-on-blue state flags out there to give ours a ready recognition among those who see it and will bring us out of our collective insecurity into a new era of statewide self-assurance.

So... which flag do you prefer?

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