Look at the Alternative State Flag Designs Mainers Dreamed Up

With all the hullabaloo surrounding the potential change of our state flag, the Press Herald asked its readers to send in their own ideas for a new state flag design and while many drew inspiration from the existing flag or the throwback pine tree and star design, some went in a completely new direction. You can see the full slideshow of proposed state flag designs in the below - here are some of my favorites:

There's a lovely blue-green chickadee design by Alicia Bane in Brunswick honoring our state bird and two colors featured heavily in Maine's natural habitat.

Christopher Parelius' design points out the land-and-sea juxtaposition of our great state filled with pine trees and sailors alike with a tree-anchor combo featuring fleurs de lis on either side as a recognition of our French influence from the North.

We've got Eric Wittman's gorgeous reinterpretation of the alternate Maine flag, maintaining the blue field but bringing over the star and pine tree, augmenting the tree to look like a more realistic silhouette as opposed to the hand-drawn design that Maine held as their emblem in the early 1900s.

Finally, in what is arguably the most original state flag design I've ever seen, O'Chang Comics submitted this cartoony depiction of the woodsman and seaman flanking their shared love: coffee-flavored brandy, ever protected overhead by a shining marijuana leaf (I mean, does it get any better than that?).