AUGUSTA, Maine — Most of the people who produced the 400 proposed designs for a new state flag to be voted on in November took their work seriously.
Luckily for us, a few did not. The action star Chuck Norris showed up in one of the designs, as did a humanoid lobster.
The winner of the contest put on by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office was Adam Lemire of Gardiner, whose design was similar to the original Maine flag that flew from 1901 to 1909 and features a semi-photorealistic pine tree centered on a buff background alongside a blue star.
Designers were working under rules from the Legislature around the vote to replace the current flag that features a seal on a blue background, which has been criticized as hard to distinguish from afar. Under those guidelines, the variable was whether the tree would be abstract like one popular design or more realistic like the original flag. Lemire’s design is in the middle.
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Many of the designers followed those rules. Some of them messed with perspective or tried to balance the sea with the land. Then there were the jokers.
Here are a few designs that stood out to us after reviewing submissions provided by Bellows’ office. They did not include names of those who submitted them, and the office initially released them to reporters while redacting some images that it deemed inappropriate.
Perspective players
The contest rules were clear that the pine tree must be in the center of the flag. But many of the designers used it as an enhanced design element. One creative design zoomed in to mimic Maine’s long coastline. A similar one featured three boughs coming in from the right.
Yet another one set the tree far back from a water view and placed it next to a mountain. None of these fit the contest rules, but it was interesting to see how some picked up on the themes.
Sea celebrators
A bipartisan majority of both legislative chambers agreed to send a flag switch to the ballot. But the current flag still has its fans. Some Republicans argued that the seal — with a farmer and seaman next to a pine tree and moose — accurately represents the state’s heritage.
That age-old tension between Maine’s land and water showed up throughout the flag designs. Some of the entries simply used a blue line to seemingly represent the sea. One of them put a tree on an oceanfront cliff. A more literal one mirrors a lighthouse on the bottom side of a tree next to a canoe that also mirrors a lobster boat.
The pranksters
Norris is famous for his martial arts movies and the long-running TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger” — on which he never needs a gun yet always wins his fights. One designer simply put him in front of a popular version of the old state flag. There was also a depiction of a lobster standing on two legs beside a Keebler-esque tree with “Maine” hastily written over it.
Last month, New York City comedian Dan Toomey floated designs on Instagram including a flannel-wearing lobster and the face of actress Anna Kendrick, a Maine native. Disappointingly, he never submitted them.