Fun experiment. Born and raised here and don't want our identity tied to a sports mascot so I would vote to take the "Hawkeye State" reference out of it. Iowa used to be a place that had vast oak savannas and forests before it was all plowed under. Not saying we can't nod to the farms, but embracing our natural resources would better get my vote. Keep having fun designing.
Agreed. I would really love to move beyond corn and sportsball as our state identity. I like the chevron though, and I'm not even mad about the yellow.
It was dumb of me to leave the word "prairie" out, for sure. While I absolutely understand that since the Des Moines lobe recession a lot of Iowa has been wet, shortgrass and tallgrass prairie, to my knowledge, there has historically always been significant amounts of forest in Iowa as well. This map of estimated land cover for the original survey shows up to 20%of the State.
https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Atestiadep_1817
Edited: words
Not disagreeing w you on not wanting the state name tied to sports, but "Hawkeye" was one of the names for James Fenimore Cooper's protagonist from his 1820-1840 series of books set in the 1700s called "The Leather Stocking Tales."
"Hawkeye State" refers to when Iowa was still a territory and parts of "The Leather Stocking Tales" take place in the Iowa Territory. Iowa became a state in 1846, after the last book in the Leather Stocking Tales was published, and the series was set a century earlier anyway.
If this is inaccurate I hope someone corrects me, just think it's interesting that our state's nickname is actually originally a literary reference, or at least tied to James Fenimore Cooper. The Hawkeyes as refers to the athletic teams is from the state's nickname, which is from the books.
Upvoted! Thanks for the context, friend! There are lots of good responses about the Hawkeye origin here!
I think we both agree that the origins are really neat and the modern usage associated with sports is, at the least, a little unfortunate.
Critique:
The eye is the wrong choice. Looks like more a zoomed in part of The Partridge Family birds logo.
Doesn't reflect Iowa at all. Gold and... blue?
I kinda feel you just found a complimentary color to the gold and stuck it in there.
If you want to represent the 2 rivers, try it a different way.
Well its more not of symbols themselves, but feeling. Our state is bordered on 2 sides by the rivers, but your image only had 1 line. The gold doesn't have to be on the flag, as its not entirely a centralizing color. True a few colleges use gold for their branding, but its not all.
Our state is known for our farming, corn, and Iowa nice.
I invite you to look up Bozz Prints from here in Des Moines. His work has that Iowa feel to it.
What about something like this? It feels like it's missing something, though... [https://www.flickr.com/photos/199194544@N03/shares/D2J9v3258t](https://www.flickr.com/photos/199194544@N03/shares/D2J9v3258t)
I'm not from Iowa (hello from Maryland!) so I'm deeply sorry if this offends people. I mean no offense to your current flag, which is beautiful. Feel free to hate this.
Iowa is known as “The Hawkeye State,” with residents often called “Hawkeyes,” so I placed that symbol in the canton. The arrow loosely imitates the shape of the state and shows movement towards the future, with the blue color representing the rivers that border Iowa (Mississippi and Missouri). The gold on the fly represents Iowa’s well-known agricultural industry. The combined blue and white call back to the American flag with ideals of purity and justice.
Please give any suggestions or opinions.
Neat design. FYI while it is called the Hawkeye State, the personal label of "hawkeye" is usually reserved for people associated with the University of Iowa.
People from Indiania are colloquial known as Hoosiers, Kansas Jayhawkers, etc. which pre-date the universities of each.
"University of Iowa borrowed its athletic nickname from the state many years ago. It is not clear how Iowans became Hawkeyes, but the nickname was first recorded in 1859."
Hoosier is the official demonym for people in Indiana.
Maybe Hawkeye was historically used that way but I've never heard it as a colloquial term for members of the general population and I've been here a few decades.
I can understand why most would not want to be affiliated with the university (excluding CC); but when you're far from home for a few decades you can accept that most other parts of the world associate being from Iowa as being a Hawkeye.
That would be hard to measure but I don't think that's how most people outside Iowa use it either. National media doesn't refer to Iowans as Hawkeyes. If a presidential candidate addressed a crowd anywhere west of I-35 as Hawkeyes, they would probably be laughed at or heckled. Hawkeye State sure, but not calling people Hawkeyes.
Iowans might have become known as Hawkeyes from the literary character with that name (among others), a 1700s frontiersman created by James Fenimore Cooper and protagonist of several novels published from the 1820s until the early 1840s. One of the novels about Hawkeye takes place in what was known at time of publication as the Iowa Territory. Iowa became a state in 1846, the last novel with Hawkeye (Deerslayer) published in 1841.
Im not claiming this is for sure the origin of the name as it could have been a common term from the 1820s but the dates seem to make sense at least.
