COMMUNITY
MUSEUM OF BOULDER ANNOUNCES WINNING DESIGN IN UNOFFICIAL BOULDER FLAG COMPETITION
After months of community submissions, public discussion, blind review, and refinement, the Museum of Boulder has officially announced the winning design in the Unofficial Boulder Flag Competition!
Congratulations to designer Michael Stuart Trimmer, whose flag design, ‘Flatiron Sunrise Flourish,’ was selected as the winner and revealed last night at the Museum of Boulder.
Chosen from nearly 200 submissions, the final design was selected for its bold geometry, dynamic movement, and strong connection to Boulder’s landscape, energy, and identity.
The final version of the flag was further refined in collaboration with volunteers from the North American Vexillological Association, with the artist’s participation and permission.
Thank you to every designer, artist, student, community member, reviewer, and attendee who helped make this project possible. We’ve loved seeing Boulder engage in such a thoughtful and passionate conversation about civic identity, symbolism, and design.
All finalist designs, along with many additional submissions, are currently on display at the Museum of Boulder.
Merchandise featuring the winning flag launches Memorial Day weekend.
UNOFFICIAL BOULDER FLAG FINALISTS ANNOUNCED
After an overwhelming response of more than 100 submissions, the Museum of Boulder’s Unofficial Boulder Flag competition has been narrowed to 10 finalist designs. A Review Panel of designers and community members selected finalists through a blind evaluation process, first identifying top entries individually before coming together to refine the field. These designs now move into the final phase of the competition, including a live design forum hosted by volunteers from the North American Vexillological Society, where concepts will be further refined before one winning design is selected.
A final round of review will determine the winning flag, to be announced on May 11. All submissions will be displayed at the Museum of Boulder, and merchandise featuring the winning design will launch on Memorial Day.
Each of the finalist flags reflects a unique interpretation of Boulder’s identity – drawing on its natural landscape, cultural landmarks, and shared values. Explore the designs below:
Mountain Moon
Designer: Todd Pitman
This design is set in the same instantly recognizable “Old Glory” red, white, and blue—and charged with the same iconic, golden round—that has informed Colorado flag design since 1911.
A proportionally balanced “woven slopes” design symbolizes not just the Flatiron Mountains—but also Boulder’s intertwined histories as a center for mining, recreation, agriculture, and education.
The yellow moon marks Boulder’s history as a gold mining mecca; a snowy hillside bathed in white signals its close relationship to winter and recreation; red suggests a city with deep connections to its rich and rugged land; and a golden swath pays tribute to a lasting heritage at the crossroads of agriculture and education—all beneath a heavenly blanket of hopeful blue.
This new flag reflects Boulder’s past and present, while looking optimistically toward a bright and promising future.
Flatiron Sunrise Flourish
Designer: Michael Stuart Trimmer (Amateur Applicant)
This flag’s aim is to be an attractive, distinctive, and striking symbol for the city of Boulder, Colorado.
The five colours, green, red, navy blue, gold, and white, represent an example of a departure from the traditional North American Vexillological Association guidelines, but with a clear purpose and cautious intent in mind (which NAVA recognises as virtuous in cases like South Africa – see page 14 of “Good Flag, Bad Flag). The extra complexity of the colours is balanced by the relative simplicity of the overall shapes, all being simple solid block colours, with no complex interweavings or elaborate patterns.
The green represents Boulder’s natural beauty and more specifically the lands around the Flatiron mountains.
The red triangles are a stylised representation of some of the Flatirons themselves, cast in red to borrow from the symbolism of red for the earth in the Colorado flag.
The gold represents both the warmth of the sun over the mountains and the gold so important to Boulder’s history.
The blue is taken from the Colorado flag, and also represents the vast open sky overhead.
The white star, positioned in the upper left corner (canton) for maximum visibility, represents both the city’s American identity, and the Boulder Star on Flagstaff mountain, a Boulder tradition that began in December 1947.
By having almost all the design elements emerge from the bottom right corner, it creates a sense of energetic emergence, as if the flag itself points to where it is being hoisted from, to say “here!”. This design language is highly unusual, the only other comparable flag being the well liked national flag of the Seychelles.
The flag’s colourful nature is meant to mark it out as very distinct, and attention grabbing, while also fitting into a clear and simple to read and replicate design.
Nature
Designer: Mel Rose
This flag is built around Boulder’s most recognizable natural landmark: the Flatirons. I wanted the silhouette to be bold and easy to remember—simple enough to draw from memory—so the mountains become a clean, graphic shape rather than a detailed illustration.
A light band cuts through the design to represent the creek and waterways that run through Boulder and shape daily life here. It’s a reminder that water is both a defining feature of our landscape and something we actively protect. The green field represents the earth, open space, and Boulder’s deep connection to the outdoors—our trails, foothills, and the culture of stewardship that’s strong in both Boulder and Colorado.
