More Than a Flag

Designing a new Utah Flag
by John Dilworth and Rob Foster

We're Up to the Challenge

John and Rob have a combined 50+ years of experience in design. We’ve worked as senior designers for Ancestry, Thomson-Reuters, Lucid and many more.

Together, we’ve designed many flags over the years, including the official flag of Midway, Utah and the company flag for Vivint Solar.

We recently launched the website Utah Flag Machine (flagmachine.com) to help non-designers participate in the Utah flag project. The site was featured by our lieutenant governor and KSL News. Thousands of people have designed flags on the Flag Machine website.

Our passion for flag design runs deep.

The Challenge: Unite Utah

Wounds of division can be healed by finding common ground. One way that happens is by creating a shared identity. We may not be able to do much about national division, but we can unite as a state.

When people feel a pride of place, they often show it by displaying the symbols that represent that shared pride. An amazing flag can be the perfect symbol for that sentiment.

There are a few things that can hurt our efforts to create a flag that unities us as a state:

• A design that isn’t unique enough
• A layout that is too complex for a child to draw with crayons
• A layout that doesn’t work in all situations
• A symbol that fails to speak to everyone
• Failure to honor the past
• Listening too much to a loud critical minority

Our Proposal: A Flag for Everyone

The following pages present a concept for a beautiful flag that meets all the criteria for great flag design.It is a flag with bright, bold colors that are symbolic of nature and our people’s joyful spirit. It is a simple flag that can be drawn by a child and used in a variety of applications. It features symbols that embody unity and celebrate our individuality.

Colors: Natural, Bold & Joyful

• Heritage Blue: Pulled from our current flag and symbolizes our state's history and tradition. Provides a base for hte flag symbol
• Western Azure: Represents Utah's love of the outdoors and our place in the wide open skies of the West
• Drift White: Symbolizes the Great Salt Lake, our snow-capped mountains and the cloudes in our Western sky.
• Kayenta Orange: Signifies our innovative spirit and our legendary red rock country. Orange is assocaited with creativity and joy.

These unique, bold colors already represent our state all on their own. The colors unite us and everyone can appreciate them because they speak to the natural beauty of our home.

The colors also provide unique symbolism that gives deep meaning and honors our heritage. It’s a bold choice and that’s a good thing.

What about red, white & blue?

Let’s resist the (understandable) desire to simply repeat the red, white and blue. We love our country but if every state simply re-used the national colors, we’d continue to have what we have now: Mostly bland, boring state flags.

Our proposed colors would make Utah truly stand out in a sea of boring flags. We also think that the state with the happiest people deserves to have happy colors on our flag.

Layout: A Child Can Draw It

It sounds funny to say a great flag can be drawn by a child with crayons but it’s true. When a child draws the U.S. flag with crayons, it’s rarely 100% accurate. But you still know what it is.

Layout & Color: It Works Everywhere

When designing a flag, one of the things that people often overlook is how that flag will appear on other colors. When popular, a flag will be printed on paper, hang on walls, be worn on apparel, etc. White is by far the most common color a flag will be printed on, so ideally, it will need to work on a white page without a border or other graphic elements being added.

Another consideration is orientation. Flags are often hung vertically. A flag doesn’t have to work perfectly in vertical orientation, but some flag designs break down in vertical orientation.

As you will see in our section on icons, you can actually design an alternate version of your flag that looks perfect when hung vertically.

Symbol: We're the Beehive State

The beehive is an obvious choice for Utah’s flag. It is a current symbol and Utah has a long history in “The Beehive State.”

An article in The Deseret News in 1881 explained the symbolism of the beehive: “It is a significant representation of the industry, harmony, order and frugality of the people, and of the sweet results of their toil, union and intelligent cooperation.”Our beehive design is simple. The five bands represent the five original hives brought to Utah by pioneers, and today represent our 5 beautiful national parks.

Utah: More Than a Beehive

We’re proposing a feature for Utah’s flag that has never been seen before in flag design, anywhere.

It’s an innovative concept that will help unite people, honor more of our state symbols, and show the world what “INDUSTRY” can mean in the 21st century.

Are you ready for this?

Embrace Individuality: One Flag, Many Symbols

Utahans can rally around the symbolism of a flag’s colors and layout—everyone can agree on the natural beauty of our state. Getting people behind a single symbol—even the beehive—will be an uphill battle. Many may feel that they are “not part of the hive,” or that what they love about Utah is not represented.

We are proposing a feature for Utah’s flag that has never been seen before—a flag with a variety of official symbols in addition to the beehive. Individuals and groups could also follow guidelines to add unique symbols that speak to their love of our state.

What about the beehive then?

The beehive icon becomes the official default version of the flag.

Most people won’t change it, but for those who do, it becomes a way to include themselves and showcase the individuality that makes our state great.

Embracing many symbols bridges the gap between the individual and their community in a beautiful and meaningful way.

Merchandise: Worn Proudly

You can see how this flag design could look on various pieces of merchandise. When a flag is iconic, the citizens embrace it and use it for all kinds of things.

The California and Chicago flags are great examples of this. While not perfect from a design perspective, Californians love their flag and display it in many ways. The Chicago flag is a simple design and a point of pride for citizens of Chicago. You see these flags everywhere.

Thank you.

The design of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This book cannot be sold, copied or distributed beyond those who review it.

The flag design itself is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means it can be used for literally anything, both personal and commercial.