Favored design of the Illinois state flag - the people have spoken.

 The people of this state cast 165,602 votes for the current state flag. As our Secretary of State says  in a video below this flag got more votes than five of the other designs combined.

Drum roll please…🥁 After receiving 385,000 votes, we have a DECISIVE winner in the state flag redesign contest! The Illinois Flag Commission will now report the results to the General Assembly who will vote on whether to adopt a new flag or keep the current one. pic.twitter.com/CS3RMesLH6

— Secretary Alexi Giannoulias (@ILSecOfState) March 6, 2025

You can see how many votes was cast for each flag here. Only wo of my favored designs in the ten submitted for a new state flag came in the top five votes. That includes the one that had a blue and red stripe on each side of the state seal coming in at #4.

Though I should note feedback on these chosen designs weren't very good. These results will be submitted to the general assembly and who knows the state legislature may still decide to come up with a design for a new state flag.

Though I would still say we could keep the current state flag for the governor. A few states have standards for a state's governor. An Illinois governor has no standard.

My favored rejected designs for the Illinois state flag

Generated by GrokAI

I wanted to dig into this, perhaps some of these rejected designs for a possible new state flag could be the proposed symbol for the Illinois Republic. My vision for this republic is not only to revamp how this great state could be governed, but what could be done to unify this state and give it the pride that it deserves.

My vision could put Illinois up there with places like Texas, Vermont, or even California states that actually were independent republics before they became part of the United States. Either way it's difficult to create something resembling a "new regime" without creating symbols (i.e. a flag) to represent it.

So the so-called state flag reject pile was shared on Capitol Fax on Monday linked below.

The Illinois Flag Commission’s reject pile https://t.co/21vedtR5Oj

— Capitol Fax (@capitolfax) January 6, 2025

While I haven't gone through every submission so far, there are a few that I do consider favorites and then from the 10 designs that were chosen I also want to share the ones I do like best. In addition, other than the grassroots designs shown it's also important to show the favorite choices of others.

Of course click on the screencaps below to see the text description of each design. You will see 20 below the page break.

Voting for a state flag is now open

Generated by Google Gemini

I wanted to write about the rejected designs that I really liked. However, we can further discuss those designs that Illinois' citizens can vote on as of last Friday, January 10th.

We can start with already established designs such as our state flag. Then we will look at those designs I really like submitted by Illinois residents.

I've included screen caps and the text with the designs, feel free to click these pics for a full view of these designs and accompanying text descriptions.

Proposed designs for the Illinois state flag

 

[VIDEO] I have my own favorites, but what are yours? Some of these designs catch my eye, I'm sorry it's too late for me to submit my own design.

I think simplicity is key but in keeping with my idea for an Illinois Republic, the new state flag should be something of a Tri-Color like the French flag although not necessarily the same colors and not a mere replication.

Visit this site: www.ilsos.gov/stateflag

I wish I could see the other proposed designs that didn't make the top ten you will see at the link above.

AT&T Pitch Video: Saul Bass Belly System redesign

 

[VIDEO] Before about 1984, all phone service was run by AT&T known as the Bell System. What you see here is a proposed - actually it went through - redesign of the Bell System's design identity.

This is a very interesting video. Saul Bass is well known as a designer known for his design of movie titles in addition to some corporate designs such as the one he's pitching to the AT&T Bell System.

So some aspects of his proposed designs were seen on telephone books (do they still publish those?) and on telephone bills, etc. Of course things do change as time marches on.

There is no Bell System, and we're not only communicating via land lines any longer. There are various companies that provide cell phone service. Although AT&T still exists in a different form and yet another company that came out of the break up of the Bell System, Verizon.

Chicago Tonight: Cook County's flag to get a new look

Current Cook County Flag

This would legit fall in line with regards to civic symbols. Although perhaps not as important as either the state or the city of Chicago, how many of us think of Cook County having a flag. Many of us have to pay our property tax to them yearly and then of course we may have to do some business with the county court system especially if we have to do jury duty.

Anyway if I was still in school, I wouldn't mind trying to compete in this contest. If this was the 1990s probably would be using crayons to design a new flag, I can only wonder if our more creative students use photoshop to design new flags now.