I included a brown stripe to acknowledge the human side of Boulder: the warmth, energy, and gathering places that make the city feel like a community, not just a beautiful view. For me, it nods to the grounded, walkable heart of town—Pearl Street—and the everyday “hustle” of local businesses, artists, students, and neighbors who create Boulder’s character.
The design uses a limited palette, no lettering, and strong contrast so it stays clear at a distance and works well in any medium—from a flagpole to a patch or sticker.
A New Symbol For Boulder: Grounded in Nature, Looking to the Future
Designer: Steven Chester, Principal and Founder, Narrative Designs
Boulder is one of a few American cities so completely defined by its natural setting that the landscape itself is inseparable from its identity. This flag is intended to be read like the view looking east: sun setting into the mountains, the Flatirons cutting their familiar angle across the middle ground, and the vast plains stretching out beyond. Boulder is not a city with nature nearby, but a city that is nature, organized around it and oriented towards it.
The Boulder Blue field represents the expansive sky, and the open space that defines the city’s western edge. The gold circle is the sun, the nearly 300 days that Boulder enjoys each year, and the energy and optimism that the city radiates.
The five diagonal white stripes are the Flatirons. The same bold, ancient angle that every Boulder resident knows by heart, tilted skyward and frozen mid-rise from the earth. They cut across the flag the way the Flatirons cut across the horizon: unmistakable and permanent. The stripes are staggered, representing motion and dynamism, two qualities embodied by the City’s residents.
The Pearl Street Brick red field represents the plains, the vast open land stretching east, with Boulder as the threshold between two worlds, where mountains and plains meet.
The design is guided by the Five Principles of Good Flag Design, with one intentional exception. The Maryland state flag proves that complexity, when rooted in genuine meaning, can produce something more memorable than simplicity alone. The stripes rise here and their place for the same reason, they are not decoration, they are the Flatirons.
Boulder deserves a symbol as distinctive as the city itself. One that residents carry with pride, that newcomers immediately understand, and that captures something true about this place. This flag is that symbol.
Designer: Joey Major
I took inspiration from the Denver Flag and it at an angle to represent the Flatirons.
-The blue represents to endless blue skies extending out over the plains
-Gold for the gold rich history of Boulder creek
-Red for the sunsets and red soil of CO
-White for the pristine winter snows
Designer: Carolyn McHale, Principal, Boldface Design Group
Boulder is a vibrant place to live, work, learn, and play, and this design reflects each of those qualities. Colorado’s bluebird skies and bright sun rise above the unmistakable Flatirons, while Boulder Creek runs through the center, grounding the composition in the city’s landscape.
The lower portion draws on familiar local textures, referencing both the iconic tile roofs of the University of Colorado and the historic brickwork of Pearl Street. Additionally, the sun represents the Sundance Film Festival.
Designers: Berger & Föhr (Lucian Föhr and Todd Berger)
This design brings together Boulder’s defining landscape in a reduced set of elemental forms. A green diagonal rises to suggest the foothills and mountain edge. Blue marks the open sky above. A vertical tan field evokes the plains and dry grasslands to the east. Set across these intersecting fields, a yellow disc anchors the composition, giving the flag a strong central presence.
The design is built from simple geometry and a limited palette, making it easy to recognize, reproduce, and remember. Each color and shape refers to a visible condition of place rather than an abstract idea. Together, they describe Boulder as a city shaped by light, elevation, and the meeting of mountain and plain. The yellow disc reads first as sun, but also carries a secondary reference to Boulder’s early gold-mining history, giving the design both geographic and historical specificity. The rising green form gives the composition a sense of lift, while the blue field suggests openness and the sense of possibility that continues to draw people to Boulder.
What gives the flag its identity is the relationship between these elements. It does not isolate a single landmark but instead locates Boulder within the surrounding terrain. The flag reflects a place defined by strong light, rising land, and the visible transition from prairie to foothill. The result is specific to Boulder, visually distinct, and simple enough to function clearly and endure as a civic symbol.
Designers: Berger & Föhr (Lucian Föhr and Todd Berger)
Boulder is defined by its position between the plains to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west. This flag turns that condition into a simple geometric composition. A horizontal division separates sky from land, while a rising diagonal marks the shift from prairie to foothill to seasonal snow line. Together, these forms describe Boulder’s geography in direct terms and place the city within the larger terrain that has shaped its identity and sense of possibility.
The design uses four fields, each tied to a defining condition of the landscape: blue for sky, white for the seasonal snow line, green for the mountain edge, and tan for the plains. The geometry is spare and direct. It avoids illustration, lettering, and decorative detail in favor of a structure that can be recognized quickly and drawn from memory. The diagonal conveys the composition’s momentum while suggesting potential.
