Design Brief for the Maine State Flag Redesign Contest

June 2024

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The goal is to create a redesigned state flag that reflects the will of the Legislature pursuant to Public Law Chapter 487. 

On January 7, 2024, L.D. 86, An Act to Restore the Former State of Maine Flag became law. This law lays out the design concept for the new flag:  

“Must be buff, charged with the emblem of the State, a pine tree proper, in the center, and the North Star, a mullet of 5 points, in blue in the upper corner; the star to be equidistant from the hoist and the upper border of the flag, the distance from the 2 borders to the center of the star being equal to about 1/4 of the hoist, this distance and the size of the star being proportionate to the size of the flag . . .” 

And gives authority to the Secretary of State for final approval of the model flag. The law directs the Secretary of State to send the following referendum question to the voters in November of 2024 in order to adopt the new design: 

"Do you favor making the former state flag, replaced as the official flag of the State in 1909 and commonly known as the Pine Tree Flag, the official flag of the State?" 

An unbiased, non-partisan process in selecting the design for the model flag before voters cast their ballots is critical to the Secretary of State. Therefore, she is holding a public contest to request designs based on the above law. An advisory panel will review all the designs that are submitted to the Secretary of State and recommend five designs for the Secretary to choose from before the November 2024 General Election. 

DESIGN OBJECTIVES: 

• Simplicity and Recognizability: The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory and can be easily recognizable from a distance. 
• Mandatory objectives: Pursuant to Public Law Chapter 487, referenced above, the following must be included in the design: 
  • The background color must be buff; 
  • A pine tree proper must be in the center;  
  • A five-pointed North Star in blue must be in the upper corner;  
  • The star must be equidistant from the pole side and the upper border of the flag; and  
  • The distance from the pole edge and upper edge to the center of the star must be equal to about 1/4 of the pole side edge length, this distance and the size of the star must be proportionate to the size of the flag. 

DESIGN PARAMETERS: 

• Flag Dimensions: Standard flag proportions (a rectangle, typically 3 feet width by 5 feet length) are required.  
• Submissions must include: 
  • File of new state flag design in pdf, gif, jpg, jpeg, png, or svg format (no larger than 5MB).
  • Hexidecimal format codes (hex codes) of each color used in the design. 
  • File of new state flag design in SVG format (or any scalable vector format).   
• Submissions may not 
  • Contain any wording. Such entries will be disqualified and discarded. 
  • Contain any plagiarized or copyrighted images. Such entries will be disqualified and discarded.

DELIVERABLES:

• Flag Design: Provide a visual representation of the proposed flag design 
• Deadline: Submissions must be received by 5:00 pm on Friday, July 19, 2024. 
• Budget: There is no funding specifically available for designers or a design team. 
• Evaluation Criteria: The selected design will be evaluated based on its ability to meet the design objectives.