WMU grad student designs new look for Detroit flag, will city switch?

Caroline Blackmon | Detroit Free Press

A Western Michigan University student wants the city of Detroit to adopt a new flag he's designed with the hope of unifying the community.

Deon Mixon, 23, of Detroit created the flag as part of his graduate thesis in graphic design. He's also pitched it to the Detroit City Council.

“I truly believe the city needs a new flag,” he said. “Detroit is getting back on top and rising from this dark past. Why can’t this flag be a symbol of that and a symbol of that triumph?”

Mixon said he knows Detroiters have a lot of pride for the city, and he thinks people could show that pride through the flag. The current flag doesn't reflect the city.

“The seal is too complicated (on the current flag). No one can draw that seal from memory, and when you see it from a distance, it is too complicated,” he said.

Joel Stone, senior curator at the Detroit Historical Society, said the city's current flag represents its citizens.

The flag is divided into four sections to commemorate the countries that have controlled the city over the years – France, England and America, Stone said. The depiction of Detroit's seal, which was designed by Detroit artist James Otto Lewis, is in the middle of the flag. It illustrates the fire that destroyed the city in 1805.

"It really does a lot to represent the long history of Detroit," Stone said. "I think a flag by its nature should represent the people of the city."

Stone did acknowledge that the flag has a weakness: it does not represent Native Americans, who Stone said were in Detroit long before the French arrived.

The flag was designed by David Heineman in 1907, but wasn’t officially adopted by the city until 1948, over 30 years later.

“That’s to say,” Mixon said, “I designed this last year in 2017. How long will it take for it to be the new flag? I don’t know, but that’s something I’m willing to fight for. I designed it with the intent to be worn and be flown by citizens.”

Mixon's new design also focuses on the “Rising from the Ashes” motto that he said Detroit exemplifies. He said he did it in a less complicated way. The white stripe that runs diagonally across the flag represents the Detroit River.

“The concepts are fine-tuned to citizens of today, but also to the industries,” he said.

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He includes what he calls the industrial star. The five points on the star represent the five industries he thinks Detroit has excelled in – the auto industry, music, art and design, life science and technology.

Mixon got the inspiration to design the new flag from Roman Mars’ TED talk on the subject and his podcast called “99% Invisible.”

“This video garnered great inspiration for people from other cities to redesign their own city flags,” he said. “So, I am one of those people doing the same for Detroit.”

Also, Mixon said that he realized Detroit needed a new flag to match the new renovations to the city, and to bring deeper knowledge and more heartfelt pride to the city.

“I figured the flag would be a nice cherry on top (of) this new Detroit,” he said. “(Detroiters) are prideful of their city and they should show (their) pride through the flag.”

He has incorporated the design into different items, such as cups, T-shirts, buttons and stickers.

Mixon presented his flag design and ideas at a Detroit city council meeting in June 2017. He said that the city council members and attendees of the meeting thought it was a great idea.

But, the project stalled as he pursued design jobs in New York City. Now, Mixon is back in Detroit and ready to follow the next steps to get his design up on a flagpole.

The city council declined to comment on the flag on Friday.

"Any attempt to redesign Detroit’s flag will bring lots of public opinion," Stone said. "Some people take it very much to heart and some people would be open to a new idea."