The flag of the State of Michigan depicts the state's coat-of-arms on a dark blue field, as set forth by Michigan state law. The Governor has a variant of the flag with a white instead of a blue field.
The state coat of arms depicts a light blue shield, upon which the sun rises over a lake and peninsula, and a man with raised hand representing peace and holding a long gun representing our fight for state and nation as a frontier state.
As supporters, the elk and moose are derived from the Hudson's Bay Company coat of arms, and depict great animals of Michigan. The bald eagle represents the United States which formed the State of Michigan from the Northwest Territory.
The design features three Latin mottos: "E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of many, one", a motto of the United States), "Tuebor" ("I will defend"), and "Si Quæris Peninsulam Amœnam Circumspice" ("If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you", the official state motto).
Proposals for a New Flag of Michigan
MI Flag Proposal "Zervic"
MI Flag Proposal "Tibbetts"
MI Flag Proposal, Designer Unknown
MI Flag Proposal "FlagFreak"
MI Flag Proposal "Lord Grattan"
MI Flag Proposal "Leonardo Piccioni"
MI Flag Proposal "Bezbojnicul"
MI Flag Proposal "Jack Expo"
MI Flag Proposal "N763"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 1"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 2"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 3"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 4"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 5"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 6"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 7"
MI Flag Proposal "Jamescnj1 8"
MI Flag Proposal "Usacelt"
MI Flag Proposal by Kermitdefrog
Michigan State Flag Proposal No. 1 Designed By: Stephen Richard Barlow 12 OCT 2014 at 1442hrs cst
MI Flag Proposal "BigRed618"
Michigan State Flag Proposal No. 2 Designed By: Stephen Richard Barlow 14 OCT 2014 at 1144hrs cst
Michigan State Flag Symplistic Proposal. The white is the peninsula and the rising sun. The shield represents defense, which comes up three times in the current flag. The three stars symbolize Michigan’s three mottos: “Out of Many, One”; “I Will Defend”; and “If You Seek a Pleasant Peninsula, Look Around You.” By Ed Mitchell. 2013.
MI Flag Proposal "Krago1" Inspired by Zervic's proposal, except rotated and maize-and-blue instead of blue-and-white. Also, the blue and green together make a stylized 'M'.
MI flag proposal by 5thEye
MI Flag Proposal "Krago2" Keep the white stars on a green field to represent the Upper and Lower Peninsulas (on the hoist), and centre an image of a buck's head on a square blue background (on the fly). Ideally, it should be a stylized version in maize (yellow) but that's far beyond my MS Paint abilities. I 'borrowed' the elk's head from the current Michigan flag.
MI Flag Proposal "Krago3" Combining Zervic's proposal (with maize-and-blue) and 5th Eye's 'Michigan stars' in the hoist.
MI Flag Proposal "Krago4" Design and colors based on the Michigan seal (without happy-guy-and-rifle), with 5th Eye's 'Michigan stars'.
MI Flag Proposal "Krago5" Alternative design and colors based on the Michigan seal (without happy-guy-and-rifle).
Michigan flag proposal 1 by Hans. Nov 2015. (details)
Michigan flag proposal 2 by Hans. Nov 2015. (details)
Michigan flag proposal 3 by Hans. Jan 2017. (details)
Michigan flag proposal 4 by Hans. Jan 2017. (details)
Michigan Flag by "ZeekLTK - I liked the proposals by Usacelt where he uses the triangles, which have 3 sides just like a peninsula is surrounded by water on 3 sides, but I thought there should be 4 stars for the Great Lakes rather than 2 stars for the two peninsulas (which are already represented by the green triangles)
Michigan Flag 2 by "ZeekLTK" - similar to the other one except 5 stars, for all 5 Great Lakes (even though one doesn't border MI) and one of the stars is a 6 point star for a total of 26 points, since Michigan was the 26th state to join the union
Michigan Flag 3 by "ZeekLTK" - based on the seal, green peninsula sticking out into the blue water and yellow sky