Portlanders take in a movie screening at Congress Square Park. Courtesy of Nick Kaufmann
A Grassroots Effort to Increase Civic Pride
We are regular folks advocating that the city of Portland, Maine should adopt a new flag. Our humble proposal is the Safe in Port Flag shown below.
The Safe in Port Flag crams a lot of meaning into a simple and clear design. You can learn more about the design and details here.
Portland actual has a flag already, but you hardly see it flying around town, save on a few municipal buildings or park flag poles. We believe this is in no small part due to the well intentioned, yet lackluster design, which features our city seal on a blue background with the added text of “Portland, Maine” and “Resurgam.”
One variant of the City of Portland’s current flag. Because there is no official definition dictating the layout, you can actually find multiple versions of the flag. Source: Flags of the World
Our city is unique, creative, and attractive, and frankly our flag should be as well.
Check out the meaning behind our design, our Frequent Asked Questions page for a more reasoning on why the flag should be changed, our blog for the latest musings, and, if you feel so inclined, submit your own design for the flag.
Our Mission
We are residents, business owners, visitors, and general appreciators of Portland, Maine. There is lots to love about our city, from the scenic harbor views, to the thriving food-and-beer-scene, to the energy and ideas that come from being the most diverse city in our state.
However, there is one thing that we don’t love as much about Portland… and that’s our flag.
Close your eyes for a moment, and picture our current city flag. If you can't, we don't blame you, as it manages to be both nondescript and violate most of the design principals of good flag design at the same time. Here is a little refresher:
Classic Seal-On-A-Bedsheet (aka- SOB) flag design. Source: Bangor Daily News/The Archangel Committee
Actually, some would say it is this (apparently there isn't an official version, just vaguely applied concepts):
Oh great, now we have a seal AND separate text. Source: Bangor Daily News
If that isn't enough text for you (a major no-no in flag design), there is also a version with "Resurgam Resurgam" on it, a motto so nice we say it twice, apparently:
We have so much text on our flag that we need punctuation. It’s a flag, not an essay. Courtesy of Corey Templeton Photography
To recap, our current flag is some sort of combination of the city seal (not really discernible from any distance), our motto ("Resurgam"), and spelling out our city and state (thus defeating the entire point of symbolism on a flag), all on a blue background (yawn).
It's so bad that we've actually been called out as one of the worst city flags in the nation in a TED Talk by Roman Mars, a nationally renowned design expert and podcaster.
Surely our beautiful, creative, artistic, culturally aware city deserves better. We would love Portland to have a flag that is both simple and striking; one that you would actually see flying around town (imagine on the observatory, or lining Hadlock Field, or on storefronts in the Old Port). Cities that have good flags that take great pride in them. Cities like Portland (Oregon, yes even Portland Junior has a better flag), Chicago, and Amsterdam have iconic flags that end up incorporated on t-shirts, sports team uniforms, and even tattoos.
While some of the members of the Portland City Council have been approached regarding re-designing the flag, it is the type of issue that is going to be low on their priority list, compared to pressing tax, education, and housing debates (all worthy of their time). The momentum to do something about this will have to come from citizens and and civic organizations who appreciate good design and want to enhance civic pride.
If you would like to be involved with this effort, or just learn more about the issue, we invite you to explore our website, follow us on twitter, facebook, and instagram, or sign up for email updates here.
Portland’s historic State Theater on a quiet evening. Courtesy of Nick Kaufmann