Pick your favorite: Museum of Boulder unveils finalist designs for unofficial city flag

The Museum of Boulder has unveiled 10 finalist designs for its unofficial City of Boulder flag contest, showcasing a wide range of interpretations of Boulder’s identity, geography and history. 

Now, Boulder residents can weigh in, too. Boulder Reporting Lab is inviting readers to vote for their favorite design in an informal poll. The results will not determine the official winner, but will offer a look at how BRL readers’ preferences compare with those of the contest judges. 

The museum will announce the winning design May 11. Other entries will receive special recognition awards.  

The contest opened late last year and submissions closed in April. Emily Zinn, the museum’s director of education, said about 190 designs were submitted. The winning design will appear on merchandise, including enamel pins and full-sized flags. Mini flags will be distributed during the BOLDERBoulder Memorial Day weekend race. 

Finalists were chosen by a panel of Boulder community members. Panelists selected their top 10 designs before narrowing the field to the final group. 

Many of the designs feature recurring Boulder imagery, including the Flatirons, the Boulder Star, the sun, Pearl Street bricks, waterways and open space. Several also reference the city’s mining history and distinctive geography. 

Zinn said mountains appeared in the vast majority of submissions. Other recurring symbols included buffalo, feathers and teepees. One design that stood out to her featured a literal boulder as the central image. Another drew inspiration from Boulder’s greenbelt system. Some submissions came from abroad, including from former Boulder residents and flag enthusiasts trying their hand at design. 

“There’s a whole group of people that are just into flags, and I got a little glimpse into that,” said Zinn. 

After the finalists were selected, designers attended a forum with the North American Vexillological Association to refine their concepts. Discussions included practical considerations such as limiting the number of printable colors.

Zinn said she enjoyed seeing deeper discussions emerge around Boulder’s identity, history and geography, but members of the association tried to temper her expectations, saying that communicating values or civic history is too much for a flag. A flag should be a simple and recognizable symbol first and foremost.

“However, I found there to be lots [of layers] that came through in the ways people describe their designs,” she said. 

Association members also noted Boulder’s reputation for embracing the unconventional, suggesting the city consider choosing a nontraditional design. 

“That was just nice to hear from someone who doesn’t really have any relationship to Boulder,” Zinn said. 

Because the project is not affiliated with city government, the winning design will not become Boulder’s  official flag. Boulder currently has no official city flag, though an unofficial flag dating to the1980s includes a white band framed by two green lines and a seal of the Flatirons. 

Below are the 10 finalists, with descriptions from artists provided by the Museum of Boulder. Select your top three favorites. We’ll announce BRL readers’ picks next week. 

“Mountain Moon” by Todd Pitman

This design is set in the same instantly recognizable “Old Glory” red, white, and blue … that has informed Colorado flag design since 1911. A proportionally balanced “woven slopes” design symbolizes … Boulder’s intertwined histories as a center for mining, recreation, agriculture, and education…

The yellow moon marks Boulder’s history as a gold mining mecca … red suggests a city with deep connections to its rich and rugged land … all beneath a heavenly blanket of hopeful blue. This new flag reflects Boulder’s past and present, while looking optimistically toward a bright and promising future.

“Flatiron Sunrise Flourish” by Michael Stuart Trimmer, amateur applicant

This flag’s aim is to be an attractive, distinctive and striking symbol for the city of Boulder. The five colors … represent a departure from the traditional North American Vexillological Association guidelines, but with a clear purpose and cautious intent in mind…

The green represents Boulder’s natural beauty … The red triangles are a stylised representation of some of the Flatirons … The gold represents both the warmth of the sun over the mountains and the gold so important to Boulder’s history. The blue … represents the vast open sky overhead. The white star … represents both the city’s American identity, and the Boulder Star on Flagstaff mountain…

“Nature” by Mel Rose

This flag is built around Boulder’s most recognizable natural landmark: the Flatirons. I wanted the silhouette to be bold and easy to remember … so the mountains become a clean, graphic shape rather than a detailed illustration…

A light band cuts through the design to represent the creek and waterways that run through Boulder and shape daily life here… The green field represents the earth, open space, and Boulder’s deep connection to the outdoors…

I included a brown stripe to acknowledge the human side of Boulder … local businesses, artists, students, and neighbors who create Boulder’s character. The design uses a limited palette, no lettering, and strong contrast so it stays clear at a distance and works well in any medium…

By Steven Chester

Boulder is one of a few American cities so completely defined by its natural setting that the landscape itself is inseparable from its identity. This flag is intended to be read like the view looking east: sun setting into the mountains … and the vast plains stretching out beyond…

The Boulder Blue field represents the expansive sky … The gold circle is the sun, the nearly 300 days that Boulder enjoys each year, and the energy and optimism that the city radiates.

