The City of Enumclaw last year honored local resident Kyle Miller’s design for its new municipal flag. Now it’s earned a high grade from flag experts and enthusiasts, too.
The North American Vexillological Association — which says it’s the world’s largest organization of flag enthusiasts and scholars — compiled nearly 3,000 of its members and the public to rate the designs of 312 municipal flags across the United States late last year. (NAVA doesn’t judge the flags itself.)
Enumclaw’s new municipal flag — selected in January last year from a crowd of 50 flags, and designed by Miller — was among the flags rated.
And it did pretty well, receiving a 6.22 out of 10 and a “B” ranking from critics. Roughly 70 cities ranked higher than Enumclaw, putting our city in the top 22% of all flags that were ranked. In Washington State, Enumclaw’s flag took fifth place out of 21, beat only by the flags of Palouse, Bellingham, College Place and Spokane.
Miller said he’s pretty proud of how his flag ranked, and hopes it can be an accolade that helps put Enumclaw more on the map.
“I just hope that the rest of the city and citizens are as proud as I am,” he said.
Miller entered the flag design to be more involved in the community he’d recently moved to, and to have some fun with his graphic design skills. Though he didn’t have a background or particular interest in Vexillology (the study of flags) prior to entering the contest, he says he did fall down some rabbit holes learning about other flags in Washington State after his design was selected. (One of the other city flags he appreciates is Bellingham’s, which features a blue-half circle and four horizontal green stripes.)
The flag ratings, on a scale of 0-10, were translated by NAVA into letter grades, with F being the lowest and A+ the highest.
Nearly half the flags surveyed received an F — often for violating basic flag design principles by having lots of text, using over-complicated or meaningless designs or being hard to read from a distance. Some flags appear to be little more than the city’s official logo digitally placed on a rectangular canvas.
Another 15% of the flags got a D, around 10% got a C, roughly 15% got a B and the top 15% got an A. The highest ranked flags are exemplars of good flag design, sporting vivid color patterns, unique but easily-reproduced designs and simple symbolic representations rather than text.
Nationwide, Tulsa, Oklahoma took first place with an 8.17 / 10 and an A+, while Ranger, Texas earned the unfortunate distinction of having the worst flag with a 0.94 / 10 and an F rating.
Enumclaw’s flag is loaded with symbolism and metaphor.
The green, the dominant color of the design, represents the nature that surrounds the city; the golden yellow “is a nod to the farming industry that our community was founded on” (as well as the “beautiful sunrises and sunsets”); and the white “represents the purity of open space and nature that we are privileged to live in,” Miller wrote in his explanatory statement about his design.
The design also highlights Mt. Rainier and the evergreen tree: “Enumclaw is the gateway to Mt. Rainier and the golden box and golden intersection shapes bring the eye to the center of the flag, representing an entry to the mountain,” Miller wrote. “The prominent tree represents nature and how close we are to many state parks. It points up (north) to the mountain as Enumclaw is the entryway to both north entrances of Mt. Rainier National Park.”
Additionally, “the golden intersection not only helps represent a gateway to the mountain, but resembles farming and the vast fields on the Plateau,” he continued. “The two lines across the top of the flag represent strength and resilience. Visually, the lines also represent the wind Enumclaw is known for.”
To see the results of the NAVA survey for yourself, visit https://nava.org/2022-survey.
Enumclaw’s flag isn’t hanging just yet. The city accidentally ordered it in a size too large to hang on the city hall flagpole, city clerk Jessica Rose said. Once they can get it in the right size, it will be flown.