More than a picture of the landscape, the flag presents Boulder through the meeting of distinct landforms. It reflects a city shaped by the visible relationship between the open plain, the rising foothill, and the mountain range. The result is specific to Boulder, visually distinct, and simple enough to endure as a civic symbol.
Designer: Ethan Thomasset (Amateur Applicant; Self-described Vexillology Enthusiast and 10th Grader at Boulder High School)
I used the Boulder Blue color as a cool color to tie the flags together and symbolize Boulder. I used the Pearl Street Brick Red color to symbolize the variety of things in Boulder such as shopping and hanging out on Pearl Street or doing outdoorsy things like climbing the flatirons. I used Chautauqua Meadow Yellow in the flag to show how sunny Boulder is and also to tie into Chautauqua. I also used the same yellow for the star to symbolize the Boulder Star, which is a significant landmark in Boulder. These flags are very simple, using simple shapes such as circles, straight lines, and a combination of many right triangles for the flatirons. The symbolism in these flags is very relevant to Boulder, showing the natural environment and manmade landmarks through shapes and colors. These flags use 2-3 colors that are not exactly in the basic color wheel but do not derive far from it and they fit together well and tie in the colors to the symbolism of Boulder. These flags do not include any lettering or seals and are purely made of shapes. These flags are very distinctive and are easily recognizable while also taking inspiration from other flags and seals such as the flatirons from the city of Boulder seal and the sun from the Colorado flag. Thank you for taking these submissions into consideration.
Designer: Guillermo Tirado
This flag iconography is a simple but bold design. The Flatirons formation, famous for defining Boulder’s identity, is shown here against an violet blue sky. The light of a sun/star hovers above, representing Hope. The strata of the Flatirons resemble a human hand reaching upward, towards the heavens, embracing the future. This portrays a spirit of progressive aspiration, idealism and effort. The fingers are gold, which is the mineral what brought the first settlers to the front range. The shape of the fingers resemble feathers, which give testimony to the diverse tribal heritage of the mountain region.
Colors are symbolically intentional: Blue representing Freedom, as felt when one scans the vast sky. White is Peace, like the gentle snow atop a mountain crest. Gold is Optimism, captured in the hue of a new, sunlit day.
BOULDER STRONG PROJECT
With great respect and in accordance with our mission to preserve community stories for the future, the Museum of Boulder will be regularly collecting memorial items for long-term preservation. We are seeking to serve as a conduit to help our community heal, and beginning to preserve stories and artifacts is important at this time. We have received advice and have learned approaches from other museums such as the Orange County Historical Society in Orlando, Florida (the 2016 Pulse Nightclub Tragedy) and the Clark County Museum in Nevada (the 2017 Las Vegas concert tragedy).
The memorial sites will begin to shift and/or they will be damaged by impending weather, so the Museum of Boulder will need the understanding of community members as we work with the leaders related to this tragedy (Boulder Police Department, King Soopers, The Office of Mayor Sam Weaver, Downtown Boulder, etc.) to begin to safely collect and archive materials to preserve them.
We wish to serve as an ear to eventual oral histories from those directly involved, including first responders and family members. The Museum of Boulder will be accepting digital photos and videos.
The stories do not belong to the Museum. Rather, we aim to be a community resource as we work collaboratively with individuals and institutions that were impacted to expand our understanding of the tragic event and preserve the community’s reaction to it.
If you would like to provide a story behind an item you left at a memorial, please fill out this form.
To donate photos or share your story, please email collections@museumofboulder.
POLLINATOR-FRIENDLY GARDEN
On July 8, 2023, the Boulder Rotary Club, in partnership with the Museum of Boulder, planted a pollinator-friendly garden alongside the front of the museum on the corner of Broadway and Pine Street. Pollinator-friendly gardens help to create a habitat for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, while simultaneously educating the public on the importance of pollinators in our community.
Read more about this important initiative in this Daily Camera article by Celia Frazier.
For more information on pollinators native to the state of Colorado, visit the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s website here.
EXPLORING WATER THROUGH ART
Show Opens: Friday, May 9, 2025 (artwork drop off the previous week)
This show is a collaboration between Friends of the National Center, the UCAR Center for Science Education (SciEd), and the Museum of Boulder. The Exploring Water Through Art pieces will be displayed at the National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, CO.
The theme of Exploring Water Through Art can be broadly defined, but might include art that focuses on:
- Water in community (and community science)
- Water as a resource (scarcity and/or abundance)
- Water in ecosystems
- Water cycles
- Water quality
- Bodies of water
- Water in action
- Water as metaphor
- Sacredness of water
FEATURED ARTIST
Stop by the museum to see our featured Boulder artists.