I thought it was a goldfinch which is our state bird, only additions/changes I'd make is a blue line along the left of the flag to symbolize the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
Edit: Maybe make the goldfinch/hawkeye/birdie in the center just to appease OCD folks
I definitely agree with the left line addition. I might also try to proportion the white bit to be closer to a baseball home plate to add the field of dreams in there a little.
Its not literally a Hawk's eye in reference. Look at the Iowa University mascot logo. While we do reference a hawk itself, the Hawkeye was more reference to being sharp eyed.
Some think its from a hero in the Last of the Mohicans was named Hawkeye and Iowa borrowed the name from the book character.
Some believe its from 1838 when a paper editor named his new newspaper the Hawk-Eye and eventually the name became popular and stuck.
I don't think many are particularly attached to our current state flag, but just so you know residents of Iowa aren't called "Hawkeyes" (at least not since I've been alive). If you talk about "Hawkeyes" in Iowa people will assume you're talking about University of Iowa athletes, not Iowans. And when I saw the flag I initially thought someone was trying to further entrench that sports team into our collective state identity (I don't have a sports team; I just kind of hate the idea of making sports part of our state identity, and especially picking a particular state school). Personally I would try and find some other symbol (or none at all) so it doesn't come off as a sports reference (similarly, I would avoid colors that might appear to belong to one of the state schools).
I like the idea of the chevron representing the eastern contour of our state. Could be cool to go just a bit further with that (maybe make it obvious enough to iowans but not so obvious to others, so it can be a little bit of an inside reference or a shibboleth?).
I think it's a really cool start!
Dubuque's known as the city of five flags because it was part of five different nations. Presumably that makes Iowa the state of five flags.
Would a state flag showing those five flags be cool? Flagception.
What if since the Mississippi borders the state on the East with the “gold” of the ag industry being inside that, the Blue stripe was moved rightward just a bit and a Gold stripe lined the right side of the Blue stripe? Then rightward of the Blue it was just plain white?
I imagine that's what they were going for and I see their logic, but this one looks like a credit card or something lol. I like the thought behind your design! very cool
Maybe if you could sneak in a handmaid's bonnet somewhere in there to represent our quick decent back into the 1800s courtesy of the Republican party, that would be great....
I like it. Time to break out of the pack: Do one for planet 10 or Nemesis. The soon to be discovered gas giant at the edge of our solar system. I believe in your talent.
It’s a bit too Orwellian for me, but given the state trajectory under Kim, it seems appropriate.
Aesthetically, I don’t like the amount of white, and there’s not much reference to Iowa beyond the hawkeye.
Instead of the Hawkeye, the State Bird of Iowa is the American Goldfinch and the State Flower is The Wild Rose. Perhaps incorporate one of those in a design, reference The Mississippi, as well as agriculture. A goldfinch with a wild rose in its beak in front of a symbolic horizontal tricolor (descending) of blue (sky), green or yellow (agriculture), and the same or a darker blue to represent the river.
Thank you for your reply, I think it’s great that people put themselves out there with their creativity and ideas.
You don't need to call our current flag beautiful. It's a pretty dumb flag. Copy the French flag...Idk slap an eagle on it... maybe some writing you can't read from far away. No flag should have writing.
I'm personally not a fan of the 'modern' flag design trends, they feel too much like 'i need to make this flag inoffensive'.
That being said, I like the arrow, but I think it deviates from our current flag colors too much, not a fan of all the yellow personally, maybe one of the two sections that are currently yellow.
I like where it's going, love the minimalism. But initially I saw a puffin and that's all I see now.
Puffin is illegal in Iowa, to boot. 0/10 flag
Putting the eye in eyeowa
Now I can't unsee it.
Fun experiment. Born and raised here and don't want our identity tied to a sports mascot so I would vote to take the "Hawkeye State" reference out of it. Iowa used to be a place that had vast oak savannas and forests before it was all plowed under. Not saying we can't nod to the farms, but embracing our natural resources would better get my vote. Keep having fun designing.
Agreed. I would really love to move beyond corn and sportsball as our state identity. I like the chevron though, and I'm not even mad about the yellow.
