Municipal Flag Improvement Update

We’re up to a total of 80 efforts to create or redesign US and Canadian flags of cities, towns, or other municipalities, as tracked on our Municipal Flag Improvement page. Many of these have been inspired by the TED Talk Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you’ve never noticed by Roman Mars of the design podcast 99% Invisible (and Ted Kaye of NAVA and the PFA). That exploration of Good Flag, Bad Flag principles has been viewed over 2.8 million times since its release in May 2015.

Of these 80 efforts, 18 have resulted in new flags being officially adopted:

Brandon, South Dakota

Janesville, Wisconsin

Republic, Missouri

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Bath, Maine

Aberdeen, Washington

Liberty, Texas

Provo, Utah

Sunnyvale, Texas

South Bend, Indiana

West Hollywood, California

Harrison, Ohio

Peoria, Arizona

Elk Ridge, Utah

Bellingham, Washington

Golden, Colorado

Albany, Oregon

Columbia, Missouri

In 29 other cases, a proposed design has been put forward, waiting for a decision by the municipal government:

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Manlius, New York (logo not part of design)

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Tacoma, Washington

Springfield, Missouri

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Santa Clarita, California

Raleigh, North Carolina

Portland, Maine

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Orlando, Florida

Naperville, Illinois

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Miami, Florida

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Kingston, New York

Joplin, Missouri

Huntsville, Alabama

Fargo, North Dakota

El Paso, Texas

Edmonton, Alberta

Davis, California

Dallas, Texas

Columbus, Ohio

Calgary, Alberta

Bryan, Texas

Bowling Green, Kentucky

Bloomington, Indiana

Austin, Texas

In the remaining 33 cases, there isn’t yet a final proposed design that has been put forward.

Please let us know at editor@portlandflag.org if you know of other efforts or updates to this list.

Author: SDM

Ethnography * Technology * Design View all posts by SDM