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Montana flag concepts


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MONTANA

Current Flag

rws1.gif

Concept Flag

5ou9.png

I liked Ed's idea for a new Montana flag, so my concept borrows some things from his. The two mountains form an "M," but I also added snowy caps to the mountains, figuring I could make them look more like mountains without making them look less like an M. The background is in periwinkle, a realistic sky color that also makes a unique flag color.

As a Montanan, I've done a lot of thinking about what our flag should look like. I narrowed in on the idea that the color should be unique, so I chose a color called Big Sky Blue from the Great Northern Railroad's "Big Sky" train design. I also wanted to use gold to represent the mining and agriculture interests of the state. But I also feel the flag needs a brand that is unmistakable. So I borrowed the bison skull that is used on our state coin and on our license plates (not all of the 130+ designs, but the main ones.)

I've posted it before, but here it is:

mt-flag-1.png

Note that the left side of the skull also echoes the shape of the state to a certain degree.

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  • 3 months later...

I did a little more fiddling and thinking about the Montana flag. There were a few things that weren't quite hitting it right with me.

The first thing I did is widen the gold band at the bottom and eliminate it from the top. I want the blue to represent "the Big Sky" so I didn't really want anything above it. The gold band can be said to represent something, but truth be told, I just liked the contrast and when the flag drapes down, having more than one color looks good. Then I added a star in the bison skull which kind of gives it a little more uniqueness. I think a flag should be easily used as an icon for a state and many times, states are represented with stars - as they are on the US flag. I used an off-white on the skull mainly because it looks more aged.

mt-flag-2.png

This one is my personal favorite because I can easily see it used on stickers, hats, shirts, and so forth.

I also fiddled with another idea. The root of it is that Montana's flag is based off of a battle flag used in the Spanish-American war. It was a blue field (lighter than the one typically used on Montana's flag), the seal of the state and gold fridge. This was the "template" they used in "designing" the state flag. I got to wondering though, what if I could simplify the state seal. And by simplify, I mean totally knock it down to its key elements - agricultural fields, mountains, the Big Sky (and the sun), and a river (in the seal, there are the Great Falls, but I chose to represent it more as a "body of water.")

Graphically, I wanted to just use angles that divided up the canvas. This would make it easy for a child to draw, for example.

mt-flag-3.png

That was more of a thought experiment than an actual attempt. I still prefer the bison skull design. It's much more unique.

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This has been split off from another thread. In the future, don't hijack other concept threads with your own ideas.

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POTD 2013-08-22

On 7/14/2012 at 2:20 AM, tajmccall said:

When it comes to style, ya'll really should listen to Kev.

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This has been split off from another thread. In the future, don't hijack other concept threads with your own ideas.

Sorry, wasn't my intent. Simply replying to the concept that was posted. Didn't mean to hijack anything.

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