Duluth is updating its city flag. Mayor Emily Larson is looking to redesign the current banner into something the people of Duluth can connect to and recognize. Mollie Hinderaker is the planning technician in charge of the new flag, as a part of the Imagine Duluth 2035 plan. Submissions are open to anyone in Duluth until April 12.

“During the listening sessions it was identified that the current city flag didn’t stand as a recognized symbol for Duluth,” Hinderaker said. “This redesign initiative is meant to address this opportunity by creating a new symbol that all Duluthians can latch onto and identify with.”

Submissions may be sent online or through the mail. The drawings must be 3” X 5”. The entry form offers five basic principles that make a good flag design: keep it simple, use meaningful symbolism, use two-three basic colors, no lettering or seals, and be distinctive. Cities that are being looked to as flag design examples include Tulsa, Denver and Chicago.

The entry form also offers suggestions of simple designs to put on the flag such as the hill, the lift bridge, Enger Tower and a few others. Additionally, it offers space to shrink the flag down into a one-inch cube as that’s how a flag would look from 100 or so feet away.

The new flag will be voted on by the people of Duluth later this spring but ultimately chosen by a flag committee in early summer. The new flag will be announced on July 19 and raised on a to be decided date in August, according to the Duluth Flag Project website.

It was a TED talk that also inspired the initiative for a new flag. In the talk, it addresses one of the worst offenses a flag can commit is to have the seal of its city printed on it. Duluth’s current green and blue banner does just that. The video can be viewed on the Duluth Flag Project website.

Even if residents don’t want to submit a design of their own, they can fill out a survey to tell the selection committee what is important to them in terms of color and symbols. In this manner, the committee will have the best idea of what the people of Duluth want in their new city flag.