Chicago Tonight has a bit more if you click the link you will see the finalized designs announced on Thursday.

This county standard has flown forlornly beside its snazzier local, state and national counterparts ever since it was adopted back in 1961. But that’s about to change.

Officials announced a re-design competition in 2019, and while the process stalled during the pandemic, it has picked up steam once again.

Six student-led designs have been chosen as finalists, whittled down from 23 semi-finalists, which were themselves plucked from the nearly 300 original submissions. Each semi-finalist was assigned a design mentor to help hone their idea; occasionally students were paired up if their concepts were similar.

The design brief was to create “an inclusive representation of Cook County, the rich diversity of its residents, the beauty of its landscape, the innovation of its institutions, and the pride of its history.”

Guidelines were also shared from the North American Vexillological Association, which notes that a flag should be simple and easily memorized, use meaningful symbolism, have two or three basic colors, have no lettering or seals, and should be distinctive while using similarities in other flags to show connections.

Are there any designs that you might like to see as the county's flag?

Frank I Bennett elementary gets a new electronic sign

I've been wanting to get a pic of the new signage outside of Bennett Elementary and did so this past weekend. Too bad that the electronic sign outside of Bennett's main entrance isn't on at all. Is it even on during school days? What information is presented on this board?

Also this on the front fence of Bennett School near the main entrance. It reflects Bennett's new identity Bennett Pride. Hand made letters which is certainly a nice touch.

However, I'm old school and will continue to consider myself a badger. 😛

Want to do a Pullman strike tour?

Credit: The Chicago Neighborhoods

I was awfully slow in sharing this. On July 13, 2019 there was a tour in Pullman related to the 125th anniversary of the Great Strike of 1894 and there are more scheduled through October. I believe this strike caused the President of the time a man by the name of Grover Cleveland to sent federal forces to end it.

I found out about this event through Curbed Chicago earlier this month, however, all I did was retweet this information. It would've been cool for me to take part in this as I know more about Pullman's story and architecture, but very little of some of the labor drama that took place there.

Tour the site of the Great Pullman Strike on its 125th anniversary https://t.co/IxFHGZDoQo pic.twitter.com/NkOtsl9jWh

— Curbed Chicago (@curbedchicago) July 5, 2019

According to the above link:

Labor history tends to get short shrift in history books.

The Pullman National Monument Preservation Society, created by Barack Obama’s presidential proclamation in 2015, is trying to change that. During the Great Pullman Strike’s 125th anniversary, the group is giving guided tours each month through October.
...
The next tour is scheduled for July 13 at noon. Admission is $25, and each ticket includes post-tour reception and dessert.

WTTW has more on the history of this strike in 1894 with regards to the perfect company town that was Pullman.

The Chicago Neighborhoods

Via The Chicago Neighborhoods

Over at my other blog The Sixth Ward, in recent years I've shared some of the logos from this site The Chicago Neighborhoods. In fact, one neighborhood logo created a controversy as the image depicted in the background was an infamous building long gone that was the site of several murders by a serial killer.

That's not to say the artists work in creating brands for many of Chicago's neighborhoods isn't good. Hence, I share this Roseland logo you see above and in the past on this blog the Pullman logo has been shared.

At the Sixth Ward, we also helped to spread the word about some other offerings from The Chicago Neighborhoods. Namely t-shirts and prints if you want to rep. your neighborhood no matter where you are. Leave a print in your home or office in addition to wearing a t-shirt.

How many of you would purchase these products to rep. your neighborhood? And would you be willing to create your own neighborhood logos and t-shirts?

Straight outta...Bennett-Shedd

Even if we were too young to listen to them back in the day my generation likely heard the music of the rap group N.W.A. This month a movie - Straight Outta Compton - about that group will be released in theaters everywhere. In the meanwhile, you can rep your neighborhood or hometown with this link I discovered recently.

I used it to rep my old elementary school and did a post using it as a opportunity to rep other southside areas and even my old high school over at sixthward.us. You're more that free to create your own take on this sign.