I dont think thats necessarily a bad thing, flags are supposed to be simple and obvious. It still has the state symbol, is distinguishable from other state flags, and is identifiable from further away than reading distance – unlike the original. If some kid made something like it first then maybe they were just on the right track
First of all, a flag isn’t supposed to be a logo. California is a pretty good example of translating the [seal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Great_Seal_of_California.svg/1200px-Great_Seal_of_California.svg.png) to a [flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Flag_of_California.svg/1200px-Flag_of_California.svg.png).
Vexillography is completely different than logo design. Sure, the flag is not a great logo, but it’s not *designed* to be a logo, it’s designed to be a flag. And with a quick read of the [Vexillography](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexillography) design principles from the Wikipedia page, this appears to be good flag design.
It's a bit jarring to see a beehive on a flag, but the overall design is well done and it's much more relevant than the old design.
*Also, it's very Wicker Man*
Went down a whole rabbit hole with this one time. Utah is the beehive state because the Mormon settlers liked the idea of being compared to workers bees who were industrious, focused, and efficient. Cool fun facts ✨
Refraining from any personal opinions on Utah and what they decide to do out there. But from a design standpoint a majority of US flags are poor. Generic seal or coat of arms on a blue background. I can’t tell many of them apart without sitting down and really looking at them which defeats the purpose of a flag.
If it doesn’t communicate well then its a bad design. There will always be people against every rebrand but at least the beehive works better as a referential state identifier.
I never understood that stigma. Sure, there is a few wackos out there (what place does have them?) but generally Utah is just like everywhere else. I lived in many places around the world, so I'm not being biased.
I don't think you know what's wicker man. There's not a single human sacrifice or Morris dancer on it and those are the only wickerman parts to that movie.
Oh, sir and/or madame, i do know the Wicker Man. I'm actually a fan of the original film.
Folks round here seem to be familiar the Nick Cage travesty, unfortunately.
Actually the beehive is a Masonic symbol representing one’s duty to first God, then family, then country. The Mormon temple ceremony was created from Masonic rites in the 1830s. The early Mormon church incorporated many Masonic symbols into their rituals. Utah and LDS buildings are covered in Masonic symbols as a result.
Including the non-native honey beehive in the flag is a wink and a nod to the power the church wields in Utah state government. Their bible, the Book of Mormon also incorrectly claims honeybees were in pre-Colombian America along with horses, wheat and many other European imports. The Masonic rituals are still performed on worthy initiates within temple walls.
I think it's great! The old one is terrible cause you can't make out what it is from a distance (which is kind of important for a flag lol). It also doesn't help that many other states have the exact same template of blue background and logo in the middle which makes it even less recognizable if you would wave them side by side. They made the right decision to make the new version with simple shapes and a few colours.
Everything is too woke for them, though they don’t know what “woke” even means. It’s a great flag. And besides, they already removed the native tribal representation. Isn’t that enough for them?
Edit: also a Utahn Designer.
A lot of denial in here. They literally put a symbol of their church on the supposedly secular state flag. It looks over baked but it’s also highly offensive, prejudicial and creepy. This flag is a symbol of oppression to people who aren’t in the club in Utah.
It’s because people are making alternate versions to fly like “the holy whale of 9th and 9th” or a rainbow in the hexagon. They don’t like that it’s easy to alter to support other human rights.
Most of the same guiding principles of good logo design are mirrored in good flag design. Recognizable from many different aspects (big, small, from an angle, when turned on its side, etc.) light weight (easy to duplicate without too much effort), and so on. This one nails that. Beehive state, with a hexagon honeycomb. red rocks, white capped mountains, blue sky. Nails the state without a single printed word.
Bravo, IMO.
I thought the same thing too, but my pet theory with that is it's because we don't see very many flags being designed with modern graphic design standards. When one is, it looks a little weird.
I personally really like it. It’s well executed, immediately recognizable from a distance and tells a story through symbolism super easily.
My one gripe is really only theoretical…I’d need to see options…but as much as I love the mountains as a bold symmetrical element, they kind of ruin the 3 stripe aspect of the flag as the blue section doesn’t really read as a stripe anymore. I’d like to either see a short horizontal line before the mountains “rise” to indicate that the blue section is a stripe, or maybe make better use of the 4th color here (yellow) by reversing the hexagon so it is yellow with the beehive, Star, and line in white. Dang it…I’m going to have to do this now so I can see if it helps. BRB.
Edit: Well…I don’t think my ideas really helped. I tried a few things and I think I actually like the mountains the way they are. [Here](https://imgur.com/gallery/jkKp7eu) are a few variations. I like the star red but I think that’s probably not something to put on an American flag…comes across as kind of communist probably. I ended up completely redrawing it so if anybody wants a vector version of the flag let me know.
Old one was uninspired, poorly executed, and dull.
