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SALT LAKE CITY — The 2020 redesign of Salt Lake City's flag is a hit with the nation's top vexillologists, which isn't the case for a few other cities in the state with flags designed over the past few years.
The flag of Utah's capital city placed fifth among a little more than 300 city flags designed since 2015 in a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association, the world's largest organization of flag enthusiasts.
"Our flag is symbolic of who we are, Salt Lakers," Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall tweeted Friday, in relation to the survey results. "Today, I'm even more proud to see our capital city's flag flying atop city hill and around our community."
St. George's flag also landed 19th among the designs, according to the recently-released results.
Salt Lakers! Our City's flag was chosen as one of the best-designed city flags out of more than 300 by the North American Vexillological Association's public survey 🎉
— Salt Lake City Government (@SLCgov) January 13, 2023
Thanks again to all that were a part of this flag process. Check out the survey results! https://t.co/pQ5waB5bm9pic.twitter.com/jdnRhIwzwu
The rankings are based on survey results from 2,852 people, including 308 association members, who were asked to rate 312 different flag designs on a scale of zero to 10. The scores were averaged for the final rankings and given a letter grade, A+ to F.
Salt Lake City's final score of 7.6 fell behind only Tulsa, Oklahoma (8.17), Reno, Nevada (7.8), Salem, Oregon (7.66) and Norman, Oklahoma (7.64). St. George (7.36) was the only other Utah city flag to earn an A grade.
Elk Ridge (6.26) received a B+, while Green River (6.14), Provo (6.1), Ephraim (6.08) and Nibley (6.07) all received B grades, and Orem (4.41) received a C among other Utah city flags considered.
Millcreek (2.24), Riverton (2.12), Lehi (1.73), Layton (1.62) and Milford (1.38) all received failing grades, according to the organization's results.
In all, the average score of the 312 flags was 3.65, a D+ grade. Less than one-third of all the flags received either an A or B, while nearly half the field received Fs. While Tulsa had the top-rated flag, the flag for Ranger, Texas (0.94) edged out Westhampton, Massachusetts, for the bottom spot on the list.
So what typically makes a good flag? Ted Kaye, author of "Good Flag, Bad Flag," compiled five principles of good flag design that governments can use to represent their community, based on feedback from several vexillologists.
- Keep it simple. It should be easy for even a child to draw it.
- Use meaningful symbolism. The flag's images, colors and patterns should mean something to the community.
- Use two or three basic colors.
- Do not use lettering or seals.
- Be distinctive or relatable. Don't take someone else's flag, but use similarities to show connections.
In Salt Lake City, the flag features a sego lily flower — Utah's state flower — on a blue and white background. The blue represents either the sky or the Great Salt Lake, while the white signifies snow or salt, all items meaningful to the city.
