Let’s Fly a New Boston Flag
Did you know that major US cities have their own flags? Most people I’ve asked didn’t know. The few who did have lived in Chicago or Washington DC — two cities with well designed flags, proudly flown, that people have embraced as part of their identity. Ask a Bostonian to describe Boston’s flag and the people who know one even exists are city officials who walk by it each day on their way into City Hall.
Let’s look at Boston’s current flag and see why changing it can help Boston become a more inclusive city.
Boston’s Current Flag
Adopted in 1917, it’s a Continental Blue sheet with the city’s seal placed center and ringed in Continental Bluff (yellow). Like many city flags, it’s not particularly well designed; or as people who study flags (Vexillologists) would put it, it’s an SOB, a Seal On a Bed-sheet. A city’s seal belongs on paper, not on its flag. Also, flags shouldn’t have writing on them.
Boston’s current flag is ranked #133 out of 150 in the American City Flags Survey by the North American Vexillological Association. It’s time to change this and create a great Boston flag, one that’s well designed that people will proudly fly and rally under.
Why We Should Create a New Boston Flag
As Bostonians we share the T, parks, police and fire services, and the love for our great sports teams. As our city grows there are important challenges ahead: availability and cost of housing, quality of schools, better transit. Initiatives to address these challenges are part of the 2030 citywide plan: Imagine Boston. In order to tackle these hard problems, Bostonians need to have inclusive values and a shared identity — both of which a flag embodies.
Earlier this spring I met up with a friend—who’s a teacher at a Roxbury middle school in Boston—to pitch her on helping me with this project. While walking on the Esplanade, one of the beautiful shared spaces in Boston along the Charles River, she said something striking:
A new flag that everyone owns could unite the two Bostons.
Let’s come together to create a new flag for Boston that we all own, symbolic of the city’s rich history, and that will identify us all as Bostonians while we shape our city’s future.
The Plan
This is a grassroots project aiming to unite Bostonians, so we think the plan should include everyone. Here’s our plan on how we can make a new Boston flag a reality:
1. Flag design competition for students of Boston schools
Students are the future of the city, have unencumbered imaginations, and are actively learning about Boston’s history. We think they are the best group of Bostonians to come up with ideas and designs for Boston’s next flag. In fact, first principle of good flag design is:
Keep It Simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory…
If you’re a teacher or administrator in Boston schools, we’re looking for more teachers to help develop a lesson plan for the student flag design competition. If you’re affiliated with Boston schools and would like to help, please reach out.
2. Curation, refinement, and digitizing of the students' flag designs by professional designers
For this project to be successful we need skilled brand and identity designers who can take a student’s creative idea and initial design and refine it into a symbol that will represent Boston for the next 100 years.
We’re looking for more designers to join the team who will help to curate the students’ flag designs into the set of finalists, then work with the students to refine and digitize (into vector graphics) their designs.
3. Public online vote of finalist flag designs to choose a winner
We want everyone involved in choosing Boston’s next flag. To make that possible we’ll be building an online voting system and work with the City of Boston and local businesses to get the word out when finalist flag designs have been selected and voting is open.
When we get to this stage, we’ll be looking for local businesses to sponsor the project to help cover the costs of advertising and marketing. We want all Bostonians to know about this project and participate in choosing the next flag for our city.
4. Work with Boston Mayor and City Council to adopt the winning flag design
In order to change Boston’s flag the city ordinance for the flag must be amended by the Mayor and/or City Council. Once the public vote has concluded we’ll provide the voting data to the city and work with the Mayor and City Council to adopt the winning flag design.
If you work for the City of Boston, having your help facilitating connections with Boston Schools and local businesses would be greatly appreciated. If your job is related to increasing civic engagement, please reach out.
Project Status
This post marks the public launch of the project.
After serval months of ruminating about the best approach to make flying a new Boston flag a reality, I feel confident that our inclusive plan is the right strategy.
Back in January I attended an AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Boston event to re-imagine the Boston city flag:
Around 20 professional designers showed up on a cold Saturday morning. The event was very inspiring, everyone was talented and had great ideas for a new Boston flag. The organizers of the event wanted to get the conversation started, but said they weren’t actively working with the City of Boston to get a new Boston flag officially adopted. This left an opportunity to take this idea further and find out what it would take.
Since this event, I’ve met with city officials, design professionals, and teachers to get their help and feedback. Even though this isn’t an official City of Boston project, I’ve made sure to meet with city councilors and people from the Mayor’s office to explain the goal of the project and ask for help. Everyone from the city I’ve met with has been extremely helpful, encouraging, and provided me with ideas, guidance, and local connections. I hope the City of Boston can further help this project by officially supporting it as part of its Imagine Boston city planning project.
Join Us
We’re looking for people to help with this project. Reach out on Twitter: @bosflag or Email: Eric Ferraiuolo.
You can stay up to date on our progress by Following us here on Medium, Twitter: @bosflag, Facebook, or joining the email list on our Website: bostoncityflag.org.