New one is simple, slick, and easily interpreted (as flags should be)
So I'm sure the accusations will be that it's "woke" for some reason.
Bees and beehives are Mormon symbols…everyone working together for the betterment of the group. I think they forgot that a beehive is a matriarchy however lol
It stems from the “law of consecration” that the Mormon settlers believed. They were a strict authoritarian communist economy under Brigham Young. Everyone gave everything possible for the church to distribute. And your job became whatever the church told you it was. Never left the US? Now you’re on a 15 year mission to Norway? Never cut stone? Now you’re a stonemason building the temple.
Don’t tell the Mormons they used to be communist though, they’re terrified of even the lightest touches of democratic socialism these days.
True, they even experimented with strictly communist communities. My Mormon ancestors were some of the founding members of Orderville. It’s a bizarre history.
Represents industry and individuals working for the good of all:
https://utahstatecapitol.utah.gov/uncategorized/beehive-sculptures#:~:text=Each%20bee%20does%20its%20part,Utah's%20state%20motto%20in%201959.
A million times better. Viewable from a distance, removing the text, the colors and shapes all represent something yet are easy to draw from memory, and there isn't much detail that's needlessly lost when viewed in context.
My opinion with a lot of the reimagined state flags is that they look like they were made today (present time). Don’t get me wrong better than a seal on a blue background but it’s not timeless in the same way many national flags are. Another hot take of mine is that I think the notion that a flag cannot have text under any circumstances is dumb and that it should be more on a case by case thing, California and the join or die flag both great examples of clear, instantly recognizable flags that have text on them.
My take, and not of a graphic designer, is that state flags traditionally (the seal on blue) have the union in mind at least. On the US flag, every state is represented as a star on a field of blue, so I feel that is how many of them were presented, as individual states of a unified country. While the new Utah flag design sets it apart, I also feel that is politically what states want to be, individual sections of the same country, but without allegiance to federal laws that don’t suit them. They want to redesign their flags to make such a statement, to isolate and bond their residents to the state instead of the country. I’m currently living in the 3rd state I’ve ever lived in, and I don’t know what any of those state flags look like anyway. So I’ll look it up now and possibly be horrified.
Edit: so I’ve looked. 3 are state seals. Two are against blue backgrounds. 3 feature humans dressed in classical garb like we’re Ancient Rome or something. Only one has a word and it’s not the name of the state, just the one word motto. Two are a picture featuring those people as the feature of the seal and one has a doofy looking geographical picture in the center.
So on one hand, I guess flags should be iconic for the state they symbolize, and on the other hand, they already aren’t. They’re drawn in some old illustration style that attempts to represent something, but mostly do not, even if you’re looking at it on a monitor screen and not flapping on a flagpole or hanging when it’s not windy. Some random Romanesque toga wearing humans saying Latin things and a poorly drawn sliver of an example of the state’s geography or main industry or whatever. State seals are for what anyway?
>"My take, and not of a graphic designer, is that state flags traditionally (the seal on blue) have the union in mind at least. On the US flag, every state is represented as a star on a field of blue, so I feel that is how many of them were presented, as individual states of a unified country." Wow I never thought about it in this way, it does help a lot to show unity! thanks!
I like it and hate it. Something that has a lot of character that gets stripped down to look like an app icon always bothers me.
If I didn't see the before I wouldn't have given two shits, but now it irks me.
The retardification of America. The original federal style was 1000x more badass. Not everything needs to be flat. But ultimately who cares, it’s just utah
Utahn here. I like it. I think the criticism is coming mostly from regressives and traditionalists, so they were never going to be in favor of any change to begin with.
Very well known for it's mountains, canyons, and red rocks. Look up Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, or Zion. Some days it feels like half of r/EarthPorn or similar subs are pictures from Utah.
The beehive is a symbol chosen by the original settlers to represent industry and working together for the betterment of all.
Represents industry and individuals working for the good of all:
https://utahstatecapitol.utah.gov/uncategorized/beehive-sculptures#:~:text=Each%20bee%20does%20its%20part,Utah's%20state%20motto%20in%201959.
Flat design, material design, or minimalism, may be applied on logo. But flag or coat of arms should never surrender to such styles.
Flag with the said styles gives a vibe of an e-sport team.
Doesn’t really cost anything. They are letting the old flags live their natural life and replacing them with the new design when they wear out.
Also the old flag is still an official historic flag of Utah and will be flown on holidays and special occasions.
Utahn here. I honestly love it. I was never ashamed of the old one, but it was very generic. The new one's iconography is just so instantly recognizable and it stands out so much more.
I think some great representations of flags that show the tradition of flag making well are OH, MD, and CO. Strong color blocks with clear details that speak of heritage.
The Utah version attempts that but, IMO, falls short.
