State flag flying off shelves before it’s retired

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Flag shops are inundated with people not only buying the current state flag before it’s retired, but they are also ready to design a new flag for the Magnolia state.

“All the interest in the Mississippi flag that is being retired is big, really big,” said business owner Brenda McIntyre.

The more than 120-year-old current Mississippi Flag is flying off the shelves at A Complete Flag Source in Jackson.

“We had a huge stock of flags and we have ordered more,” said business owner Brenda McIntyre.

Employees at A Complete Flag Source says people are already coming in with their ideas for the next flag.

“They come up with their designs, we help them with the art part of it and then we produce it.”

They say designing a flag is not as hard as many may think.

“We can start as simple as a sketch that they write with pen and paper. We take that idea and create it in art format, so it can be made into a size that is usually a 3 x 5. The process takes usually two to three weeks... Well, it’s two weeks to produce after the idea is started and finalized,” McIntyre said.

“There are a lot of state flags in America that aren’t very impressive designs because as far back as the Revolutionary War we have this idea that we had to make flags complicated. The ones that are successful are not,” said flag expert Clay Moss.

Clay Moss says he has helped advise the state on all things flags since the 1980's. He says flag designers should make sure their ideas catch people's attention, stand out in a crowd and can be recognized at a distance.

“A good flag design is simple, distinctive, a small child can draw it easily from memory without having to look at it. And my advice to the committee would embrace all possible suggestions. Don’t get too attached to anything that may be out there politically that you are getting pressured to look at, look at everything,” said Moss.

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