u/low_quality_posts (2/2) (late entry)
My redesign of the Utah flag is a simple modification of the current flag, which I think is already an excellent design, though the beehive is arguably too explicitly Mormon for a state in a nation where there is separation between church and state, so the only change I made was to switch out the beehive for a sego lily, the state flower. Like the beehive, the flower was chosen as a state symbol to commemorate the history and resilience of the early Mormon pioneers who came to Utah, but unlike the beehive, it hasn't come to symbolize Mormonism itself. Additionally, the sego lily symbolizes the Native American heritage: The name "sego" comes from a Shoshone word that means "edible bulb;" for centuries, Native American tribes roasted, boiled, or ground the bulbs into porridge, and when a devastating plague of crickets destroyed the early Mormon pioneers' crops in the mid-1800s, it was the local Native Americans who taught the settlers to dig up the plant's starchy, walnut-sized bulbs to avoid starvation. On top of all this, the sego lily matches that of the Salt Lake City flag, making for stronger state-capital flag cohesiveness. And, given that the current flag is an amalgamation of several finalist designs, I specifically used the sego lily design from one of the Utah flag redesign finalists. (In fact, it is the only finalist design featuring a sego lily.) Also, while I understand that some may find the current flag (and by extension my redesign) too "landscape-y," I think that flag designs that harken to the state's geography and nature are particularly appropriate for the beautiful and picturesque Western states, especially Utah with its unique and distinctive terrain, mountains, and red rock formations.