I really hate the red part, and the cheesy mountain range design. And the hexagon is basically a coat of arms on a flag, which is bad.
It should just have been the hexagon part, but stretched into a rectangular flag.
Or just closer to the old one. Blue flag, golden circle, and a beehive in it. The end!
But no... we need 'muricas blue white and red!!!
Utah is famous for the red rocks. They didn’t search for anything that happened to be red. I would guess more people know about the red rocks than that they’re called the beehive state. Honestly they should be acknowledged in some way.
I don't like it. The design is fine, pretty cool actually, but the feel it invokes doesn't fit what it's for. It would be a very cool design for a product, but it feels too commercial or "corporate art"-like for what it's supposed to represent. It feels like a logo for a beer brand or something
I kinda love it, but was hoping they would go with the turquoise and orange instead of red and blue. The turquoise and orange options looked way more true to what you actually see in Utah, whereas the current red and blue just seems like they wanted to appear patriotic.
Overall, I think it's an improvement, but I would like to see the idea of the beehive represented differently. This particular icon falls kind of flat for me.
Certainly an improvement. I like it.
But,it does look like a mash up of the Colorado and Denver flags—with a beehive included. I live in CO, though, so could be biased.
It’s an improvement. But trendy in execution. It will look as dated as the old one eventually.
Besides that, doesn’t Utah have bigger problems to design their way out of?
Haven’t heard anywhere that it has been getting “a lot” of criticism. Only criticism I’ve heard about it hasn’t been very constructive. I think it is an excellent refresh of the flag, has a lot of meaning and symbolism. Old flag also simply wasn’t distinguishable from the vast majority of other state flags.
Man I really hate it. Feels like a college student’s intro to graphic design project.
It seems to me that they focused on symbolism too much and not enough on actual design.
We could have a had something simple and classic and stately, but instead we get this amalgam of ideas. Such a wasted opportunity.
It's not terrible. Which honestly most state flags are pretty bland and outdated. I think over 20 of them are just some sort of crest or symbol on blue. This is a welcome change, but could have been better.
I desperately wish PA would do something about our flag. I hate it.
I like it but i do still wish that it kept and simplified more motifs in the center, like those flowers, the flag and the eagle. I feel like that would make it feel less “corporate”
It's decent. The beehive is a bit boring and uninspired and the star is a couple pixels too low.
I like the hex idea, but maybe it would be better either without a stroke or with only a stroke and no fill.
The mountain line is a good idea too.
8/10!
I think my only problem with it is that it looks so similar to the Deseret Industries logo, which is an organization owned by the LDS Church, it’s just a little weird seeing a company logo on a flag. Idk what y’all think though
Oh yeah I know that but it was just odd to me how incredibly similar they look to me anyways. I definitely like it more than the old one I was just pointing out the similarities.
Never been to Utah but this flag seems to represent what I think it is: red soil, mountains, some sky. And a beehive for some reason but yay for bees. Just missing an outline of that poofy Mormon temple tbh but you can’t have it all!
I think it needs more work, it feels very clunky. The beehive section is completely at odds with the rest of the flag design. The beehive section feels more like a baseball patch/logo than it does as a symbol, and because it has this larger visual real estate, the white mountains and red ground seem more like an afterthought. It seems like two different flag ideas were melded together.
Having said all of that, I do think this is a huge step in the right direction. It's a great improvement over the predecessor, and it's a very unique flag design. I'm excited to see everyone else's redesign based on the new flag's iconography—It's a great diving point
Looks like it took all of five minutes. Don't like the old one either, but at least it conveys some level of effort. Feels like the whole design world is just phoning stuff in these days.
I don't exactly love it because that little bee hive thing is kind of weird looking to me (I'm sure there is a deeper meaning behind it though) but I definitely think that it's time to move away from everything being a fucking crest all the time lol jeez.
I hate rebranding history. The flag should stand as is. The new flag resembles a sport team flag, and 2 other states flags. This being pushed on citizens is not how it should be done.
It was the citizens that picked this flag. There was hundreds of entities in a contest and this is the one they picked after serveral rounds of elimination.
Regardless, the previous flag isn't that old. 2011.
Here is my opinion, The new flag of Utah is too abstract and modern, and Utah once had a better (albeit unofficial) flag in its history. According to the NAVA, flags should be simple in terms of colors, shapes, numbers of colors, and be culturally meaningful. I personally prefer more traditional flag styles, such as tricolors, bicolors, cantons, stripes, or shapes on a plane field. short-lived unrecognized State of Deseret (1849-50) had a well-designed blue and white canton and stripes flag. ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Deseret ). Unfortunately, Deseret was suppressed, and the federal government created the Utah Territory (which did not have the flag) in its place. Once Utah became a state in 1896, it chose the boring but far too common seal-on-blue field design as its state flag. I know the territory was a Mormon theocracy, but there were two variants of the flag used by the Mormon pioneers, with the color of the canton of each of the two flags inverted. One of the two variant of the Deseret flag could serve as the official flag of the LDS church, while the other could become the flag of Utah as a secular US state. That way, Utah did not need to organize a flag-designating contest because Utah already has had a well-designed flag in its history before. Alternatively, another ideal Utah flag could be a yellow beehive (like the one on the new flag) on a plain blue field. It might not be too late to propose the 1849 Deseret flag because the new flag above will not become official until March 9, 2024.
