Questionable Crests, Cutting Room Classics Found Among Unreleased Illinois Flag Designs

Take a look at some of the best (and worst) of the more than 4,800 submissions to the state flag design contest obtained by Illinois Patch.

Jonah Meadows, Patch Staff

Posted Fri, Dec 27, 2024 at 5:01 pm CT|Updated Sat, Dec 28, 2024 at 10:12 am CT

Many of the flag design submissions incorporated references to Abraham Lincoln, including one symbolizing the Union's victory over the rebels in the U.S. Civil War. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Voting starts next month in the Illinois Secretary of State's non-binding poll of potential new state flags.

Ahead of the vote, which in accordance with traditional Illinois political folkways will allow more than one vote per person and be limited to a slate of 10 candidates picked by appointed officials, Patch has obtained copies of all the flag designs received by state officials during the seven-week submission period.

The 4,844 flag design submissions received include dozens of duplicates, some apparently submitted accidentally. Dozens more were submitted by schoolchildren as part of classroom assignments or homework, leading to many predictably flippant flag filings.

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The appointed Illinois Flag Commission was originally required by state law to convene by September 2023. When it failed to do so, lawmakers amended the law to extend the deadline.

Nonetheless, the commission, chaired by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias or his designee, also missed this year's extended deadline to meet. When it did finally meet, the group held only three meetings before releasing a list of 10 finalists earlier this month.

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Their release was met with indifference from the public, with many observers questioning whether the 10 finalists selected by the commission were really the best options.

So Illinois Patch filed a public records request with the Secretary of State's Office in order to determine if there were, in fact, superior potential flags left on the commission's cutting room floor.

Patch has reviewed all the submissions and identified a boatload of submissions that appear to be of equal or superior quality to the finalists picked by the flag commission, some of which are presented below.

Representatives of Giannoulias's office claimed to be unable to provide copies of the flag submissions in their original formats, so many of them appear pixelated from the low-resolution documents his office provided.

"We do not have the capacity to manually retrieve each original image from our system, upload, and transmit it in its original format," Danielle Pappas, the office's deputy general counsel, told Patch.

While Illinois' current flag is regarded as one of the worst in the nation, ranking 49th among U.S. states and Canadian provinces by the North American Vexillological Association, Gov. JB Pritzker has declared himself a fan.

"I really like our current flag. I also like the designs that were put forward,” Pritzker said earlier this month.

“Don’t want to sound too political about that, but I mean I think a lot of effort was put in," he said. "I am glad, though, that we’re at least considering all the options here and what we end up with will be a choice that the public makes."

In fact, residents are not "considering all the options" and there is no guarantee that "what we end up with will be a choice that the public makes."

Regardless of the results of the six-week voting period starting next month, there is no guarantee that the state will adopt a new flag anytime soon — or that the public will ever have a say in the matter in an actual advisory referendum.

In addition to our selection of the "best of the rest" of the flag submissions that follows, Patch has also highlighted some of the worst beneath them.

Best of the Rest

Harkening back to the state's French origins, this flag features 20 stars to represent the northern and southern states at the time of Illinois' admission into the union as the 21st state. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

This flag's three divisions represent the state's three regions, the points of the red star represent the Black Hawk War, the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the Illinois Michigan Canal, the 1933 World's Fair, the state's nuclear history and the presidents it has produced, while the flag's upward design symbolizes progress. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

Featuring the state's official animal above the outline of a car, gold kernels and a bowtie, this flag features orange for a prairie sunrise and blue for Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

In this flag, blue symbolizes the state's north, yellow its center and green its southern region, while the eagle features 21 feathers and is surrounded by corn and soybeans, the state's top crops. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

This flag symbolizes the Mississippi River, Lake Michigan, the state's prairies and a sunrise or sunset, along with 21 stars for the nation's 21st state. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

Featuring the silhouette of Abraham Lincoln, three stars symbolize the three capitals the Land of Lincoln has had, with its stripes representing Lake Michigan and the state's agriculture. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

Blue represents progress and steel, the red stripes represent the state's two-part motto, while the white represents the state's three regions. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The Fleur de Lis symbolizes the state's French origins, with a blue stripe representing the Illinois River and white symbolizing the prairie, milkweed, snow and the resilience of Illinoisans. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

Three stars mark the three regions of the state, while the colors emphasize the prairies, sky, waterways and agriculture. This flag also features the motto, "State Sovereignty, National Union." [(Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The orange symbolizes plains and crops, the blue stripes represent the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan and the white stripes symbolize the industries of technology and transportation. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The design reflects the state's role as a cultural, rail and industrial hub, with blue representing the river and lake, red representing roads and rails and gold signifying agriculture and farmers. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The dark blue represents the night sky, the white star symbolizes Chicago, the green and yellow symbolize agriculture, and the light blue symbolizes the rivers on the state's southern borders. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The blue on left represents the Mississippi River, the green field with a blue sky represents the state's prairies. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

Colors represent water and industry, the 16-point compass of features is a nod to the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, while the five bars symbolize the five main Illini tribes. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The center symbolizes the rays of the sun between the buildings of a city on the background of farmland. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The state's animal is surrounded by 21 stars for the 21st state, resting on the year it was founding and looking toward a six-pointed star representing "the values that Illinois strives toward." (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The state's bird flies on a background representing the Illinois' rivers, while white represents purity and orange represents Illinois pride. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The outline of Illinois is situated between colors representing the Great Lakes and the Great Plains. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

The yellow stripe represents rural communities and agriculture while the white stripe represents Chicago, with the blue areas representing the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State

The stripes symbolize Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River and the Ohio River. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

This design features Abraham Lincoln, a reference to the Chicago municipal seal, 21 stars and a blue design to symbolize the state's waterways. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)

Green represents the hills and forest of southern Illinois, gold represents corn and grain and the navy blue represents the waterways, while the Fleur de Lis represents the state's French roots. (Office of the Illinois Secretary of State)