DAYTON, Ohio — For the first time in more than 60 years, Dayton has a new city flag.

​On Wednesday, the city of Dayton revealed the final version of the proposed flag to the public. The City Commission voted unanimously later that night to approve the design.

This is Dayton’s third official flag. It’s not clear when the flag will start to be widely flown across the city.

"Thank you to everyone who played a part in our designing Dayton's new flag! As always, the community stepped up with hundreds of submissions, a dedicated committee, and tons of feedback,” Mayor Nan Whaley worte on social media.

This flag is a little different than the one that's been flying over Dayton City Hall for the past 62 years. Largely an abstract design, the flag features no wording or icons. Instead, the imagery aims to signify specific elements of Dayton’s history and geographic makeup.

The famed Wright Flyer, designed by the Dayton-born Wright brothers, plays a prominent role in this flag as it has with the city’s two previous city flags. Stripes symbolizing the airplane's wings divide the flag into three sections:

• A green section symbolizing the land

• A dark blue section honoring riverways in Dayton

• A light blue section symbolizing the sky 

The five angled stripes – four white and one dark blue – represent the five rivers that flow throughout the Dayton region. The dark blue represents the Great Miami River.

“Soaring into the sky is a view of the Wright Flyer’s wings, honoring not just our history of flight, but our commitment to innovation and striving higher. With its bold lines and colors, especially in vibrant green, we showcase our reputation as the ‘Gem City’ and as a community centered on grit and tenacity,” the city wrote in a media release.

In 2019, city leaders came up with the idea to reinvent the flag as a way “to represent a changing city and a community looking to the future,” according to the city of Dayton website. Prior to Wednesday, the flag was last updated in 1958.

Under Whaley’s leadership, the city assembled a 20-person steering committee made up of volunteers. Dayton Public Schools Board Member Jocelyn Rhynard co-chaired the committee alongside Mayor-elect Jeffrey J. Mims, who was a city commissioner at the time.

To help with the process, the committee turned to the public for feedback and design proposals. The committee wanted the flag to represent key themes such as Flight: Innovation; Gems: Grit and Resilience; Rivers; and Unity and Diversity.

While they left the design open to interpretation, they stressed the importance of simplicity. They pointed to guidelines put forth by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA), which studies flags and their significance. The organization stresses the use of symbols instead of wording or seals. They also advocate for no more than two or three colors in a design.

The committee encouraged the use of a blue-green-white color scheme because they wanted the flag to remain consistent with other imagery and logos used in the Dayton region. The city uses the same colors in its branding.

Flags with more than four colors were not considered, per the city.

After receiving more than 300 submissions, the committee narrowed the finalists down to a handful of favorites. City commissioners then selected a final three in February 2020.

The project stalled from March 2020 through most of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but work continued behind the scenes.

The city created a webpage for public comment on those designs. A local design firm, Catapult Creative, used the feedback and combined elements from the three finalists into the flag design presented Wednesday.

Background on city flags

Dayton’s first flag was created in 1917 following an open contest featuring a cash prize. Civic leaders at the time felt a flag would be good to help "inspire civic patriotism,” according to the city of Dayton.

The orange flag – which prominently featured the word “Dayton” and a Wright Flyer in a white circle – survived until the 1950s when the Dayton Area Chamber determined it was time for a change. The group reasoned that the colors on the existing flag “faded rapidly, making it unsuitable for public display." The orange color faded to a sickly yellow hue over time. 

The chamber opened an open contest to replace it. The new flag, selected by a six-person group, was the one most people familar with Dayton know today. It's blue and white and has “Dayton” written down the left side. The right side features a bicycle gear, with a globe inside and a silhouette of the Wright Flyer.

On Wednesday, the Dayton City Commission voted to name the former flag the Flag Emeritus, a special designation in the city of Dayton Code of Ordinances.