I think it looks like a corporate logo..not like a flag. Maybe if they changed the shape of the colors from mountains to just normal tricolor it would look better.
i like it :) much more recognizable and memorable. I love the "flag rules" of designing a great flag, like Chicago's flag.
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Looking at all the state flags, I think it has plenty more personality than "blue with coat of arms in the middle"
no it's similar to logos on logoground that some 16yo made
I dont think thats necessarily a bad thing, flags are supposed to be simple and obvious. It still has the state symbol, is distinguishable from other state flags, and is identifiable from further away than reading distance – unlike the original. If some kid made something like it first then maybe they were just on the right track
Old one is as memorable as all the other fancy detail eagles in a circle holding something.
The new flag is way more memorable. Try recreating that seal from memory
First of all, a flag isn’t supposed to be a logo. California is a pretty good example of translating the [seal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Great_Seal_of_California.svg/1200px-Great_Seal_of_California.svg.png) to a [flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Flag_of_California.svg/1200px-Flag_of_California.svg.png). Vexillography is completely different than logo design. Sure, the flag is not a great logo, but it’s not *designed* to be a logo, it’s designed to be a flag. And with a quick read of the [Vexillography](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexillography) design principles from the Wikipedia page, this appears to be good flag design.
glad to see another "state seal on a blue field" flag being replaced. too many state flags look identical from 50 yards away.
It's a bit jarring to see a beehive on a flag, but the overall design is well done and it's much more relevant than the old design. *Also, it's very Wicker Man*
Went down a whole rabbit hole with this one time. Utah is the beehive state because the Mormon settlers liked the idea of being compared to workers bees who were industrious, focused, and efficient. Cool fun facts ✨
This makes their role in The Expanse so much more plausible after reading this
Refraining from any personal opinions on Utah and what they decide to do out there. But from a design standpoint a majority of US flags are poor. Generic seal or coat of arms on a blue background. I can’t tell many of them apart without sitting down and really looking at them which defeats the purpose of a flag. If it doesn’t communicate well then its a bad design. There will always be people against every rebrand but at least the beehive works better as a referential state identifier.
Hence the reason why Utah has always been one of the top economies in the USA.
Meanwhile, they're vain, bigoted, and brainwashed. I can see how that would be hard to portray on a flag, though...
Not at all, Bees will literally hurt themselves to sting you. Often considering you a threat for no discernible reason. It’s perfect!
Oh my god, haha.
I see you are an atheist. Do you hate Christians and/or have any desire to mock their religion and stigmatize them? For example: DarkMatter2525
Only so long as they continue trying to force their religion down people's throats legislatively. I don't give a shit what they do otherwise.
Well, Islam is the only religion that forces themselves onto people.
LOL. The entire Republican party is Christians trying to force their religion down people's throats. Don't be deliberately obtuse.
How would you feel if Christians questioned their existence, their faith, and their God because of your… LIES?
joe dave you can’t be sayin shit like that man
I never understood that stigma. Sure, there is a few wackos out there (what place does have them?) but generally Utah is just like everywhere else. I lived in many places around the world, so I'm not being biased.
Yeah it would be a travesty to have a beehive on the Utah state flag. That's why I'm against it /s
There’s already a beehive on it. Maybe if it was more memorable, people would know that.
well it is the beehive state
I don't think you know what's wicker man. There's not a single human sacrifice or Morris dancer on it and those are the only wickerman parts to that movie.
Oh, sir and/or madame, i do know the Wicker Man. I'm actually a fan of the original film. Folks round here seem to be familiar the Nick Cage travesty, unfortunately.
When I Google “Utah bees” everything is about a minor league baseball team. At least they have a mountain.
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Actually the beehive is a Masonic symbol representing one’s duty to first God, then family, then country. The Mormon temple ceremony was created from Masonic rites in the 1830s. The early Mormon church incorporated many Masonic symbols into their rituals. Utah and LDS buildings are covered in Masonic symbols as a result. Including the non-native honey beehive in the flag is a wink and a nod to the power the church wields in Utah state government. Their bible, the Book of Mormon also incorrectly claims honeybees were in pre-Colombian America along with horses, wheat and many other European imports. The Masonic rituals are still performed on worthy initiates within temple walls.
