SLC Mayor Erin Mendenhall selects merged teen-designed flag for City Council consideration

Consider it two flags for the price of one.

After the Salt Lake City Flag Design Committee narrowed the flag designs to a field of eight out of 600 entries, Mayor Erin Mendenhall formally recommended a merged concept of two of the finalists to the Salt Lake City Council on Thursday.

The new design combines the initial ideas from the flags created by Arianna Meinking, 18, and Ella Kennedy-Yoon, 17. Meinking graduated from West High School last year, while Kennedy-Yoon is a senior at the same school.

Meinking’s original design featured a white sego lily flower on a blue triangular background, while Kennedy-Yoon’s design featured a hexagonal honeybee on a white and blue background. The committee then decided to merge the two concepts, placing Meinking’s flower in the corner of Kennedy-Yoon’s background.

Both Meinking and Kennedy-Yoon were born and raised in Salt Lake City.

“To me, this experience highlights what it means to live here. If I do my best to try to change the world around me, even in little ways, I can make a difference, and grow into that role,” Meinking said in a statement.

The eight finalists were selected without consideration by the committee, who then opened the finalists to public consideration and voting. The committee met again, considered the survey results, and chose to combine elements of the two flags.

“Ultimately it was decided that the blue and white backdrop — which could symbolize snow, the sky, the Great Salt Lake, and salt — would pair best with the Sego Lily, a flower indigenous to the area, and which symbolizes resilience,” Mendenhall’s statement reads.

The City Council will vote on adoption of the new flag on Oct. 6.

“We’re in a once-in-a-generation moment of change and there’s no more perfect time for our City to unite under a new symbol that personifies and unites us all. I believe this is the design that can take us forward, together,” Mendenhall said.