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In vexillology, it is often said that there are certain elements that make a good flag design. In 2020, the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) identified five characteristics of a good flag design<\/a>:<\/p>\n There are good flags that don't meet all of these requirements,<\/strong> but the best are undoubtedly those that meet all five. And of course, the worst flags meet none of them.<\/strong><\/p>\n An example of poor flag design is the one you can see here. It's the former flag of the state of Minnesota<\/strong>, in the Midwest of the United States. This flag was in effect from 1983 to 2024. It had three other flags before it with similar errors. It is a flag with text, with a seal, with a multitude of colors and with a design very similar to the flags of other US states that also show their seal on a blue background and\/or the name of the state: Idaho<\/a>, Kansas<\/a>, Kentucky<\/a>, Montana<\/a>, Nebraska<\/a>, New Hampshire<\/a>, Oregon<\/a>, Virginia<\/a> and Wisconsin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Minnesota's old flag received a lot of criticism for its complexity.<\/strong> There was also some rather ridiculous criticism for the depiction of Native Americans in the state seal, which was featured on the flag. Eventually, the various criticisms led to the creation of a State Emblem Redesign Commission in 2023<\/strong>, which began work on a new design through a competition for proposals (the choice couldn't have been easy, as more than 2,000 designs were submitted) and which also included a redesign of the state seal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The winning design was this one by graphic designer Ross Bruggink.<\/strong> I'm not crazy about the design, to be honest. The dark blue space is the most successful part, representing the shape of the state map, similar to the letter K. The star represents the state motto: \"L'\u00c9toile du Nord\"<\/strong> (The North Star, in French). I'm not convinced by the star design because it combines four large points and four small ones (ideally, they should all be the same). The combination of three stripes on the right (white, green, and blue) broke up the simplicity of the flag.<\/p>\n On January 1, 2024, the Minnesota State Emblem Redesign Commission issued a report (see PDF)<\/a> that included changes to Ross Bruggink's design<\/strong>, simplifying it:<\/p>\n This flag was officially adopted by the state of Minnesota on May 11, 2024<\/strong>, immediately becoming one of the most praised state flags in the United States. The final design meets the five requirements for a flag:<\/strong> a simple design that any child can draw, clear symbolism referencing the state's motto and geographic shape, only three colors (and two different combinations of blue, which is unusual for a flag but looks very nice), no text or seals, and a very unique design, with few similarities to other flags.<\/p>\n The commission's report included this grayscale version of the flag,<\/strong> demonstrating that even in this format, the flag is a very valid design. The report also included the proportions and measurements of the new flag,<\/strong> which you can see below.<\/p>\n\n
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