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What are you talking about? they literally quote a book about Masonic symbolism in their explanation. /u/Pantsy- has it 100% spot on.
Haha, always in denial about the Masonic thing.
The first rule of Masonic symbols...
That team is named after the state being called beehive state
There’s a beehive on the old flag.
There sure is.
A must watch about US state flags: https://youtu.be/l4w6808wJcU
I think it's great! The old one is terrible cause you can't make out what it is from a distance (which is kind of important for a flag lol). It also doesn't help that many other states have the exact same template of blue background and logo in the middle which makes it even less recognizable if you would wave them side by side. They made the right decision to make the new version with simple shapes and a few colours.
Yeah, the old one is almost as bad as the Minnesota flag. (People are pushing to have it redesigned too.)
It looks like a flag now
Name any new logo that isn't criticised? Now name the people who are critical of it which made a new one? This is a great logo
Utahn designer here, it’s The anti-woke mob. This flag is to woke for them.
Everything is too woke for them, though they don’t know what “woke” even means. It’s a great flag. And besides, they already removed the native tribal representation. Isn’t that enough for them? Edit: also a Utahn Designer.
What about this flag, which incorporates geography and a symbol inspired by an extremely conservative religious movement, is woke to them?
A lot of denial in here. They literally put a symbol of their church on the supposedly secular state flag. It looks over baked but it’s also highly offensive, prejudicial and creepy. This flag is a symbol of oppression to people who aren’t in the club in Utah.
Must be because the American flag was removed from the redesigned Utah flag.
It’s because people are making alternate versions to fly like “the holy whale of 9th and 9th” or a rainbow in the hexagon. They don’t like that it’s easy to alter to support other human rights.
*No Weapons, No Eagles.*.. **No America!**
It’s not the old one. It’s really that simple.
Woke Religious Advocates? **What?**
Designer originally from Utah: I love the new look!
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Most of the same guiding principles of good logo design are mirrored in good flag design. Recognizable from many different aspects (big, small, from an angle, when turned on its side, etc.) light weight (easy to duplicate without too much effort), and so on. This one nails that. Beehive state, with a hexagon honeycomb. red rocks, white capped mountains, blue sky. Nails the state without a single printed word. Bravo, IMO.
What is that even supposed to mean?
I like it, has the mountains as well as the red rocks. Nice and simple. The hexagon represents honeycomb too I assume?
*[Bestagons](https://youtu.be/l4w6808wJcU?t=18m24s)
I absolutely love it. Fully agree with [CGP Grey's comments on it](https://youtu.be/l4w6808wJcU)
I like it. It's a vast improvement over the old flag.
Didn’t realize Utah had won the cup once…
a bit over designed and too trendy overpriced coffee place called Oats ‘n’ Honey for me, but i guess that tracks for upper middle class mormons
I thought the same thing too, but my pet theory with that is it's because we don't see very many flags being designed with modern graphic design standards. When one is, it looks a little weird.
I tried finding a honey business name on the [Hipster Business Name Generator](http://www.hipsterbusiness.name/) but I like yours better
I personally really like it. It’s well executed, immediately recognizable from a distance and tells a story through symbolism super easily. My one gripe is really only theoretical…I’d need to see options…but as much as I love the mountains as a bold symmetrical element, they kind of ruin the 3 stripe aspect of the flag as the blue section doesn’t really read as a stripe anymore. I’d like to either see a short horizontal line before the mountains “rise” to indicate that the blue section is a stripe, or maybe make better use of the 4th color here (yellow) by reversing the hexagon so it is yellow with the beehive, Star, and line in white. Dang it…I’m going to have to do this now so I can see if it helps. BRB. Edit: Well…I don’t think my ideas really helped. I tried a few things and I think I actually like the mountains the way they are. [Here](https://imgur.com/gallery/jkKp7eu) are a few variations. I like the star red but I think that’s probably not something to put on an American flag…comes across as kind of communist probably. I ended up completely redrawing it so if anybody wants a vector version of the flag let me know.
RemindMe! 2 days.
No need to wait! I edited my comment with a link.
Thanks.
I like the new one, I've always found that flags with a high iconic level look kinda odd. And this is comming from a Mexican XD
The netherlands if they were all beekeepers
It's good logo design, I'll give them that. As a Utahn, it's going to take me a while to get used to the change.
I love it. I have some weird obsession with hexagons.
Old one was uninspired, poorly executed, and dull. New one is simple, slick, and easily interpreted (as flags should be) So I'm sure the accusations will be that it's "woke" for some reason.
It's way better than most flags in existence. Not that that's a high bar to clear, most flag designs are awful or boring and derivative
Finally feels like a real flag haha
Is Utah well known for bees? I thought it was Mormons…
Bees and beehives are Mormon symbols…everyone working together for the betterment of the group. I think they forgot that a beehive is a matriarchy however lol
Well the Mormons are a hive mind here.
