The flag of South Bend, Indiana, was adopted by the city council during the mayorship of Pete Buttigieg on April 25, 2016. [1] It is a field of white and yellow separated by a two blue curved lines with a white line between them and a red six-pointed star in the upper left corner.
On May 23, 1965, the 100th anniversary of the city charter, South Bend first raised their flag, which featured a blue version of the city seal on a field of yellow. [2] The seal reads "THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA" and the year of the city's founding, 1865. The seal also shows the word "PEACE," a 35-star American flag (which was in use at the time of the city's founding), and a sunrise. The city seal itself dates back to at least 1949. [2]
In October 2015, in celebration of the city's 150 anniversary, a competition was announced for residents to submit their own designs for a new flag. [2] Color use was limited to blue, red, yellow, and white; and designs had to include symbols for the St. Joseph River, connectivity, diversity, and innovation. [3] Submissions were also asked to adhere to the North American Vexillological Association's five basic principles of flag design. [4] [lower-alpha 1] Over 200 submissions were received from residents of all ages and narrowed down to three from residents and professional graphic designers Garrett Gingerich, Jeffrey Koenig, and Indiana University South Bend student Jesse Villagrana. [6] [7] Community input was collected with over 1,000 online and in-person comments from residents. [8] Gingerich was ultimately commissioned to make the final design, wherein he had to integrate elements from all three of the finalist designs as well as public feedback. [1] The final design was unveiled on March 9, 2016, at an event with Koenig and Villagrana; the flag was officially adopted several weeks later on April 25. [6] [9]
The red six-pointed star represents the city's six council districts. [9] The color red symbolizes passion and was chosen due to its common use in local logos and for its national patriotism. [1] It also evokes the stars of the flag of the nearby city of Chicago, although that flag uses a lighter shade of red. The blue lines represent the St. Joseph River, which runs through South Bend. [1] According to designer Garret Gingerich, the S-shape of the blue lines is meant to invoke the city's name while the strip of white in between serves as a bridge to the future. [8] The white on the left symbolizes peace; the yellow on the right symbolizes friendship and was the field color of South Bend's original flag. [1]
The flag of the state of Maryland is the 17th-century heraldic banner of arms of Cecil, 2nd Baron Baltimore. It consists of the arms of his father George, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), quartered with those of his grandmother, heiress of the Crossland family. The flag was officially adopted by the General Assembly of Maryland in 1904.
The flag of Minnesota is the state flag of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its design features a modified version of the seal of Minnesota emblazoned on a blue field. The flag's first version was adopted in 1893, in advance of the state's mounting an exhibition at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. It was significantly revised in 1957 and received a minor update in 1983.
The official flag of New Mexico, a subnational polity of the United States, consists of a red sun symbol of the Zia people on a field of gold (yellow). It was officially adopted in 1925 to highlight the state's Native American and Hispano heritage: It combines a symbol of the Puebloan people, who have ancient roots in the state, with the colors of the flag of Spain, which established and ruled Nuevo México for over two and a half centuries.
The flag of Chicago consists of two light blue horizontal bars, or stripes, on a field of white, each bar one-sixth the height of the full flag, and placed slightly less than one-sixth of the way from the top and bottom. Four bright red stars, with six sharp points each, are set side by side, close together, in the middle third of the flag's surface.
The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) is a membership organization devoted to vexillology, the study of flags. It was founded in 1967 by American vexillologist Whitney Smith, and others. Its membership of 1,100+ comprises flag scholars, enthusiasts, designers, collectors, conservators, educators, merchants, manufacturers, historians, and hobbyists from most states and provinces of the United States and Canada, and more than 30 other countries.
The flag of Indianapolis has a dark blue field with a white five-pointed star pointing upwards in the center. Around the star is a circular field in red. Surrounding the red field is a white ring, from which extend four white stripes from top to bottom and from hoist to fly, thus creating four equal quadrants in the field. The stripes are about one-seventh the width of the flag, with the white ring the same width as the stripes. The diameter of the red circle is about two-ninths the width of the flag.
The city flag of Los Angeles consists of a background of three notched stripes of green, gold and red. The flag was designed by Roy E. Silent and E.S. Jones in 1931 for the Los Angeles sesquicentennial from 1781.
The official flag of Milwaukee, a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, was adopted in 1954. A 2004 survey by the North American Vexillological Association rated the Milwaukee flag 147th out of 150 flags of major American cities.
The city flag of Portland, Oregon, consists of a green field on which is placed a white four-pointed star from which radiate blue stripes, each bordered by L-shaped yellow elements (esquarres). Narrow white fimbriations separate the blue and yellow elements from each other and from the green background. The official ordinance specifies a height of 3 feet and a length of 5 feet.
The flag of Denver is the official flag of the City and County of Denver in Colorado. It was designed by a North High School student, Margaret Overbeck, and adopted in 1926. A zigzag white stripe horizontally separates a red field below from a blue field above, in which is centered a yellow circle, together forming a stylized depiction of the Sun in a blue sky above snow-capped mountains. The color yellow symbolizes gold in the state's hills, and red the colored earth to which the word colorado refers. The circle's centered position symbolizes Denver's central location within the state. The white zigzag symbolizes Colorado's Native American heritage.
The flag of Las Vegas, consists of blue field with a diagonal gray stripe running from the top of the hoist to the bottom of the fly. Las Vegas' city seal, adopted on March 16, 1966 and designed by Richard Thompson, is located in the canton breaking the stripe.
The flags of the provinces of the Philippines are the vexillological devices used by various provincial-level local government units (LGUs) of the country.
The flag of Cincinnati is the municipal banner of the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States. The design was selected in an 1896 contest. It was formally adopted on June 15, 1940.
The municipal flag of Provo, Utah, United States, features the city's logo on a light blue field. It was adopted on January 6, 2015, after a multi-year debate to replace the previous one. The former flag, adopted in 1989, was ridiculed in particular for its perceived ugliness and its similarity to the Centrum logo, and was voted one of the worst American city flags by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA).
The flag of San Jose is the official municipal flag of San Jose, California. The current design, a triband of gold on top, white in the middle, and blue on the bottom with the city's official seal in the center, has been the official flag since 1984.
The flag of Austin is the official municipal flag of Austin, Texas. The flag simply consists of a white field with the seal of Austin without the surrounding circle of text. Below the seal of Austin is the text "CITY OF AUSTIN", written in blue and arched upwards.
The flag of Columbus is the official municipal flag of Columbus, Ohio. Its current design is a yellow, white, red vertical triband with the city seal on a blue field. Officially, the flag was adopted in 1929, although it is unknown if the flag was ever flown when it was first adopted.
The flag of Anchorage, Alaska, was adopted by the city of Anchorage in 1973. It is a field of yellow with the seal of the city, which features a blue anchor in the foreground as well as a blue airplane, yellow sun, and yellow sailboat in the background. The words "ANCHORAGE ALASKA" are also present.
The flag of Burlington, Vermont was adopted by the Burlington city council on November 27, 2017 during the mayorship of Miro Weinberger. It is five horizontal, zig-zag stripes of blue, white, green, white, and blue.
The flag of Pocatello is the official flag of the city of Pocatello, Idaho, United States. The present flag was adopted on July 20, 2017, replacing the previous flag, used unofficially from 2001 to 2017. The former flag was considered by a 2004 survey of the North American Vexillological Association to be the worst of 150 selected US city flags. The current flag is commonly known as the Mountains Left, while the previous flag was known as the Proud to be Pocatello.