FEATURE

community representation, saying it “flies everywhere” and is “embedded in civic culture.”

“You see it in tattoos, you see it in all kinds of tourist mementos,” he says. “When a Chicago policeman dies in the line of duty, it may not be the national flag on his casket, it could be the Chicago flag. That’s how deeply ingrained it is.”

Superior’s flag — featuring “Town of Superior” and “The Gateway to Boulder Valley” in maroon text with a tree and sun encircled nearby — was designed around six years ago by a youth council.

“I have a lot of pride in that flag,” says Kevin Colón, communications and community engagement manager for the Town of Superior. “I know some of these kids. A survey doesn’t have any kind of personal connection, it doesn’t look at the eyeballs of the people that sit around the table and dream about what a flag could be.”

While Superior’s text-heavy flag may have drawn criticism from vexillologists, Colón says it still engenders a sense of unity with some community members. A year after the Marshall Fire, Colón says the city is focused on helping residents get back home.

Kaye says there’s hope for flags that didn’t receive good design ratings, like Superior’s.

“I like to say that in every flag, every bad design, there’s a good design trying to get out,” he says. “[The Superior flag] has the elements that could be made into a great flag.”

NAVA’s flag design guide (written by Kaye) includes five directives: 1) keep it simple, 2) use meaningful symbolism, 3) use two to three basic colors, 4) no lettering or seals and 5) be distinctive. On Superior’s flag, Kaye says he’d begin by removing text and then play with the design elements (the tree and sun), which are his favorite aspects of the flag.

Although not included in the new NAVA survey, Longmont has been flying its city flag since April 1, 1975, after its own public redesign contest. Kaye called the flag “weird” but “distinctive.” According to Erik Mason, curator of history at the City of Longmont, that flag went to space with Longmont native Vance Brand during a 1990 space shuttle mission.

Good flag design is about much more than aesthetic appeal. In recent years, a number of state flags have come under fire for culturally insensitive designs.

Minnesota’s state flag, adopted in 1957, has been accused of racist undertones. It features the state’s seal, which shows a white man plowing a field watching an Indigenous person on a horse in the background. Some perceive this as depicting the displacement of Native Americans.

“The state seal has imagery on it that is a problem, to put it charitably,” Rep. Mike Freidberg, the sponsor of a bill (HF284) to redesign the flag and seal, said to the Minnesota Legislature in March of 2022.

Similar representations are on Massachusetts’ state flag, which shows an Indigenous man standing beneath a white hand holding a Colonial sword. According to advocacy organization Change The Mass Flag, Indigenous leaders have called for the state’s flag and seal to be changed for 50 years, asserting that the flag is “seen by many as a symbol of violence against Indigenous people.”

Kaye consults cities and states looking to adopt a new flag or redesign an existing flag. Changing a flag takes time, but Kaye says it’s worth it.

“Everybody cares about flags once you get down to it.”

Boulder is one of the cities in the county that doesn’t have a city flag. City Council member Tara Winer wrote in an email that with “so much happening in Boulder right now … a city flag is not even on my list of the top 500 things I need to think about.”

Along with difficulties allocating resources to the development of flags, Kaye says adopting a flag can be difficult because it involves politics, public interest and cost. And, he says, “part of the issue of city flag design is that in some way they’re not very important.”

Whether it’s considered good design or bad design, Colón says he is content with Superior’s flag. It does what it was created to do — represent its people.

“That flag and these people are pretty special,” he says.