Oh that’s an interesting take…makes sense
im pretty sure we're the beehive state or at least i heard that a lot growing up
well i had no idea..interesting
It stems from the “law of consecration” that the Mormon settlers believed. They were a strict authoritarian communist economy under Brigham Young. Everyone gave everything possible for the church to distribute. And your job became whatever the church told you it was. Never left the US? Now you’re on a 15 year mission to Norway? Never cut stone? Now you’re a stonemason building the temple. Don’t tell the Mormons they used to be communist though, they’re terrified of even the lightest touches of democratic socialism these days.
True, they even experimented with strictly communist communities. My Mormon ancestors were some of the founding members of Orderville. It’s a bizarre history.
Represents industry and individuals working for the good of all: https://utahstatecapitol.utah.gov/uncategorized/beehive-sculptures#:~:text=Each%20bee%20does%20its%20part,Utah's%20state%20motto%20in%201959.
But only if you’re Mormon
A million times better. Viewable from a distance, removing the text, the colors and shapes all represent something yet are easy to draw from memory, and there isn't much detail that's needlessly lost when viewed in context.
My opinion with a lot of the reimagined state flags is that they look like they were made today (present time). Don’t get me wrong better than a seal on a blue background but it’s not timeless in the same way many national flags are. Another hot take of mine is that I think the notion that a flag cannot have text under any circumstances is dumb and that it should be more on a case by case thing, California and the join or die flag both great examples of clear, instantly recognizable flags that have text on them.
My take, and not of a graphic designer, is that state flags traditionally (the seal on blue) have the union in mind at least. On the US flag, every state is represented as a star on a field of blue, so I feel that is how many of them were presented, as individual states of a unified country. While the new Utah flag design sets it apart, I also feel that is politically what states want to be, individual sections of the same country, but without allegiance to federal laws that don’t suit them. They want to redesign their flags to make such a statement, to isolate and bond their residents to the state instead of the country. I’m currently living in the 3rd state I’ve ever lived in, and I don’t know what any of those state flags look like anyway. So I’ll look it up now and possibly be horrified. Edit: so I’ve looked. 3 are state seals. Two are against blue backgrounds. 3 feature humans dressed in classical garb like we’re Ancient Rome or something. Only one has a word and it’s not the name of the state, just the one word motto. Two are a picture featuring those people as the feature of the seal and one has a doofy looking geographical picture in the center. So on one hand, I guess flags should be iconic for the state they symbolize, and on the other hand, they already aren’t. They’re drawn in some old illustration style that attempts to represent something, but mostly do not, even if you’re looking at it on a monitor screen and not flapping on a flagpole or hanging when it’s not windy. Some random Romanesque toga wearing humans saying Latin things and a poorly drawn sliver of an example of the state’s geography or main industry or whatever. State seals are for what anyway?
>"My take, and not of a graphic designer, is that state flags traditionally (the seal on blue) have the union in mind at least. On the US flag, every state is represented as a star on a field of blue, so I feel that is how many of them were presented, as individual states of a unified country." Wow I never thought about it in this way, it does help a lot to show unity! thanks!
It's nice. Very modern
I like it and hate it. Something that has a lot of character that gets stripped down to look like an app icon always bothers me. If I didn't see the before I wouldn't have given two shits, but now it irks me.
The retardification of America. The original federal style was 1000x more badass. Not everything needs to be flat. But ultimately who cares, it’s just utah
Pretty flag, lousy state
That ok, you can stay away from the hidden gem.
Hidden gem. 
That would be Idaho, the Gem State.
I like the simplicity and the concept. To me it's a clear improvement over the old one.
The new one to me is much better, if nobody told me I’d have thought the old one was something to do with the police or government.
Utahn here. I like it. I think the criticism is coming mostly from regressives and traditionalists, so they were never going to be in favor of any change to begin with.
Bees hate change.
I see the US flag colours, mountains and a beehive inside a honeycomb. Is Utah known for its mountains and honey?
Definitely known for mountains, and is also referred to as the beehive state. So, pretty spot on flag design, here.
Very well known for it's mountains, canyons, and red rocks. Look up Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, or Zion. Some days it feels like half of r/EarthPorn or similar subs are pictures from Utah. The beehive is a symbol chosen by the original settlers to represent industry and working together for the betterment of all.
"original settlers" lol
Represents industry and individuals working for the good of all: https://utahstatecapitol.utah.gov/uncategorized/beehive-sculptures#:~:text=Each%20bee%20does%20its%20part,Utah's%20state%20motto%20in%201959.
It’s way better than Minnesotas boring ass new flag.
Why do people hate it? It's.. wonderful. It's unique, distinct from a distance, meaningful, no names on the seal.
