Creating Vancouver’s next flag

As I designed this flag, I took care to ensure it followed the Five Principles of Good Flag Design. While it is a simple design on the surface—easy to remember and draw from memory—I put a great deal of thought into every element. Each color, each angle, each shape has a purpose. For the colors, I chose to stick with a PNW palette—a nod to honor the current flag that has represented Vancouver for the past 30+ years. The blue represents the Columbia River, which played a key role in Vancouver’s beginnings, and continues to serve the region and provides a beautiful backdrop to the waterfront and the growth that’s come with it. The blue and white also represent the mountains that surround us. The green represents the city’s lush forests, wetlands, and parks, and its eco-friendly and climate-conscious efforts to preserve the environment.

As for the symbolism, the main elements you’ll see are the white “V” shape and the object. The most obvious reason for the white “V” is to represent Vancouver but I also included it to symbolize the fence around Fort Vancouver, the city’s dedication to improving and maintaining streets throughout Vancouver, such as with the Main Street Promise project, and endless new paths toward growth, hence why they are angled up and outward. The object symbolizes the city’s history and beginning: Fort Vancouver. However, I kept it abstract enough so that it may also be interpreted to look like the Salmon Run Bell Tower—an iconic structure in Esther Short Park. Furthermore, the shape may also be interpreted as an arrow pointing upwards, to again symbolize the city’s continued growth.

My flag represents the unique geological, cultural, and societal traits that make Vancouver distinct. The blue represents the Columbia River and its relative location to the city. The green represents the lush nature that surrounds us. The white middle line represents our highways that connect our city. The three diagonal lines represent the paddles of a canoe in water, acknowledging the three Native American Tribes that once inhabited the area: Chinook, Klickitat, and Cowlitz. Lastly, the two center lines that eventually curve upward represent the future of our city as we move upward into a new, bright era. The design is more minimalistic, in the hopes that it will appeal to a larger audience and can be used as a symbol for people to use as a badge of honor that they live in Vancouver.

When designing my submission, I had two design goals. Firstly, I wanted to emphasize continuity from Vancouver’s storied past to our hopes and aspirations for her future. Secondly, I wanted to balance showing unity with our region and country, while at the same time establishing a distinct Vancouverite identity. To achieve the first goal, I started with the Fort logo for Vancouver that you still find on some of our older signage. I’ve always thought that this was a bold, recognizable shape, and I’ve always appreciated the subtle ‘V’. I wanted to honor the strength of the design and our history as a town that grew around the fort, but I did not want to send the message that Vancouver wants to keep people out. By simplifying the shape, I hoped that it could still read as the fort but also read as the gem of a city being cradled protectively in a hand. Thus, we draw a line of continuity from where we’ve been to where we are going. In order to balance unity and distinctiveness, I focused on colors and overall shapes. Many flags in the Pacific Northwest take their color cues from the Cascadian flag and follow a green/white/blue color scheme, where the choices, what your flag symbolizes,  green stands for our forests, the blue for our rivers, and the white for our mountains. I stuck to this tradition, but to put a specific Vancouverite spin on it, I used a specific green and blue from the palette provided (this was also part of the design brief). To show unity with the nation, I used a format common throughout America, where there is an emblem on the hoist side and horizontal stripes on the fly side. However, I also felt that it was vitally important to show distinctiveness from our neighbor to the south. So, whereas the Portland flag’s most distinctive elements draw on smooth curved shapes, I made my submission use a more angular design. Finally, as a bonus, this flag is open to a geographic interpretation. You can read the green part as representing the state of Washington, the blue part as The Columbia, and the white elements as Esther Short Park and The Waterfront. This highlights Vancouver’s role as the gateway to those visiting western Washington from the south. We are, after all, still built around a fort. But I hope that it is a fort whose gates will remain forever open in welcome.

This design incorporates elements from two entries, as suggested by the Flag Design Committee. This geographic flag features an element that could represent multiple iconic places in Vancouver, including Fort Vancouver and the Salmon Run Bell Tower in Esther Short Park.

This proposed flag for the City of Vancouver, Washington, is a heartfelt tribute to the soul of our city, stitched with stories of those who came before us, and ready to weave those still yet to be told. Bold and modern in shape, yet timeless in spirit, the flag embraces the enduring theme of this place, along the river. It speaks not only to geography, but to destiny – to why people have always gathered here, where the water bends, time flows, and life finds its rhythm. At its heart, a stylized blue ribbon winds through the flag like the mighty Columbia River, shaping our border and arching into a graceful “V” for Vancouver. Just as the river knows no pause, neither does our humble city. It grows, adapts, and always keeps moving forward. To the north, the Grant Street Pier stretches from the shoreline, symbolizing our city’s renaissance. Like an outstretched hand over the water, it bridges our present with the promise of tomorrow. The flag features three meaningful colors, each representing a core part of Vancouver’s identity: Fir Green, echoing the forests of Washington and the state flag, honors our evergreen resilience and our bond with nature. Navy Blue, from Oregon’s flag, salutes our neighbors across the river and our shared regional spirit of the Cascades. River Blue flows through the center, illustrating the Columbia, our awe-inspiring ecological and commercial lifeline. The number three carries powerful symbolism throughout: Three founding cultures: the Indigenous Cowlitz, Chinook, and Klickitat peoples; the British of the Hudson’s Bay Company; and the American pioneers like Amos and Esther Short. Each brought purpose, resilience, and a story to this land. Three peaks—Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams – frame our sky, their silent strength reminding us of nature’s beauty and power. Three points in the “V” of Vancouver represent our community today – where we raise families, build dreams, and shape a future rooted in justice, inclusivity, and shared purpose. But above all, it is the river that gives this flag and our city its soul. More than a boundary, it is a bearer of memory and motion. Its waters carved this land long before us and will carry its stories long after we’re gone. The river mirrors our lives, sometimes drifting easily, other times a rushing current, through challenge and triumph, across seasons of change, but always forging ahead. To stand on its banks at dusk, sky blushing and moon rising, is to feel a part of something eternal. The river doesn’t ask who we are; it simply flows and sometimes carries us. It shapes the land as it shapes our character – quietly, steadily, and gracefully. This flag is a reflection of who we are: a city forged by history, driven by hope, and united by our community, together, along the river.

This design incorporates elements from two entries as suggested by the Flag Design Committee. This geographic flag places Vancouver and the Fort along a stylized path of the Columbia River.