Milwaukee Flag Design-MIAD Communication Design

As part of MIAD’s 2013 Identity Design and Environmental Graphics class, the students were challenged to create a new design for the city flag of Milwaukee. We were not specifically asked to do this by the city, but it has been a topic as of late and we decided to take it on. (Our city’s flag ranks 147 out of 150 city flags according to the North American Vexillological Association.) Although the original symbolism was accurate and the intentions were good in 1955, the flag is in need of a redesign to reflect the current aspirations of the city. 75% of the 29 students are not originally from the Milwaukee area and knew very little about the city and its symbolism. We analyzed the current city flag and discussed what the imagery stood for– what was still relevant and what was not. They were all asked to do photographic reference search about what they felt represented the city. They each created Pinterest boards on city imagery. The images consisted of parks, historical downtown buildings and sweeping architectural spans found on the Hoan Bridge, Miller Park and of course the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum. Their reference also showed more abstract elements of texture, light and water. A surprising number of appearances of di Suvero’s sculpture “The Calling” was what many felt captured the essence of the city in a positive way. Not having grown up in the Milwaukee area, they viewed this city’s imagery with fresh eyes. They all knew of the travel abbreviation of “MKE” and several chose to monopolize on that. Realizing that the intent of a flag is to be instantly recognizable and memorable, the designs were focused on contrast and legibility. Please enjoy their attempts at creating a simple yet memorable image that might be considered as a flag for Milwaukee. Students were asked to do a rendering of the flag in motion, as well as a schematic of callouts pertaining to the attributes of their flag. We do intend to collect data on the amount of “likes” that you apply and we will forward this information to City Hall for consideration. Phil Belair Associate Professor- Communication Design Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design

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