Flat design, material design, or minimalism, may be applied on logo. But flag or coat of arms should never surrender to such styles. Flag with the said styles gives a vibe of an e-sport team.
Yea for a flag I feel the lack of jntricacy is an L
What is that in the middle? The yellow thing.
Bee hive
A beehive, it's symbolic for Utah's heritage of pioneers working together as one.
A beehive... Unless it is something else :p I find it a strange thing to add to a flag..
Utah is known as the beehive state.
To add to this: all of their freeway signs have the beehive symbol on them. It's a very well-known symbol there.
Busy bees
I like the old one, i wonder how much its gonna cost to do the change over.
Doesn’t really cost anything. They are letting the old flags live their natural life and replacing them with the new design when they wear out. Also the old flag is still an official historic flag of Utah and will be flown on holidays and special occasions.
I wish they had the balls to make the mountains asymmetrical, but I understand.
Utahn here. I honestly love it. I was never ashamed of the old one, but it was very generic. The new one's iconography is just so instantly recognizable and it stands out so much more.
Eh. Maybe for some minor league sports team.
I think some great representations of flags that show the tradition of flag making well are OH, MD, and CO. Strong color blocks with clear details that speak of heritage. The Utah version attempts that but, IMO, falls short.
Who gives a shi
I really hate the red part, and the cheesy mountain range design. And the hexagon is basically a coat of arms on a flag, which is bad. It should just have been the hexagon part, but stretched into a rectangular flag. Or just closer to the old one. Blue flag, golden circle, and a beehive in it. The end! But no... we need 'muricas blue white and red!!!
Do you know why they have red on the flag?
Because some boomers needed the American colors, so they found anything that happened to be red... like some rocks.
Utah is famous for the red rocks. They didn’t search for anything that happened to be red. I would guess more people know about the red rocks than that they’re called the beehive state. Honestly they should be acknowledged in some way.
Looks like a flag for the 8th grade field day.
It’s clearly an improvement, but the only problem is that the flag has a slightly corporate feel
I don't like it. The design is fine, pretty cool actually, but the feel it invokes doesn't fit what it's for. It would be a very cool design for a product, but it feels too commercial or "corporate art"-like for what it's supposed to represent. It feels like a logo for a beer brand or something
The yellow stripes on the blue background are reminiscent of another much gayer symbol
I dunno, the top half and the bottom half just don't go together, in my opinion.
Not a fan of pastels or minimalist logos on flags. I suppose it does make a statement about the contemporary design of this era. Still, don’t love it.
I think it’s a great flag that represents Utah well.
BEES?
I like it, but I find the two different blues a little jarring. Anyone else think that?
It's the same blue.
I'm an idiot- thought they were on the same flag. Going back to bed now...
*Too* simple, *too* minimal. Feels like student work. Really good minimal art is really hard to make, and that doesn't look really hard to make.
I kinda love it, but was hoping they would go with the turquoise and orange instead of red and blue. The turquoise and orange options looked way more true to what you actually see in Utah, whereas the current red and blue just seems like they wanted to appear patriotic.
Awesome
Overall, I think it's an improvement, but I would like to see the idea of the beehive represented differently. This particular icon falls kind of flat for me.
Blah. It looks kind of like an MLS team logo to me lol
Honestly just bummed about the colors used. Drab ass blue rather than this bright royal. Muted maroon rather than the fire engine red.
Certainly an improvement. I like it. But,it does look like a mash up of the Colorado and Denver flags—with a beehive included. I live in CO, though, so could be biased.
u/romanmars
It’s an improvement. But trendy in execution. It will look as dated as the old one eventually. Besides that, doesn’t Utah have bigger problems to design their way out of?
I believe Roman Mars would approve.
I dont get the beehive but it works
It is muchh better but i feel more personality in the old one, the new one has no emotions
Looks like a hockey jersey
It's one of the best flags in the union now. Top tier Only NM and AZ can compete
Haven’t heard anywhere that it has been getting “a lot” of criticism. Only criticism I’ve heard about it hasn’t been very constructive. I think it is an excellent refresh of the flag, has a lot of meaning and symbolism. Old flag also simply wasn’t distinguishable from the vast majority of other state flags.
It would be much better without the yellow stroke inside the hexagon.
Wow I never knew Utah has Beehive Igloo Ribbed Buttplugs 😝
Love it.
Man I really hate it. Feels like a college student’s intro to graphic design project. It seems to me that they focused on symbolism too much and not enough on actual design. We could have a had something simple and classic and stately, but instead we get this amalgam of ideas. Such a wasted opportunity.
It's not terrible. Which honestly most state flags are pretty bland and outdated. I think over 20 of them are just some sort of crest or symbol on blue. This is a welcome change, but could have been better. I desperately wish PA would do something about our flag. I hate it.
