CINCINNATI — June 14 is Flag Day, which celebrates the adoption of the United States flag in 1777. While the American flag is a symbol of our country and freedom, there are other flags that represent other aspects of our lives, including our neighborhoods.
What You Need To Know
- Cincinnati neighborhood flags were unveiled in 2019 after a year and a half long process of design work
- Flags celebrate the uniqueness of the city's 52 neighborhoods
- Each flag has colors that were purposely chosen and critiqued by residents and designers
- As the communities grow and change, the flags will change with them
Inside a tub full of flags, Josh Mattie pulls out the flags that represent the 52 neighborhoods of Cincinnati.
Each flag has unique designs to showcase the history and landmarks of the neighborhoods, like Evanston’s flag, which Mattie helped design.
In fact, Mattie was the design director for the Cincy Flags project, which took a year and a half to complete and was revealed in 2019. The program, in partnership with the city, worked with each neighborhood to gain feedback on their flag’s design.
“Then we met with the community council members and went to the meetings and presented designs and got direct feedback, a lot of opinions,” Mattie said of the process. “It’s very humbling.”
Mattie wanted each resident to see themselves in the design of their neighborhood’s flag.
“If they don’t feel seen, then we having succeeded,” he said.
And now, in it’s fifth year, he’s seen the project slowly take hold- flags hung at local town halls and libraries.
“We knew this would be a slow burn over a long period of time," Mattie said. "That’s just how civic symbols [work], they need to be owned by the neighborhood.”
They are even hung on people’s porches.
“When you just see it in the world and somebody chose to purchase that flag and fly it outside their house because they have civic pride, that's," Mattie said. "Yeah, it's really cool.”
But his hopes for the future still remain, that this project grows as these communities do too.
“I really just hope the neighborhoods take those designs and make them their own," he said. "And, for neighborhoods that maybe evolve over time, maybe the flag changes and then they'll send us updates and we can post those on the site so we can show, like the neighborhood as it's evolved.”
Each Cincinnati neighborhood flag is made at the National Flag Company in Cincinnati and can be purchased there as well.