Pocatello city flag one step closer to new design

Pocatello’s city flag was voted the worst in the country. It sparked worldwide attention and brought in suggestions and designs from several countries.

Designs were submitted from 26 countries and 31 states. The designs were all from all different ages and all different skill levels of flag design.

The city received a total of 709 submissions for a possible new design.

“When we first started this thing, I thought it we got 100 designs total we’d be doing really well,” said Logan McDougall, the chairman for the flag design committee. “Then now to see what those designs are and what we get to draw from, I really think that’s an exciting, amazing thing for the city.”

An expert panel consisting of professors, marketing professionals and artists initially voted on their favorites. The city then looked at which designs got a majority vote, which narrowed the designs down to 330.

Those 330 designs are what the expert panel had to discuss as a group and narrow down Saturday morning.

The panel looked at symbolism, color choice and overall effectiveness of the design.

McDougall said narrowing it down wasn’t easy.

“There’s some flags that they liked a certain element on and another flag that they really like this element on,” McDougall said. “But if you combine those two, you’ve got one really solid flag.”

The panel did narrow the designs down to 19, but those aren’t the final designs yet. The panel is asking that the committee revise some of the designs before final selection. Those revisions would go back before the expert panel. After that, they would select their top designs and it would go the public to vote on their favorite.

The flag committee will make a decision this week on whether or not to make those revisions.