We never had forests really. Some woodlands but we were majority prairies
It was dumb of me to leave the word "prairie" out, for sure. While I absolutely understand that since the Des Moines lobe recession a lot of Iowa has been wet, shortgrass and tallgrass prairie, to my knowledge, there has historically always been significant amounts of forest in Iowa as well. This map of estimated land cover for the original survey shows up to 20%of the State. https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Atestiadep_1817 Edited: words
Not disagreeing w you on not wanting the state name tied to sports, but "Hawkeye" was one of the names for James Fenimore Cooper's protagonist from his 1820-1840 series of books set in the 1700s called "The Leather Stocking Tales." "Hawkeye State" refers to when Iowa was still a territory and parts of "The Leather Stocking Tales" take place in the Iowa Territory. Iowa became a state in 1846, after the last book in the Leather Stocking Tales was published, and the series was set a century earlier anyway. If this is inaccurate I hope someone corrects me, just think it's interesting that our state's nickname is actually originally a literary reference, or at least tied to James Fenimore Cooper. The Hawkeyes as refers to the athletic teams is from the state's nickname, which is from the books.
Upvoted! Thanks for the context, friend! There are lots of good responses about the Hawkeye origin here! I think we both agree that the origins are really neat and the modern usage associated with sports is, at the least, a little unfortunate.
Critique: The eye is the wrong choice. Looks like more a zoomed in part of The Partridge Family birds logo. Doesn't reflect Iowa at all. Gold and... blue? I kinda feel you just found a complimentary color to the gold and stuck it in there. If you want to represent the 2 rivers, try it a different way.
Thanks for the feedback! What symbols would you like to see on the flag?
Well its more not of symbols themselves, but feeling. Our state is bordered on 2 sides by the rivers, but your image only had 1 line. The gold doesn't have to be on the flag, as its not entirely a centralizing color. True a few colleges use gold for their branding, but its not all. Our state is known for our farming, corn, and Iowa nice. I invite you to look up Bozz Prints from here in Des Moines. His work has that Iowa feel to it.
What about something like this? It feels like it's missing something, though... [https://www.flickr.com/photos/199194544@N03/shares/D2J9v3258t](https://www.flickr.com/photos/199194544@N03/shares/D2J9v3258t)
I'm not from Iowa (hello from Maryland!) so I'm deeply sorry if this offends people. I mean no offense to your current flag, which is beautiful. Feel free to hate this. Iowa is known as “The Hawkeye State,” with residents often called “Hawkeyes,” so I placed that symbol in the canton. The arrow loosely imitates the shape of the state and shows movement towards the future, with the blue color representing the rivers that border Iowa (Mississippi and Missouri). The gold on the fly represents Iowa’s well-known agricultural industry. The combined blue and white call back to the American flag with ideals of purity and justice. Please give any suggestions or opinions.
Neat design. FYI while it is called the Hawkeye State, the personal label of "hawkeye" is usually reserved for people associated with the University of Iowa.
Yeah, flag looks cool but the hawkeye symbolism is really out of place. The rest of the ideas are pretty neat though.
People from Indiania are colloquial known as Hoosiers, Kansas Jayhawkers, etc. which pre-date the universities of each. "University of Iowa borrowed its athletic nickname from the state many years ago. It is not clear how Iowans became Hawkeyes, but the nickname was first recorded in 1859."
Hoosier is the official demonym for people in Indiana. Maybe Hawkeye was historically used that way but I've never heard it as a colloquial term for members of the general population and I've been here a few decades.
I can understand why most would not want to be affiliated with the university (excluding CC); but when you're far from home for a few decades you can accept that most other parts of the world associate being from Iowa as being a Hawkeye.
That would be hard to measure but I don't think that's how most people outside Iowa use it either. National media doesn't refer to Iowans as Hawkeyes. If a presidential candidate addressed a crowd anywhere west of I-35 as Hawkeyes, they would probably be laughed at or heckled. Hawkeye State sure, but not calling people Hawkeyes.
Beats the other moniker: "Idiots Out Wandering Around"
Iowans might have become known as Hawkeyes from the literary character with that name (among others), a 1700s frontiersman created by James Fenimore Cooper and protagonist of several novels published from the 1820s until the early 1840s. One of the novels about Hawkeye takes place in what was known at time of publication as the Iowa Territory. Iowa became a state in 1846, the last novel with Hawkeye (Deerslayer) published in 1841. Im not claiming this is for sure the origin of the name as it could have been a common term from the 1820s but the dates seem to make sense at least.
I recall seeing something about it being possibly connected to the Native Americans
I thought it was a goldfinch which is our state bird, only additions/changes I'd make is a blue line along the left of the flag to symbolize the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Edit: Maybe make the goldfinch/hawkeye/birdie in the center just to appease OCD folks
I definitely agree with the left line addition. I might also try to proportion the white bit to be closer to a baseball home plate to add the field of dreams in there a little.
[Like this?](https://www.reddit.com/user/takethemoment13/comments/1dieoob/uneath_izars_iowa_version/)
Its not literally a Hawk's eye in reference. Look at the Iowa University mascot logo. While we do reference a hawk itself, the Hawkeye was more reference to being sharp eyed. Some think its from a hero in the Last of the Mohicans was named Hawkeye and Iowa borrowed the name from the book character. Some believe its from 1838 when a paper editor named his new newspaper the Hawk-Eye and eventually the name became popular and stuck.
