A Better Flag for Boston, Massachusetts
Flags are icons, symbols for the region they represent, be it a country, state, prefecture, or city. The more distinct and recognizable, the better. People find themselves attached to the flags of Portland and Chicago, given that they’re recognizable symbols for cities people love. In contrast, San Francisco’s and New York City’s comparatively unrecognizable flags conspicuously aren’t flown remotely as often.
Still, people care immensely about cities which have no distinctive flag to call their own. My own city of Boston, in lieu of a flag more recognizable than a seal on a solid blue field, is primarily represented by its sport teams’ logos.
But the city is so much more than corporate branding that has next to nothing to do with its people or history.
Boston is a major hub for biotech innovation, wealth management, and academic excellence. It has earned the affectionate nickname of the “Athens of America” for its academic, political and cultural contributions to the nation, and so it deserves a symbol people can identify with and be proud of. Thus, I designed a new flag for Boston, Massachusetts.
What’s Wrong with Boston’s Current Flag?
Vexillologists, or people who study flags, have nicknamed the likes of Boston’s current flag as “seals on a bedsheet,” as they’re nothing more than the municipal seal thrown onto a single solid color. Seals are meant for documents, where their details can be read and appreciated up close. But flags are meant to be seen flying, oftentimes seen from far away, rendering the minute details illegible and undecipherable. Any hope of establishing a recognizable symbol out of a seal is dashed when it just ends up looking like any of the other millions of seals.
So I set out to make a flag that was recognizable as uncontestedly, absolutely and uniquely Boston.
My Redesign
The overall composition takes inspiration from abstract representations of geography to symbolize cultural and historical significance. I consider there to be three major components in the composition: the blue field, which represents the state of Massachusetts, the center star, which represents Boston proper, and the seven-spoke hub, which represents Boston’s rays of impact.
Centering, The Star, and The Seven-Spoke Hub
While the design is centered around the star and hub with the intent on making a recognizable graphic, the flag itself is distinctly asymmetrical. While the official centering of two thirds over and two fifths down admittedly don’t have any meaning deeper than aesthetics, charging the star in the upper right is deliberate, representing being in the northeastern corner of a northeastern state.
At the visual center of the design is the five-pointed star, inspired by the stars used in American imagery. The star symbolizes the city of Boston itself, the epicenter of the American Revolution’s birth, and heart of both Massachusetts and New England.
The hub represents the sphere of influence of Boston. Inspired by the major ring road that encloses the city limits, the ring and tangents reference how Boston is the geographic, political, and cultural capital of Massachusetts. Boston’s actions impact not just Massachusetts, but its neighboring states of Rhode Island and New Hampshire as well. I playfully call it a hub as a nod to Boston’s greatest nickname, the Hub of the Universe, though it truly is the heart of the region.
Each of the seven spokes harken to New England cities as they geographically relate to the city. Counterclockwise from the top right, they go:
- Northeast: Salem, MA
- North: Haverhill, MA
- Northwest: Lowell, MA, and Nashua, NH
- West: Framingham, Worcester, and Springfield, MA
- Southwest: Attleboro, MA, and Providence, RI
- South: Taunton, Fall River, and New Bedford, MA
- Southeast: Plymouth, MA, and Cape Cod
The blue field where the eight absent spoke would be represents the Atlantic Ocean, and Boston’s rich maritime history, culture, and economy. Boston’s development hinged on the ocean, and it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the mighty Atlantic.
The Colors
Boston imagery is wrapped up in blue and gold, most visibly in relation to the Boston Marathon, One Boston Day, and Boston Strong. While the whys can only be speculated (likely due to the historic colonial blue and buff being used on many Boston-related things, including the current city seal flag), it’s clear that Boston’s colors are some shade of yellow and some shade of blue. Rather than trying to prescribe a new coat of paint, I went with the clearly pre-established pair of colors, supported by a comparatively neutral white. However, the colors as they are presented in the flag contain meaning.
The blue’s usage here represents the both the sea and the state. The gold, the city’s forward-thinking spirit. And the white stands for the liberty that the city won the nation in the Revolutionary War.
More than just a Flag
The hub design on a flat backdrop of blue is meant to be a simple, iconic geometric design that’s versatile. The flag is still recognizable in its design in black and white, and any other color combination as well.
Bostonians are proud; it stands to reason that such proud people would jump at the chance to incorporate a meaningful symbol of the city onto anything out there, be it a pin, a mug, bumper sticker, apparel, or anything else, so the city ought to give its people such a symbol. Plus, that kind of versatility lends itself well to souvenirs.
Furthermore, my personal belief is that good flag is “exploitable,” in that it inspires creative reinterpretations for other occasions down the line.
For example, the flag’s basic star and hub design work excellently for the local sports teams when the star is substituted for a logo, and the colors match the teams’.
Ultimately I hope for this to not just be a fun design project, but to ultimately inspire the city to change its flag to something better. Ideally, that better flag is this one.