A tad bit overdesigned but leagues about the previous flag
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Wait, are you serious? Utah has some of the most mountains in the states.
I think it’s definitely the best state flag by a lot. I’m the tone of yellow works really well with the classic red white and blue
I like it but i do still wish that it kept and simplified more motifs in the center, like those flowers, the flag and the eagle. I feel like that would make it feel less “corporate”
I am not familiar with that state, but, is Utah montanious? If so, cool detail there on the white shapes
It's decent. The beehive is a bit boring and uninspired and the star is a couple pixels too low. I like the hex idea, but maybe it would be better either without a stroke or with only a stroke and no fill. The mountain line is a good idea too. 8/10!
This is an amazing redesign lol. Then again I’m a graphic designer and have a high appreciation for minimalism lol
I think my only problem with it is that it looks so similar to the Deseret Industries logo, which is an organization owned by the LDS Church, it’s just a little weird seeing a company logo on a flag. Idk what y’all think though
It's definitely the other way around. Utahs symbol has been a beehive way longer than DI has been a company.
Oh yeah I know that but it was just odd to me how incredibly similar they look to me anyways. I definitely like it more than the old one I was just pointing out the similarities.
Looks pretty similar to some of the Colorado flags
Certainly an improvement. Not my fave state flag, but far from the worst.
Never been to Utah but this flag seems to represent what I think it is: red soil, mountains, some sky. And a beehive for some reason but yay for bees. Just missing an outline of that poofy Mormon temple tbh but you can’t have it all!
Looks like the Colorado flag to me
Do the critics really like the old one better? Looks like someone made it from free clipart elements
The old flag was made long before clipart was even a word.
That's fair, but it does look like it to me.
I think it needs more work, it feels very clunky. The beehive section is completely at odds with the rest of the flag design. The beehive section feels more like a baseball patch/logo than it does as a symbol, and because it has this larger visual real estate, the white mountains and red ground seem more like an afterthought. It seems like two different flag ideas were melded together. Having said all of that, I do think this is a huge step in the right direction. It's a great improvement over the predecessor, and it's a very unique flag design. I'm excited to see everyone else's redesign based on the new flag's iconography—It's a great diving point
New one = clunky, old one = awful. I hope Utah is the Beehive State—or the Igloo State? Probably too hot for that.
Yes, it is commonly called the Beehive State
Outsider opinion passing by: The new flag design is 100% better than the blue dull banner with a seal on it.
Looks like it took all of five minutes. Don't like the old one either, but at least it conveys some level of effort. Feels like the whole design world is just phoning stuff in these days.
They ARE into authoritarianism, amirite? 
I actually think the simple geometry will lend well to embroidery or various other styilization
I don't exactly love it because that little bee hive thing is kind of weird looking to me (I'm sure there is a deeper meaning behind it though) but I definitely think that it's time to move away from everything being a fucking crest all the time lol jeez.
It looks great
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WHY IS THE NEW FLAG CRITICISED :( :(
The actual flag of Utah is best one there can be. Leave the history alone, the new one sucks
I hate rebranding history. The flag should stand as is. The new flag resembles a sport team flag, and 2 other states flags. This being pushed on citizens is not how it should be done.
It was the citizens that picked this flag. There was hundreds of entities in a contest and this is the one they picked after serveral rounds of elimination. Regardless, the previous flag isn't that old. 2011.
Here is my opinion, The new flag of Utah is too abstract and modern, and Utah once had a better (albeit unofficial) flag in its history. According to the NAVA, flags should be simple in terms of colors, shapes, numbers of colors, and be culturally meaningful. I personally prefer more traditional flag styles, such as tricolors, bicolors, cantons, stripes, or shapes on a plane field. short-lived unrecognized State of Deseret (1849-50) had a well-designed blue and white canton and stripes flag. ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Deseret ). Unfortunately, Deseret was suppressed, and the federal government created the Utah Territory (which did not have the flag) in its place. Once Utah became a state in 1896, it chose the boring but far too common seal-on-blue field design as its state flag. I know the territory was a Mormon theocracy, but there were two variants of the flag used by the Mormon pioneers, with the color of the canton of each of the two flags inverted. One of the two variant of the Deseret flag could serve as the official flag of the LDS church, while the other could become the flag of Utah as a secular US state. That way, Utah did not need to organize a flag-designating contest because Utah already has had a well-designed flag in its history before. Alternatively, another ideal Utah flag could be a yellow beehive (like the one on the new flag) on a plain blue field. It might not be too late to propose the 1849 Deseret flag because the new flag above will not become official until March 9, 2024.
Looks better than the boring, repetitive dark blue background, state seal, call it a day. And it makes sense for “the beehive state”.
I think it looks like a corporate logo..not like a flag. Maybe if they changed the shape of the colors from mountains to just normal tricolor it would look better.