The five diagonal white stripes are the Flatirons … tilted skyward and frozen mid-rise from the earth… The Pearl Street Brick red field represents the plains … where the mountains and plains meet. Boulder deserves a symbol as distinctive as the city itself … grounded in landscape and unmistakably Boulder.

By Joey Major

I took inspiration from the Denver Flag and it at an angle to represent the Flatirons.

The blue represents to endless blue skies extending out over the plains. Gold for the gold rich history of Boulder creek. Red for the sunsets and red soil of Colorado. White for the pristine winter snows.

By Carolyn McHale

Boulder is a vibrant place to live, work, learn, and play, and this design reflects each of those qualities. Colorado’s bluebird skies and bright sun rise above the unmistakable Flatirons, while Boulder Creek runs through the center, grounding the composition in the city’s landscape.

The lower portion draws on familiar local textures, referencing both the iconic tile roofs of the University of Colorado and the historic brickwork of Pearl Street. Additionally, the sun represents the Sundance Film Festival.

By Berger & Föhr (Lucian Föhr and Todd Berger)

This design brings together Boulder’s defining landscape in a reduced set of elemental forms. A green diagonal rises to suggest the foothills and mountain edge. Blue marks the open sky above. A vertical tan field evokes the plains and dry grasslands to the east…

The design is built from simple geometry and a limited palette, making it easy to recognize, reproduce and remember… Together, they describe Boulder as a city shaped by light, elevation, and the meeting of mountain and plain. The yellow disc reads first as sun, but also carries a secondary reference to Boulder’s early gold-mining history…

The flag reflects a place defined by strong light, rising land, and the visible transition from prairie to foothill. The result is specific to Boulder, visually distinct, and simple enough to function clearly and endure as a civic symbol.

By Berger & Föhr (Lucian Föhr and Todd Berger)

Boulder is defined by its position between the plains to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west. This flag turns that condition into a simple geometric composition… Together, these forms describe Boulder’s geography in direct terms and place the city within the larger terrain that has shaped its identity and sense of possibility.

The design uses four fields … blue for sky, white for the seasonal snow line, green for the mountain edge, and tan for the plains. The geometry is spare and direct… The diagonal conveys the composition’s momentum while suggesting potential.

The flag presents Boulder through the meeting of distinct landforms … The result is specific to Boulder, visually distinct, and simple enough to endure as a civic symbol.

By Ethan Thomasset, amateur applicant, self-described Vexillology Enthusiast and 10th Grader at Boulder High School

I used the Boulder Blue color … to symbolize Boulder. I used Chautauqua Meadow Yellow to show how sunny Boulder is … I also used the same yellow for the star to symbolize the Boulder Star, which is a significant landmark in Boulder.

This flag is very simple, using simple shapes such as circles, straight lines, and … right triangles for the flatirons. The symbolism … is very relevant to Boulder, showing the natural environment and manmade landmarks through shapes and colors.

These flags do not include any lettering or seals and are purely made of shapes. These flags are very distinctive and are easily recognizable while also taking inspiration from other flags and seals…

By Guillermo Tirado

This flag iconography is a simple but bold design. The Flatirons formation, famous for defining Boulder’s identity, is shown here against a violet blue sky. The light of a sun/star hovers above, representing Hope. The strata of the Flatirons resemble a human hand reaching upward, towards the heavens, embracing the future. This portrays a spirit of progressive aspiration, idealism and effort. The fingers are gold, which is the mineral what brought the first settlers to the front range. The shape of the fingers resemble feathers, which give testimony to the diverse tribal heritage of the mountain region. 

Colors are symbolically intentional: Blue representing Freedom, as felt when one scans the vast sky. White is Peace, like the gentle snow atop a mountain crest. Gold is Optimism, captured in the hue of a new, sunlit day.