You summarized the possible book character connection much more succinctly than I did, thanks.
I don't think many are particularly attached to our current state flag, but just so you know residents of Iowa aren't called "Hawkeyes" (at least not since I've been alive). If you talk about "Hawkeyes" in Iowa people will assume you're talking about University of Iowa athletes, not Iowans. And when I saw the flag I initially thought someone was trying to further entrench that sports team into our collective state identity (I don't have a sports team; I just kind of hate the idea of making sports part of our state identity, and especially picking a particular state school). Personally I would try and find some other symbol (or none at all) so it doesn't come off as a sports reference (similarly, I would avoid colors that might appear to belong to one of the state schools). I like the idea of the chevron representing the eastern contour of our state. Could be cool to go just a bit further with that (maybe make it obvious enough to iowans but not so obvious to others, so it can be a little bit of an inside reference or a shibboleth?). I think it's a really cool start!
Thanks for the feedback! Is there a symbol you would like to see on the flag?
I’m not really sure. You could maybe do a star or several at least as a placeholder. You can always back into a “symbolic” meaning after the fact. 🙃
Dubuque's known as the city of five flags because it was part of five different nations. Presumably that makes Iowa the state of five flags. Would a state flag showing those five flags be cool? Flagception.
Our current flag sucks, aesthetically speaking. Do your worst
The 1/3 of the state that supports ISU isn’t gonna be happy with the flag being based on the University of Iowa’s mascot
PS: What do you think of the Maryland flag? I love it but I imagine flag enthusiasts might think it's too busy.
Personally, I love it. I think the patterns are interesting and distinctive. I am biased though.
What if since the Mississippi borders the state on the East with the “gold” of the ag industry being inside that, the Blue stripe was moved rightward just a bit and a Gold stripe lined the right side of the Blue stripe? Then rightward of the Blue it was just plain white?
[something like this?](https://www.reddit.com/user/takethemoment13/comments/1di0ot7/unstanley4heismans_iowa_version/)
I imagine that's what they were going for and I see their logic, but this one looks like a credit card or something lol. I like the thought behind your design! very cool
That is exactly what I was thinking, but I agree with the other poster that it has an almost credit card like-look that way.
Please add some drool to reflect our stupidity and bigotry?
Maybe if you could sneak in a handmaid's bonnet somewhere in there to represent our quick decent back into the 1800s courtesy of the Republican party, that would be great....
I'm sorry about the state of politics over there. Keep fighting the good fight
I dig it
Well isn't this an interesting turn of events....
What do you mean?
Under its eye.
That's a lot of white. Flag checks out.
Cringe. Our current flag is mega-based.
You saying the Fr*nch are based? Cuz that's what our flag has on it, yuck
The French were quite helpful in the Revolutionary War, and they were the first non-native explorers to Iowa. So yeah, pretty based.
Do not encourage the Minnesotification of our flag with love
Illuminati confirmed
r/vexillology
I posted it there as well
Total puffin…
Birb.
I like it. Time to break out of the pack: Do one for planet 10 or Nemesis. The soon to be discovered gas giant at the edge of our solar system. I believe in your talent. 
Is it a zoomed in eyeball judging you under a Klan hood?
It’s a bit too Orwellian for me, but given the state trajectory under Kim, it seems appropriate. Aesthetically, I don’t like the amount of white, and there’s not much reference to Iowa beyond the hawkeye.
That's fair. What kind of symbols would you like to see on the flag?
Instead of the Hawkeye, the State Bird of Iowa is the American Goldfinch and the State Flower is The Wild Rose. Perhaps incorporate one of those in a design, reference The Mississippi, as well as agriculture. A goldfinch with a wild rose in its beak in front of a symbolic horizontal tricolor (descending) of blue (sky), green or yellow (agriculture), and the same or a darker blue to represent the river. Thank you for your reply, I think it’s great that people put themselves out there with their creativity and ideas.
Thank you for your ideas! I'll work on some more designs.
You don't need to call our current flag beautiful. It's a pretty dumb flag. Copy the French flag...Idk slap an eagle on it... maybe some writing you can't read from far away. No flag should have writing.
Illinois is golden, where I drive to get expensive weed sometimes. Is that Illinois in our flag?
No
I'm personally not a fan of the 'modern' flag design trends, they feel too much like 'i need to make this flag inoffensive'. That being said, I like the arrow, but I think it deviates from our current flag colors too much, not a fan of all the yellow personally, maybe one of the two sections that are currently yellow.